Modeling a Chair

Create the Seat

1. Add a cube to your scene.
2. Set Size.Y to 20
3. Turn on Fillet
4. Set the fillet radius to 2
5. Rename the Cube to "Seat"

Create the First Leg

1. Make a copy of the seat. (Ctrl C, Ctrl V)
2. Rename the copy "Leg"
3. Change the size to: 20, 200, 20
4. Go into your 4-way view (Middle mouse click on the view)
5. Go to your top view.
6. Position the leg in the front left corner of the chair (P: -90, 0, -90)
7. Go the the Front view.
8. Drag the leg down so that the top of it is touching the base of the seat (Grab the Green handle and hold down shift as you drag)

Create the Second Leg

1. Ctrl-Drag out a copy of the leg on the X-Axis and position it at the opposite corner of the seat

Create the Back Legs

1. Select both legs
2. Go to the Right view
3. Ctrl drag out a copy of the front legs and move them to the back.

Create the Back Supports

1. Ctrl-drag out a copy of the back legs, and move them up on Y to create the back supports.
2. Rename the new legs "Back Support"

Create the Chair Back

1. Select the Seat object
2. Ctrl-drag out a copy, move it back along Z so that the Y-axis lines up with the center of the Back supports
3. Drag it up on Y so that it's about 2/3 of the way up the back supports
4. Drag the orange size dots to adjust the Thickness and height so that it better matches a seat back.
5. Go into your Front view
6. Adjust the orange dot to match the width of the cube to the inside of the back supports

Setup Your Chair for Easy Manipulation

1. Select all of your objects (Cmd A)
2. Group your objects (Option G)
3. Rename "Null" to "Chair"
4. Go into your Side view.
5. Move the chair up on the Y axis so that it is resting on the floor.
6. Move the chair left on the Z axis so that it's back is touching the Y-Axis.
7. Go into Axis mode (type L)
8. Move the Axis to 0,0,0
9. Turn Off Axis mode

Adjust the Scale of Your Chair to Match Real-World Units

When we created our chair, we used numbers that were even multiples of 10 so that they would be easier to manipulate and connect together. The end result is a chair that is 420cm tall, or roughly 12ft - just a touch big. A Google search tells me that the average seat-height of a dining room chair is 18". The seats of our chairs are 220cm from the ground. Let's correct for that.

1. Select the Chair null object/group.
2. Edit -> Scale Project
3. Set current scale to: 220 Centimeters
4. Set target scale to: 18 Inches