Hard Edges in 3DS Max

[Elix]

Okay, this may not be the right spot for this type of question, but here goes: Is there a way to produce hard edges on models like in XSI, where you tag edges as 'hard edges' and when smoothing/subdividing, you can control the hardness of the tagged edges?

[ptk]

chamfer the edges....:)

[Elix]

I know about chamfering the edges, but that's not the same as setting an edge to be 'hard' when subdividing. Anyone who has XSI should know what I'm talking about.

you can also make soft edges with MentalRay renderer. The geometry has hard edges, but the rendering has soft ones.

[Elix]

Uh, that's good and all, but it doesn't exactly answer my question, guys.

[obbboo]

Do you mean smooth group or crease

[Elix]

Not sure on either of those ones, obbboo. Care to enlighten me on those?

[L_Abulafia]

If what you mean is "how to have hard edges on a mesh when using mesh smooth or the integrated subdivision" then you only need to select the edge(s) you want to have hard and in the modifier panel change the crease value for those edges (up to one if you want them really hard) BTW, you also have this kind of control with vertices if you want (changing their weight in the same panel)

Another useful technic is using smoothing groups and materials. You can play with the smoothing groups of your base mesh and check "separate by smoothing groups in the mesh smooth panel" to have various smoothing groups separated by hard edges (you can do the same with materials)
I hope it helps,

Abu :)

[obbboo]

If your object is Editable Poly ,let's try Relax or Tessellate in Edit Geometry parameter ,may be it's useful

[erp]

Elix, select your polygons and then Modify->Smoothing Group ->Clear All

Don't know if that's what you mean by hard edges, but if not, the other guys had answered before.