Creating Cabinets of Various Sizes

In this lesson, you will use a combination of cloning and vertex editing techniques to quickly create more cabinets of various heights and widths.

Set up the lesson:

• Continue working on your scene from the previous lesson or open kitcab_3.max.

Create a 24 inch-wide lower cabinet:

1. On the main toolbar, activate (Select And Move).
2. In Perspective view, select the lower cabinet and +drag the object on its X axis to the left.
3. In the Clone Options dialog Object group, make sure Copy is chosen.
4. In the Name field, type LoCab_024 and click OK.
   

   You are specifying the value 24, because the cabinet you are about to create will be 24 inches wide.

5. In the viewport, switch to Front view, then zoom in on the lower cabinets.
   
6. On the ribbon Polygon Modeling panel, click Modify Mode.
   
7. On the ribbon Polygon Modeling panel, activate (Vertex).
   
8. Region-select the left side of the new cabinet so all its vertices are selected.
   
9. On the main toolbar, activate (Select And Move).
10. Also on the main toolbar, be sure to change the Reference Coordinate System to World.
    
11. On the status bar, click (Absolute Mode Transform Type-In) to change to Offset transform mode.
    
12. In the X transform field, enter –3.0, then press .
13. Region-select the right side of the cabinet so that all its vertices are selected, and in the X transform field, enter 3.0.

    You are enlarging the cabinet equally on either side to ensure that the cabinet’s pivot point remains in the center of the object.

Create double doors for the new cabinet:

Cabinets that are 24 inches wide generally have double doors rather than a single one.

1. On the ribbon Polygon Modeling panel, click to activate (Element). In the viewport, select the cabinet door.
2. On the Polygon Modeling panel, +click (Vertex) to activate vertex selection.

   Holding down while you click this button selects all the vertices that were in the previous Element selection.

3. +region-drag around all the vertices on the left side of the door, to remove them from the selection.
4. If you need to, activate (Select And Move).

   Make sure that the Reference Coordinate System is still set to World.

5. Set the X transform field to –12.0.

   By moving the remaining selected vertices to the left by 12 inches, you just created a 12-inch door.

   
6. On the ribbon Polygon Modeling panel, activate (Element).
7. +drag the door to the right until it is in position over the opposite side of the cabinet.
8. On the Clone Part Of Mesh dialog, check that Clone To Element is chosen, then click OK.
   
9. Click (Element) again to exit sub-object selection.
   

Create a 21-inch-high upper cabinet:

1. Select the upper cabinet and +drag the object on its X axis to the right.
2. In the Clone Options dialog Object group, choose Copy, and in the Name field, type HiCab_18_21, then click OK.

   You are specifying the value 21, because the cabinet you are about to create will be 21 inches high.

3. On the ribbon Polygon Modeling panel, activate (Vertex).
4. In the viewport, region-select the bottom of the cabinet so that all its vertices are selected.
   
5. Set the Y transform box to 18.0.

   This value represents the full height of the 39-inch upper cabinet, less 18 inches, to give you a 21-inch high cabinet.

   Now that you have resized the cabinet, its lower shelf is now exposed.

6. On the ribbon Polygon panel, activate (Element).
7. In the viewport, select the exposed shelf, then press .
8. In the Perspective viewport, switch to Wireframe mode.
9. On the main toolbar, change the (Window/Crossing) toggle to (Window).
10. Region-select the remaining shelf, then move it upward on its Z axis.

    (It is hard to select the shelf by clicking the cabinet.)

    
11. On the ribbon Polygon panel, click (Element) to exit the Element sub-object level.
12. Switch the viewport back to Realistic or Shaded display, then save your scene as my_kitcab_4.max.

Next

Using Symmetry to Create a Corner Cabinet