02 Shapemerge

Cutting irregular polygon shapes into a simple plane can be quickly achieved using Shapemerge. I like using AUTOCAD to create a reference shape for a template. This can be imported and converted into a spline. However, shapes can also be drawn in 3ds Max using line tools and Edit Spline modifiers.

We will only need to build one quadrant of the final ‘lid’ object. To start, draw a rectangle with its top-left corner positioned at the centre of the template shape and its bottom-right corner to the bottom right of the shape. Detach the spline segments from the template shape that sit directly over the new rectangle and name that as ‘cutter’.

Select the rectangle again and from Compound Objects select Shapemerge. Then pick the ‘cutter’ as the target shape. Finally add an Edit Poly modifier to the rectangle. You have now created a flat plane object which has been divided into selectable polygon areas, the same as the template pattern.