3D Studio Max Locomotive Interior Tutorial

Chapter 4. Levers and gauges

NOTE; Due to the complexity of an interior, items will not be highly detailed and some items will not be created.

3DStudio Max will be referred to as 3ds.

The first thing we need to do is save the locomotive interior mesh and create a new file. Then to create the lever all we need is a cylinder and modify it a little to make it look like a lever. Create a cylinder with the following dimensions;

Now rotate the cylinder -90 degrees in the "X" co-ordinates and convert it to editable mesh. Using the "Vertex" sub-object select the ring of vertexes furthest away from the 0,0,0 and then using the "Select and Squash" tool adjust the vertexes to 150 percent. You will need to right click on the "Select and Squash" tool to bring up the "Scale Transform Type-in" and you will need to enter the 150 into the "X" and "X" co-ordinates in the "Offset World" column. Once you enter 150 and press enter the value will immediately reset to 100.0 but you will notice that the mesh is now larger at one end. Repeat this procedure for the next row of vertices.

Once you have a result similar to figure 3 and with the same set of vertices selected move them to 0.075 in the "Y" axis. Then select the next set of vertices and move them to 0.06 in the "Y" axis. You should now have a result similar to figure 4. Now using the "Polygon" sub-object select and delete the polygons from each end of the lever.

Figure 2 Scale Transform Type-In dialog box

3. Creating a rounded end for the lever

Now that we have the shaft and part of the handle complete for the lever we need to add a rounded end. Create a sphere with the following dimensions

Rotate the sphere 90 degrees in the "X" co-ordinates and convert the mesh to editable mesh and then delete the polygons from the flat face of the sphere. Using the "Hierarchy" tab reset the pivot point to 0 and then rotate the sphere 90 degrees in the "Y" co-ordinates. Using osnap select and move the sphere into location at the end of the lever. Select the lever and attach the sphere to it.

4. Texturing the handle

Now that we have the mesh created for the lever we need to add the texture to the mesh. Open up the Material Editor and add the Lever.tga to the lever and arrange the parts of the lever so that the handle is in a darker are and the shaft is in a lighter area. Sometimes if the locomotive you are modeling has a chrome or stainless steal shaft it may be necessary to add a shiny texture to the shaft.

5. Creating the gauge needles

Now that you have the lever created save the file and create a new one. Create a cylinder with the following dimensions.

Convert the cylinder to editable mesh and using the "Polygon" sub-object select and delete all polygons except the top face of the cylinder. This will be the center of the gauge needle. Now you need to change the pivot point of the cylinder to the center of the remaining face using the "Hierarchy" tab and "Center to Object". Once you have done this move the face to 0,0,0. Now we need to create the pointer of the needle. To do this we need to create a plane with the following dimensions;

Relocate the plane to "X" = 0.0, "Y" = 0.016 and "Z" = 0.0. You should now have something that resembles figure 7.

6. Texturing the needle

With the mesh created for the needle we need to add the texture to the mesh. Open up the Material Editor and add the Needle.tga to the needle and arrange the parts of the needle so that the center is round area is on the red section of the texture and the needle pointer is on the white. You should have a result similar to figure 9.

Figure 9 Textured mesh

Chapter 5

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