Chair - Create Shape from EdgeIn this tutorial we are going to take a look at a very fast and easy method modeling a chair, using basic Editable Poly, and one tool in particular called Create Shape from Edge.

Start with a new scene in 3DS Max, and in your front viewport, create a plane with only 1 segment on each side.

My plane is 65 in length and 50 units in width, 1 length and 1 width segments as shown above.

From here, right click on your plane to bring up the Quad menu, and navigate down to the Convert To: -> Convert to Editable Poly shown below.

Now move to the Modify Tab so we can begin modeling our chair.

We are going to be working in the Edit Edges Sub object mode today, so you can either click on the red icon in the Selection menu for Edges, or open up the Modifier Stack with the black + and select Edge by name.

The + sign here opens the sub objects by name

You can select it here,

or here, both are the same thing.

Once your Edge sub object selection mode is turned on, you will be able to select and modify our plane via the edges of the polygons.

Select the top edge of your polygon, and then using your move tool move it along the green Y-axis arrow just a bit, like so:

this will end up being the back of our chair, so just give it a slight recline.

Next, grab the bottom edge and holding down your Shift Key, drag along the Y-axis arrow to make the seat of our chair.

Also remember that holding shift to extrude an edge will only work with edges, holding shift on any other sub object will copy it, not extrude it.

With the same edge selected, hold shift again and extrude the edge down along the blue Z-axis arrow this time to create the front leg section of our chair.

So far so good and easy right?

Now we can give the legs a bit of a slant like a real chair might have by not holding shift, and dragging along the green Y-axis arrow towards us just a bit.

Good, now let's quickly move to the polygon sub-object selection so that making the back legs are quick and easy.

With the polygon sub object selection mode enabled, we can grab the entire front polygon which makes up our front legs.

Remember when I said holding shift in any other sub-object mode will make a copy rather than extrude?

Hold Shift once again and drag along the green Y-axis arrow of the move tool.

When you get the copy of your front legs polygon in place towards the back of the chair release the mouse button. A popup menu will appear asking if you would like to clone it to an element, or to its own object.

Select Clone to Object and give it a name if you like, and then click on OK.

Now click on your Polygon Sub-object selection mode once again to turn it off.

We do this so that we can select the back legs as a separate object now.

Select the new object that we made by copying the front leg polygon, and then click the Mirror button at the top of your screen, shown below.

Select the appropriate Mirror Axis to get your legs to flip and point the other direction opposing the front legs of our chair, with perspective view enabled it is Y.

Make sure no clone is selected as we just want to flip it, and then hit OK.

Then select the main body of your chair again, and on the Modify Tab under the Edit Geometry settings find the Attach button.

By clicking to turn this button on, you can then reattach the back legs to the same object as the rest of the chair. Turn it on and then click the backlegs object.

Once it joins the other object merging the two into one object successfully, click the attach button again to turn it off.

Now select your Edge sub object selection mode again to turn it back on.

Click the edge on the side of the seat, and then holding down Ctrl, click all the edges all the way around the chair sides, but not the very bottom or top of the chair until all the edges shown here are red, there should be 8 in total - the chair back and seat sides, and the sides of each leg polygon:

Now scroll down in the Editable Polygon settings until you find the button that says Create Shape from Edge in the Edit Edges settings area.

This button will convert all your selected edges to splines automatically and is a great fast way of making lines that match up to polygon models for whatever reasons you may have.

As soon as you click the Create Shapes from Edges button a popup menu shows up, Give it a name, and select Linear from the shape type, then hit OK.

Then click on your Edge sub object selection mode button again to turn it off. You should now have two objects in your scene, click on the Select Object by Name button at the top of your screen.

Two items should appear in the list, select the Shape (whatever name you gave it) mine is ChairPipes, then hit OK.

This method of selecting is just easier than trying to click on a thin spline right next to a polygon object.

Now on your Modify tab it should show that you have an Editable Spline selected, and created from the edges of your polygons.

Here you can open the Rendering rollout and enable render in Renderer and Viewport, like below:

As well as adjust the Thickness and how many sides your splines will render. I have chosen a thickness of 3.0 and 32 sides to make them nice and round and smooth.

It is starting to look more and more like a chair now!

Select your Editable Poly again, and once again turn on your Polygon Sub-object selection mode, then simply select the front and back legs polygons, and hit delete on your keyboard.

Now click on the Polygon sub-object selection mode button again to turn it off, and in the Modifier List add a Shell modifier to your seat and back to give it a little more thickness.

Now texture, place it in a scene, and light it nicely and you have yourself one fine looking, and very easy to make chair.

Try using Create Shape from Edge for other purposes, like welding around the edges of machinery, or cage bars around a prison! As always, the possibilities are endless.