How-To Video: Fixing Ngons in 3ds Max

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You under According to 2.2.1 in the CheckMate Pro Specification, the topology must be quads and triangles only for CheckMate Pro Certification.

This video will show you how to find and fix Ngons in 3ds Max. Ngons are polygons with more than 4 sides. The reason Ngons are not allowed in CheckMate Pro is due to the fact that models with Ngons are hard to animate and edit.

There are several ways to eliminate Ngons. The first and most important way is fixing them by hand. We highly recommend that you go through and fix them by hand because that is the best way to keep clean/good topology- which is required for CheckMate Pro Certification.

As you can see, I already have a model open in 3ds Max 2012.

  1. First, we want to “Unhide All” so right-click and choose “Unhide All”.
  2. Make sure the model is ungrouped. If you are not sure, select the model and then select  “Group” > “Ungroup” from the top of the program; confirm that it is not grouped or select the option to ungroup.
  3. Next run the CheckMate Pro Script to find out which objects have Ngons.
    Download the script from the link provided then go to MAXScript and choose the CheckMate Pro Script; you can also open the script from wherever you have saved it on your system.
    When the Script window pops-up click “[Update]”.
    When the script finishes, in the middle in the “Ngons” column you can see which objects have Ngons. If there is the #5 or higher in the brackets then there are Ngons.
  4. Now we can go down the list and select the Ngons that we want to fix. Select one of the object with Ngons and when you do that you can see that that object shows up in the modify panel.
  5. Minimize the script and in the modify panel extend Editable Poly by clicking the “+” and choose “Polygon”.
  6. Now, we are going to use the Graphite Modeling Tools to find the Ngons (these are available in Max 2010 and later). To open the Graphite Modeling Tools go to “Customize” at the top, then select “Show UI” and check “Show Ribbon”.
  7. Once the Graphite Modeling Tools Panel is up, choose “Selection” and then “By Numeric” and then choose greater than “>” and for sides we want to input “4” so that it is only showing up the Ngons and then click the arrow “õ” to select.
  8. Now that we have identified the Ngons, we are going to manually fix them by connecting vertices. On the modify tab, choose “Vertex” and then choose two vertices that you want to connect. Select one vertex and hold down “Ctrl” and select the other one to divide off the part you want from the Ngon.
  9. Click “Connect” on the Modify panel.
  10. Now, when you choose “Polygon” selection again and under “By Numeric” you click the arrow again, the areas you connected will no longer highlight as Ngons.

The model used in this video was selected from a collection of 3D bags by 3D artist archstyle.