- Length : 30
- Width : 30
- Height : 30

Segments :

- Length : 1
- Width : 1
- Height : 3

Alrighty, progress is sweet... We now have 1 box, with 3 lines. Your mother would be proud. Turn the Bracket Selection off, and show the edged faces ( See ' Useful Shortcuts ' at the top of this page ). I turn the bracket selection tool off for a very good reason when modelling levels like these, you'll see why later. Showing Edged Faces is also important, and in my own personal opinion, should ALWAYS be turned on when modelling. And only turned off for viewing your model when not working on it. ( For example... to view it )

Lets start doing stuff eh? Convert your box to an Editable Poly ( Right Click > Convert To > Editable Poly ) Select the two middle edges on either side of the box, and hit the Loop button so that it selects all of the edges around the middle. Then drag them down into a roughly similar position as I have, like so:

Now go into the Vertex Selection Mode. ( The three little red dots ). And select all of the vertices that these the bottom edges have ( leaving the top of the middle edges as it is ). Now we will scale them in slightly, Like so:

One thing to take into great consideration here, is that you should scale in the Perspective/User view, and only along the X and Y axis , so that it all comes in perfectly, and does not lift or turn rectangular. If I had scaled them using the Top, Left or Right views, It would not have scaled in correctly. I am only using the above image as an example of what should be happening in those view ports.

Now we have our shape down, Go into the Polygon , or Element sub-selection, and select the entire object. Now we need to flip the normals , so our oddly shaped box turns inside out. Right click the object > Tools 2 menu > Flip Normals . Or if your quad menu is different to mine, go to the Modifiers List , and select “ Normal ” from there, it will automatically flip it round for you.

Note : If you have chosen to flip the normals via the modifiers list, you will need to convert the model back to an Editable Poly afterwards.

So we have our box, name this “ PrimaryBlock ”, Clone it as a copy. And hide the original ( Right Click > Hide Selection ). Now with our clone selected, hold down shift and drag the box to the right (On the X axis ), this will create another clone, when the Clone Options window pops up ( after you let go off the mouse button ) make sure it is set to copy , and increase the number of copies to 5 . Like so:

Now we have 6 duplicates, huzzah! These will be our tools, our building 'blocks' ... if you like, Colour and Name each one accordingly, so that we don't get lost or confused later. You can pick the colours yourself, I'll let you do that much, plus it's an optional decision. But I've already chosen the names... so lets continue. From left to right, sing it with me now... name your blocks:

- StraightBlock
- 90degBlock
- ThreeWayBlock
- BendBlock
- Stairblock
- EndBlock

You can make as many different blocks as you desire, but these will act as good starters to get that noggin' of yours rolling into gear. Plus this tutorial is going to be long enough as it is.

So lets get editing that first block of ours. Select the StraightBlock , and in Editable Poly , go into Polygon mode, Select and Erase two opposing sides , making sure not to erase anything else like the ceiling, accidents like this can be easily avoided by ticking the “ Ignore Backfacing ” button. Now we need to align some vertices perfectly , in order for this building 'block' to be used time and time again (and it will )

Turn the Snap on, ( again, see Useful Shortcuts ) And go into the Snap Options window by right clicking on its icon , which can be found in the top horizontal menu bar:

Since we're already here, go ahead and turn the Angle Snap on as well ( To the right of Snap ), this will prove itself very handy.

When the Snap Options window opens up, make sure Vertex is the only one ticked in the Snap Panel , Now go into the Options Panel ( to the right ) and tick the “ Use Axis Constraints ”. Place this window somewhere out of the way for now, as you will be needing to turn the Axis Constraints off and on a lot.

We are now needing to align the wonky vertices to the edge, so that we have a tile-able model. We do this with precision using the Axis Constraints. Simply select the wonky vertices, then hover the correct axis ( Hint : it wont be Z ). Click, and drag to an aligned vertex. Tricky eh?... thank goodness for .gif animations.

The axis I am hovering over in that animation, is the X axis , if you've erased the same opposing sides as I have, then it will be the same for you, otherwise, try your luck with the Y . Optionally, if you right click the top horizontal menu bar in a blank location, a check list will drop down, if you select “ Axis Constraints ” from that list, you will be greeted with a small window, with X, Y and Z buttons on it, giving you more control if you can't quite grasp the other method.

Note : If the other objects are distracting you during this, you can choose to hide them using the same technique I mentioned earlier. But be warned, that when you unhide all of the objects. The “ PrimaryBlock ” we first made will come back into place, and probably in the exact location as “StraightBlock” unless you have moved it.... Just something to consider there.

Alright, so now we have one block complete, and can be used over and over again, to make a really long passage... that will never end... or bend. The easiest way to duplicate and tile this model (and all models) is to still have the snap enabled, but turn “ Use Axis Constraints”off , then simply hover over one corner of your box, so you get a blue + sign , and the move cursour is indicated, then holding down Shift, just drag it so it duplicates , and plant it on an opposing corner. Don't worry about attaching and welding at the moment... in fact, just don't attach and weld at the moment.

Right, onto the next page then I suppose.