How To Make Arches (The Good Way)

 

Arches eh? Their not that hard actually. I know of 3 methods to make them and this is by far the best way, maybe a little longer but once you learn it you can do it quicker each time.

Lot's of pics on this one. Have a slow connection? Go watch a film while it downloads :P

 

Ok first of all we need to set-up somewhere to put the arch. I used the below idea:

As you can see I used the dust textures cause I think arches go well with it. This does look really boring without an arch doesn't it? So first thing then is to select a CYLINDER from the primitives menu. Now whatever sides you want the arch remember that for an 8-sided arch you will need a 16-sided cylinder, 12-sides-24 side cylinder etc. I opted for the 12 side becuase I think that looks best and is a good trade off with the r_speeds.

The reason we are making a cylinder is because it will act as a "stencil" for our arch, you'll see...

 

Anyway... Select 24 sides and drag a box across the gap like the below

Once you have done that have a look at how many squares across the gap it is (smallest grid size) and count them. Mine was 16 blocks. This is important because whatever size it is across it must be that size the other way. In other-words you must have an equal square. like...

Hit ENTER and create it. Once it is created rotate it on to it's side so it is the same angle as your walls and line it up in the gap like so:

If you made your cylinder with equal measurements it will fit snugly in the gap, if not go back and try again :P

Anyway make sure it lines up nicely and then clip off the bottom half as we don't need this anymore.

Once you have a semi-circle in your gap select the BLOCK tool and drag it to fit the gap and make sure it stays the same as your wall width in the top down view.

 

 

Now this block will become the arch soon, just hit ENTER to create it.

Great now we are almost there. The reason we had to get our cylinder lined up perfectly is because if you re-size it manually it will be off centre on the grid. DO NOT re-size it. Just make it again till it fits first time.

See how they line up on the grid? If you manually line it up this will not be aligned and your arch will fail.

Right now all you have to do next is select the newly created block and clip it several times. Make sure you clip IN-LINE with the white dots on the cylinder. These pictures will make it clearer:

See? Thats why we needed the cylinder. It acts as a stencil for the arch. But don't delete it yet as we still need it a moment more, because now we are *drumroll* going to use the VERTEX MANIPULATION tool!

First though select one of blocks you just clipped, the thinnest one will be good to start on.

 

 

Then click the icon for VERTEX MANIPULATION or press SHIFT-V

Now one by one move the edges of the blocks in line with the white parts of the cylinder.

Get the idea? Repeat this with all the blocks and then once you have done this you can delete the cylinder. (When you get to the top blocks it will ask MERGE VERTICES? say yes to this)

Wahey an arch! Give it a texture and your sorted. Also on the under side of the arch you may find the textures all stretched. Hit ALT-P to see if it is an error, if not then bring up the TEXTURE APPLICATION tool and click on the offending texture then put a tick in the WORLD box. This should solve the problem.

That was a bit time consuming but the results are quality:

 

Good Job!! Arches really break up a level so throw a few in now and then.

 

By Blink