Hello, I am trying to model a Mac Pro. I’ve already got the basic shape of it but I am unsure of how to model the ports and the many holes it has. Should I try making the ports in a separate mesh to keep the whole simple? Or should I have them as a part of the mesh? Also the holes are an issue. If I made a texture of the holes I don’t know how to have them avoid the sections of the body with the ports. Any ideas?
Thanks everyone 
I would start with the basic box, and then maybe with the knife-tool cut the verticals and horizontals a few times, then use the edge-slider to move those edges where I want. Delete a few faces and presto! The holes.
In edit mode, add a cylinder and extrude it to add thickness. The diameter of the circle should correspond to the radius of the handles. Scale it along the X-axis to form the top handles. Grab the bottom half and drag it downward to form the bottom handles.
I probably would use a texture to create the truly messy bits, i.e. the various network ports.
When you get going on this, be sure to post it to WIP.
How much detail to add really depends on how you are planning to render it. If Mac shows up as an object in a room, a prop, don’t bang your head over the details. Just UV the ports, as an image. But if you want close up with some lighting effect you may want to model it. As for modeling, make the ports out of separate object. That way you don’t need to cut the main computer box up into gazillion faces. Just make a hole in computer box, than add the port. If you want you can always joint both objects.
Thanks you for the tips. So what I’m gonna do is make the ports in a separate object and make the holes with loop cuts.
This is going to be so much fun! XD
Ridix’s post is very apropos and easy to overlook. It is really amazing just what you can get away with sometimes … and you ought to practice “pushing that envelope” to discover just how much effort you can manage to avoid while getting an acceptable result. A thing that is just “set dressing” only needs to have enough detail to be recognizable. Once the viewer does that, he or she will remember what it’s supposed to look like, and will actually “see” it that way. Priceless.
Star Wars Episode One actually shipped to theaters with a pod-racer scene crowd made out of colored Q-tips cotton swabs. No one noticed until a “making of” book pointed it out. (Since then, they replaced the scene and the book.) My point is that the Q-tips worked just fine.
