Mesh Volumes by Max?

[Masao]

I've been talking with a guy over at the TrekBBS. He has used the measure tool of Max to calculate volumes of Starship meshes. Can any of you do this as well? I've been calculating all my ships' volumes by hand, so if this is possible, my life would be suddenly much easier.

[Darrell Lawrence]

If you mean length, width, height, that's very easy in LW.

[Masao]

Nah, I can measure the simple dimensions with a ruler or within a drawing program. What I have more trouble with is the VOLUMES of complex shapes. The only way to do this on paper is to approximate the complex shapes by breaking it into simple cylinders cones, pyramids, and elliptical solids. It takes a lot of number punching and is not very accurate.

[skyhawk223]

tS does dimensioning, but not volume. Seems a lot of calculus would be in order.

[Thomas P]

Unfortunately I can't check that right now but will when I am near my rendering machine. Did he say which version of MAX?

[Thomas P]

Checked in Rhino - it does :)

[Masao]

Thanks, Thomas. I don't know what version of Max. But, I may be calling on you for some help some day to find out some volumes of my ships. I don't need them right now, since the articles are already written.

[Fabio]

Lightwave actually has an indiscreet little plugin available to calculate th volume of a mesh accurately :)