Modeling in Max/VIZ troubles

[dlparisi]

Let me preface this by saying I do pretty much all of my modeling in AutoCAD, so I rarely need to actually sit down and actually build something in MAX/VIZ.

My big annoyance though is when trying to draw a spline with multiple segments, every time I pan or switch to a different viewport, it stops the current spline and restarts a new one! Is there anyway to avoid this behavior? Besides autocad, my main experience is in Maya, where when you are drawing a curve, it remains active until you tell it to end it so this seems like a very frustrating way to work.

Thanks, David

[percydaman]

not that i know of...i also find it very frustrating...

[tom schuelke]

just use the middle mouse weel.

when you switch on the right behaviour, (i think scroll arround mouse point or so in the general settings,) you´ll be able to zoom to what ever point you want to in orthogonal views without loosing the actual line... this overcomes the biggest problem most time.


otherwise i also think this is a uggly hack, but after using it a while it works good enough.

Tom

[Dynedain]

a common complaint, and no good work around

try hitting the letter " i " next time, it will center the viewport to your mouse cursor... not great, but its a start.

Because of this wonderful 'problem', I tend to use a little bit different workflow in 3dsmax than in autocad. In autocad, i'd draw the line perfectly to begin with. In 3dsmax it seems to be easier to rough out the spline with the right number of vertices, and then clean it up.

[tom schuelke]

Me i think the solution with the wheel is much faster, cause you can scroll as near as you want interactively to what ever detail you want while drawing.

i know about the "i" command, but this is even a worse solution for me because of the zoom problem. what if you want to hit a very small detail. you zoom in and cant leave the zoom modus and have to hit a thousend times i , to go where you want to go. so the zoom of the wheel is much faster after a bit trying it. (of course zoom around mouse point has to be turned on to make it work)

Tom

[archcanvas]

You can also use [ and ] to zoom in/zoom out without breaking your current operation.

[dlparisi]

Thanks for the tips. At least I'm glad to know I wasn't missing some feature. This seems like a strange way for a 3D modeling program to behave, even autocad allows you to switch between viewports and keep drawing on a 3d polyline.

It seems like I'll have to rough it out (as Dynedain suggests) and then just move the vertices into place.

Thanks,
David