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   Architectural Features

 

 

 Architectural and design features:

Wall creation.
Create walls using standard splines as their center lines. Walls have a standard mapping applied to them so textures seamlessly flow from one wall into the next. Walls can easily be justified for quick matching to existing plans.

Library Shapes.
These are Convexity's doors and windows. The reason they are called Library Shapes is because they are created by drawing shapes on the side of a wall which are then saved to a Library. Library Shapes can be any type of object which can be formed by Convexity's Wall Side-view Editor. These include such things as doors, windows, arches, electrical sockets, holes, paintings, cabinets, cracks etc.. Library shapes can have thumbnails and extra information assigned to them such as  pricing, materials and creator info etc.. They are saved to their own .cLS file format which can easily be shared with any Convexity user regardless of the max or viz version they are using.

Parameterizable door and window creation.
Create custom wall objects such as doors and windows and assign parameters to them so that they can open/close and have custom materials applied to them easily. Save entity information straight into a library object so for example the glass of a window could break when hit in a game or a door could open when triggered etc..

Wall Side-view Editor.
Creates doors, windows, arches, cracks, bulges, plaster falling off, holes, electric sockets, wall hangings, gable ends etc.. all by drawing on the side of a wall. Shapes drawn on the side of a wall can then be saved to the Library and clicked into any wall for fast easy placement.

Conform tool for walls.
Conforms the tops of walls to fit up under objects placed over them. This is very useful for creating attic spaces and complex roofs etc. on buildings.

Nudge Tools.
Moves objects by precise amounts using the keyboard.

Isolation Manager
The Isolation Manager gives users the ability to name bounded areas within their scene and then quickly isolate them when working. For example you could quickly hide all but the second floor of a building or Isolate one building in a City etc..

 

Automatic floor creation.
 
Automatically creates floors in all possible rooms. Floors can have a default material assigned, which is applied to them as soon as they are created. All floors are created from convex pieces suitable for game engines.


Cross platform compatibility.
Convexity has its own binary file formats (.cvx, .cpf) which saves all Convexity data and almost all max scene data except animations. The primary advantage of this format over the .max format is that it can be opened in any max version from 3ds max® 5.1 and up, 3ds max Design® 2009 and up, and Autodesk® VIZ 2004 and up. This allows users to easily pass data between new and old versions of max and viz. The .cvx format creates smaller files than it's .max counterpart and is better suited for the sharing of scenes with other Convexity users over the internet etc.. Convexity can also load the .glf format of Maple3D's older product GLB3.

Library Browser. The Library browser allows for easy browsing of large libraries of objects. Each object can have a thumbnail image assigned to it so it is easy to see and pick from the library. Objects are sorted into classes which can be customized, such as doors, windows, electrical etc..   There is an advanced placement tool for placing library objects such as doors, windows etc. into multiple walls at once.

Offset Spline tool. Offsets a selection of splines quickly for the easy creation of wall center lines from a standard architectural plan of a building. Wall center lines are used by Convexity when creating walls. 

Add World Mapping tool. Assigns standard world mapping to the selected objects. This is similar to the Real World mapping of max 8 and up, only that this will work for max 5 and up and can use different sized mappings suitable for different game engines.

Convexity Hold and Fetch. Quickly saves a scene with all of Convexity's structural data so that it can be restored using a Fetch.

 

Convex and Mesh Output modes
Convexity can output its walls and floors etc. in either game engine compatible 'Convex' mode or in 'Mesh' mode. Users can switch between one mode or the other at any time. Mesh mode is faster to output and display in max's viewports but is not as compatible with game engines and cannot export to the .map, .vmf or .wmp formats.

Prefab creation with customizable levels of detail.
Create custom prefabs i.e. pre-made objects and then click them in quickly from the Library Browser. Prefabs can have multiple levels of detail assigned to them including 2D architectural symbols, convex versions for game engines and high detail versions for visualizations etc.. They can also have extra information assigned to them such as pricing, materials and creator info etc..

Multi-storey tool.
Quickly copies up a floor of a building to create multiple storey's. 

Saves to .max files.
Convexity structural data can be saved to a standard .max file which can be given to other max or viz users. This way, any max or viz user will be able to view the file, even if they do not have Convexity. Only users with Convexity will be able use this data to easily edit walls, doors and windows etc. using Convexity's user interface.

Advanced configuration tool.
Easily configure Convexity for different game engines and tasks such as architectural visualizations etc.. Import pre-made configurations which quickly set up Convexity and its tools to work best for those applications. Configurations also can include setups to run third party compile tools etc. for game engines.

Advanced search selection.
Selects library objects based on their characteristics such as class, extra info and keywords. For example this could allow you to select all gothic windows etc. by searching for the word 'gothic'.

Save Selected and Merge.
Allows for the easy copying and pasting of buildings while keeping their individual Convexity structures intact. Using this tool multiple users can work on the same scene by combining their work into one large scene. The single larger scene can then be fully edited through Convexity so each room or building they were working on can have it's walls, doors and windows etc. modified easily.

Material Library Creator.
Automatically builds material libraries from a folder of .bmp, .tga, .jpg, .png, .gif, .dds or .avi files. Very useful for building material libraries from game extracted .wad files.

Handy Cam.
Lets you fly or walk through a scene using a camera. The path that the camera travels can be recorded as a spline line and used for animations etc..


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