How to create ribbed canopies in Gmax

[Fnerg]

I'm having a problem deciding which way to create this ribbed canopy and nose section. Similar to the B-25J, with it's "square sides to round nose" the Blenheim IV is most perplexing. Since I've not created this type of canopy in Gmax before, I was wondering how the more experienced modelers would approach it. I've tried a box with boolean cuts for windows, which became far too messy, lines converted to mesh, planes bent, nothing yet appeals to me so I thought I'd ask. Here is a photo of the regions I'm talking about.

[Allen]

I'm not sure what you are trying to do but I wouldn't use what you see in Gmax as the final say. Gmax is vary misleading. I would export it to your game and then see what is appealing.

[Dev One]

Creating a ribbed canopy is a lot of work...I create the basic shape & then use the slice plane function. I then have to move the vertices around to make the ribs. For the inside view I then copy, change normals & scale as necessary. My Provost T1 was a nightmare.......but I got near I hope in the end! My glazing though tends to be different to most others as I texture the glazing direct in Gmax, leaving the ribs etc to be textured as per the .bmp files.
HTH
Keith

[Milton Shupe]

Of course there is always cleanup after any kind of cut, slice, boolean. Why is that?

It is because that all polys are made up on two or more faces. Every face has to be flat even on a curved surface. Although you may not see the edges of those faces, they are there. If your poly vertices are not on one plane, then you have many face edges to construct that poly. When you do a cut/slice/boolean, you will get vertices on every face edge. There is no such thing as a curved edge or face or poly.

See the attached that will help explain.

Turn off Edges Only to see face edges.

I would recommend on this type problem to slice the posts, not boolean the windows.

If you want to protect your original mesh, create a copy of your fuselage, work on the copy. When done, copy the polys from your work and add them to your original fuselage and weld then back in.

[Fnerg]

Ok, thank you Milton. That's very helpful.