Making holes

[Cloey Langer]

I wonder if there any othere way to make a hole then hollow a hole, I will make a in a other place then in the middle of a prim near a edge

[Hippie Bowman]

 

---

Cloey Langer wrote:

I wonder if there any othere way to make a hole then hollow a hole, I will make a in a other place then in the middle of a prim near a edge

---

 

Hi Cloey!  Unfortunately, in SL you can only make the hole in a prim in the middle.  You can get creative though and cut the prim and combine with another to get the hole to be offset.  Hope this helps!

 

Peace!

[Ceera Murakami]

There's only one way to put a hole in a prim. You can hollow it on the Z-axis, and make that hollow larger or smaller, or to a limited degree change its shape. But it will always be centered on the prim, and all the way through. (Some prim shapes, like Tube and Torus, have a hole as part of their design, but it is also centered on one specific axis, and can't be relocated.)

So, there is no way with prims to place a hole at an arbitrary location.

There is hope, however! Mesh construction will soon be available in SL, and when that arrives (it's in beta testing now), you can use external applications like Blender, SketchUp or Maya to create an arbitrary mesh shape, and then import that into Second Life. A single mesh object will usually count as more than one prim for parcel prim limits, with the exact count depending on a number of factors, but primarily on how complex the mesh shape is. Mesh will allow arbitrary holes and shapes completely impossible with just prims.

[Eta Carver]

Sure mesh will bring us some fantastic opportunities but there is a snag. From what I've read its most likely 6 months or more away. So in the short term maybe the answer is to look to sculpties. Some of the in world sculpt tools should help out although there may be limitations on whats possible. Personally I've been using Blender for a while and maybe now is a good time to get to grips with your favourite 3D modelling application, in preparation for mesh.

Here's a 1 Prim Sculpty Ship Wheel for whats possible right now!

For those wishing to get stuck in with Blender here's a sculpty bed tutorial    If you're now to 3D modelling you'll save yourself a lot of time and frustration if you do some general tutorials before attempting to create the first sculpt.

The real good news is anything you do with 3D applications is helping you get ready for mesh!

 

[DanielRavenNest Noe]

Falcon Linden gave us an update on Mesh status:

http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Mesh/When-is-Mesh-coming-to-the-Main-Grid/m-p/709363#M11

It *could* be as soon as 1 to 2 months, if no new major problems pop up.  Or, it could be 6 months like you said.  For myself, it's been working just fine the last several months, and I have uploaded quite a few models to the Mesh Beta area.  The chair below effectively has 3 holes (2 armrests and between seat and back), and this is one model which counts as 3 prims.  I agree that it is not too soon to start learning a 3D application.  I started with 3ds Max 18 months ago, and now have a big pile of stuff ready to upload.

 

[Marcus Hancroft]

 

---

DanielRavenNest Noe wrote:

Falcon Linden gave us an update on Mesh status:

http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Mesh/When-is-Mesh-coming-to-the-Main-Grid/m-p/709363#M11

It *could* be as soon as 1 to 2 months, if no new major problems pop up.  Or, it could be 6 months like you said.  For myself, it's been working just fine the last several months, and I have uploaded quite a few models to the Mesh Beta area.  The chair below effectively has 3 holes (2 armrests and between seat and back), and this is one model which counts as 3 prims.  I agree that it is not too soon to start learning a 3D application.  I started with 3ds Max 18 months ago, and now have a big pile of stuff ready to upload.

 

---

That chair is fantastic, Daniel!  I can't wait to see what mesh is going to do for SL in the long term!  One question, though...is it more difficult to build using mesh than it is with regular prims?

 

[Vladi Hazelnut]

if it counts as three prims you could easily do the same thing with a sculpty, actually you could do it with two prims.

the seat one prim and the rails another.

I honestly haven't messed with meshes yet, but unless they implement them differently than I have read about I don't see them replacing sculpts. For one you have the price, and the other is the prim count and rendering cost.

If it is really going to cost hundreds to upload a mesh I don't see me jumping in line to use them. Take for instance your bench again. It counts as three prims and if it cost 100L or more to upload I will pass. I could do pretty much the same thing with two sculpts and it would cost 40L, two maps and two textures. I couldn't imagine making a whole car or engine that way if the cost is determined by the complexity of the mesh. And then there is the texturing issue as well. Texturing a vehicle or something complex would be much more difficult than if it were made up of a combination of sculpts and prims. From an aftermarket viewpoint anyway, like say a Moddable car you wanted to change the paint job on.

However like I said, I have not messed with them yet so I could be talking out my rear end.