Any attempts at lofting splines converted to NURBS are sporadic, Max will not loft curves with "corner" vertices, only smooth or Bezier vertices... as you can see the later attempt lost the ability to loft the simple "back" region of the mouse, due to mere Bezier adjustments of the lines to be lofted... Sometimes redrawing the splines/curves will solve the problem, sometimes not.
Other surfacing attempts have proven futile, despite ample wireframe info to go by.
The only superior ability of Max I can discern so far in this project's scope is the ability to give thickness to an editable poly surface, through the "shell" modifier. It gives it thickness normal to the surface at every point, unlike Rhino 3D.
Digital Tectonics 2006 - Jason Colbert project 3 digital model of computer mouse
THIS IS WHAT I AM TRYING TO DO...
3DS Max
Example
Rhino 3D
Current state of 3D wireframe in Max, perspective view.
Current state of 3D wireframe in Max, four views.
U-lofted surfaces from splines converted to NURBS curves.
Later attempt... this time with an unconvincing UV-loft for the surface containing the thumb depression.
Another view, Max apprently isn't good at NURBS surfaces.
Subject
After exporting what splines I had to Rhino 3D, I saw that Rhino handled NURBS lofting much better than Max does. There was a trade-off, though, as any attempts to give a surface thickness involved extrusion along a straight path, unlike Max's "shell" modifier which gave uniform thickness.
The UV-loft for the thumb depression on the left side of the mouse is better, but still unsuccessful. My next attempt will involve radial splines being lofted into a bowl-shape, then connected to that side's surface. I will probably have to cut out an elliptical shape and then blend the surface and the bowl together.
But this will have to be done in Max? Or make the surfaces in Rhino then export back to Max??
Better UV-loft and successful lofting of some of the other complex splines/NURBS exported from 3DS Max.
Top view render of lofted surfaces in Rhino.
Right side view render of lofted surfaces in Rhino.
Front view render of lofted surfaces in Rhino.
Four views of wireframe & surfaces in Rhino.
Rhino 3D
updated
Added more detail and cleaned up surfaces.
3/4 render of rebuilt lofted surfaces in Rhino.
After exporting an IGES to bring the mouse into 3D Studio Max, I saw that the compatibility wasn't as high as I'd been hoping for. Strange, since Rhino is more or less spawned from AutoCAD code, with more emphasis on NURBS. An attempt at applying the "shell" modifier to the surface after converting it to an editable poly was unsuccessful - it was fragmented and impossible to work with to any realistic degree.
I rebuilt the side-front-side wraparound piece, then rebuilt the top piece. I rebuilt some curves and lofted, trimming away surfaces where needed, then lofted to make more details. I also inserted isocurves in the front and trimmed away a little to leave the gaps.
The area around the scroll wheel looks cleaner now, as I tried a new method of lofting from edges instead of the curves themselves. I had been planning to build details further in Max, but the incompatibility between the programs, as well as Max's apparently poor NURBS capability, leaves me doubtful this can be done easily.
The U-loft for the thumb depression on the left side of the mouse still is unsuccessful, but less obvious than before. With further modeling I could possibly make it look better, replacing it with half of a modified concave ellipsoid then blending the surfaces together. I'm also not sure how to go about tightening up the creases on top, as that was going to be done in Max, with poly-modeling, using the bevel command for edges. But the conversion meant that I could not apply a "turbosmooth" modifier without distortion...
3/4 view, other side, render of lofted surfaces in Rhino.
Front view render of lofted surfaces in Rhino.
Four views of wireframe & ghosted surfaces in Rhino.
Top view, render of lofted surfaces in Rhino.
Rear view, render of lofted surfaces in Rhino.
Right side view, render of lofted surfaces in Rhino.
Front view, render of lofted surfaces in Rhino.
Left side view, render of lofted surfaces in Rhino.
