CGTalk - Making a round biodome

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Sepultra

07-07-2005, 05:56 PM

Hi. I am currently trying to make a model of a "biodome" that will be a habitation module for colonists on an alien planet. (Think transparent Igloo, with artificial atmosphere and food production etc inside)
Here an image I found which is similiar to what I want:
http://www.fuzzyfaraway.com/assets/images/BioDome.jpg

I am going ot make it semi-transparent with the alpha channel. The game engine im using is the Torque engine, which uses .dif objects for building. I have a .map exporter from max, and I convert the .maps to .difs in quark.
The problem I have is my max exporter (and quark) dont support concave surfaces, so I need to model it in individual concave pieces.
What im doing now is creating a basic hexagon from a box, and mirroring it, and rotating each one until I get a half-sphere. Now this will take me DAYS, and I dont think Iw ill be able to just scale it up for a larger biodome.

What I want to know is:
Is there a way to use the spacing tool (or any other tools in max 6) to help arrange the hexagons in a round shape, like the image above?
Or is there any way of creating a sphere object, and somehow breaking it up so that each polygon is a seperate object, but in the same place?

I dont know if there is a quick way out of this, but I thought id ask, just in case theres some advanced tool I dont know of yet.
Thanks,
Jack

Ghostscape

07-07-2005, 06:01 PM

You're using Max? Just make your Geosphere, and the select the hex polys and detach them. Or you could model the hexes and then use the scatter modifier to put them on...but that's a hassle. Also, geodesic domes do not use hexes, they use a soccerball style hex/pentagon style.

So yeah, just use a geosphere, and detach the polys. If you need thickness, just drop a shell modifier on the individual bits.

Sepultra

07-07-2005, 07:06 PM

THanks, that worked. Youd have thought id notice the "detach" command :P

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