3D models are used for countless purposes, from advertising to animated movies. But if you want models to use in your project, you have only two ways to get them: buy them or make them yourself. 3D modeling programs have come down both in price and complexity so that even a novice can, with work, produce a usable final product. There are many programs with which to do your modeling. For this project I will show you model a 3D dining room chair using Hexagon. However, the basic principles used here should apply to almost any modeling program.
Instructions
Making the Seat
1. Click on the 3D Primitives tab. Select the sphere and then right-click on the viewer space. Expand out your sphere until you have the size you want. Now go over to the Properties panel and (as highlighted in the image), in the position entries, change everything to zero.
2. Click on View and then Front View. Now go back over to the Properties panel and, next to the tab Symmetry, click on Z symmetry. Now anything you do to the top of the sphere will also happen to the bottom.
3. Make sure the Selection Icons below the menu is set to Select Points. Now go back to the view, left-click and drag to select all the top points of the sphere except a row near the middle. Go to the Properties panel and change the Z scale to zero. The result is a drum-shaped object to be the seat of your chair.
4. Change the Selection Icon to Object, and then reduce the height using the green square on the Universal Manipulator Tool until you have the right thickness for a chair seat.
Making the Legs
5. Go to Perspective view. Go to the 3D Primitives and select the cylinder. Click near the bottom of the seat (we will position the chair leg later) and expand it until you have the width you want, then click. Expand it until you have the right height, then click. Click on the Properties panel icon Close All Holes.
6. Go to Bottom view. Select the Universal Manipulator again, and drag the leg (which is listed as shape 0) to a position appropriate for the leg of a chair. You want the legs to be far enough apart that the chair doesn't look like it is about to tip.
7. Go to the Perspective view. If you pan and rotate, you can see the leg is not attached to the seat. Go to the Selection Icons and pick Select Faces. Next, go to Utilities and click Lay On. Select the top face on the leg and then the nearest corresponding face of the seat. The leg now looks like it is attached to the seat. Click Validate.
8. Go to Bottom view. Then go to Tools, Vertex Modeling, and click Symmetry. Go to the Properties panel and change it to Center of Symmetry. Next, go to the the central grid line and click on it with the white cross-hairs, and you will have another leg position directly across from the original. Do the same thing while holding down the space bar to create the other legs.
Making the Back
9. Use the above procedure for making legs to make two top rails for the back of the chair. Then go over to the Scene Tree, hold down the shift key, and select the two rails.
10. Change the Selection Icon to Select Edges and, in the Properties panel, click on Soft Selection. Now, select edges along the very top of the rails. The soft selection extends the effect of the selection. Use the Universal Manipulator to move, rotate and scale the selection to a position like the one you see in the image.
11. To create slats between the rails, turn off Soft Selection. Change the Selection Icon to Faces. Now, with the two rails still selected, select a face (or polygon) on one rail, and then select the same one on the other rail.
12. Go to Vertex Modeling and click Bridge. This produces one back slat, and the two rails have been combined into one in the Scene Tree. Now, moving down the rails, continue putting in slats until you have something like the image. You now have a new 3D dining room chair.
Tags: Properties panel, until have, Change Selection, Change Selection Icon, dining room