I've been trying to model something for a friend, but while I might be able to render a picture alright, I can't say I model worth a darn. It's actually a really simple object, but I keep getting weird blotches all over it, and I don't know how to do a couple things. I'll put a couple shots on here so you can see what it's like.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v141/TerraMatrix/2006-10-18019.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v141/TerraMatrix/2006-10-18021.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v141/TerraMatrix/2006-10-18023.jpg
That's velcro on the bottom of the pad. Pretty much I just want the model to look clean and crisp. If you need dimensions let me know. Any help I get is much, much appreciated.

I don't think this is cheating. Put a cylinder into the workspace.  Give it a small thickness. Make little cylinders of the size of the holes you want--just a fraction thicker than the first cylinder. Place these secondary ones where you want. Give the "holes" cylinders a clear glass  shader say. Give your main cylinder a shader that suites' Violins!

And I am quite crazy!  You can, of course, in the Assembly Room use the 3D Boolean in the Edit dropdown!

Thanks for the tip, I'll be trying this!

The spline modeler is perfect for a complex shape like this. (complex because it has multiple holes in it) Mark

Thanks, Mark, that looks really promising.

Mark That looks good BUT!

I can do the idea in the Spline modeller but without accuracy in the location/size of the holes.

I have gone to Photoshop and drawn up what I want beautifully--with the holes deleted.
But no way can I get an ai or eps file to be accepted into the Carrara spline plane.

I have done this before-is it the holes that now create the problem? HELP!

It would have been even easier if I had a drawing to the bottom(floor) grid in the assembly room. Even without that, the grid allows exact location of different size cylinders. Then the big cylinder--all on the floor grid.

Then, back to directors camera view and ensuring the smaller cylinders are of greater height, doing tha booleen exercise seems pretty simple.

For me, it beats going via an ai file, or in the vertex or spline rooms.  

Good learning exercise for me TerraMatrix. Thanks.

Lets know if you would like screen shots.

HI bwtr, The .ai file needs to be v8 or below. I did create the Cross Section in Illustrator, saved all the holes as a group, and then created a compound path for the openings. While you can create the paths in Photoshop, Photoshop does not handle the compound path instructions. :-/ I thought PS exported paths as v3 .ai files so I'm not sure why they're not importing. Mark

Thanks Mark.

Are you guys saying you can create an image in a certain format (using vectors I'm guessing?) and then import that into Carrara to be extruded?

Yes, in the Spline modeler, not the Vertex Modeler. However, after the object is created in the Spline Modeler, you can convert it into a vertex object and continu editing in the VM if you like.