editable poly vs. object with edit poly modifier

[voltron7]

In the "top" view, make a simple box, or plane, whatever, add an edit poly modifier to it. Selec the object. Now, when I want to press "f" to go to front view, it does something to the edit poly modifier instead and i'm still left in the top view. If I'm in perspective view and type "t" for top view, it does "Tesselate!" This only happens when the object is selected. To avoid this, I have to deselect the object, and then press "T" or "L" to make it actually switch views. So, I noticed this does not happen if I have an editable poly selected (instead of a EP modifier.) This has happened to me in max 7.5, 8, and 9. Can anyone else confirm this? If so, how can I make an object with an edit poly mod behave normally as a plain editable poly acts.

Thanks and I'm sorry for struggling with the explanation

[dapeter]

The reason the shortcuts change is what's called the 'Keyboard Shortcut Override', that changes the keys for different modes like ePoly.

In the 'Extras' toolbar there's a Keyboard Shortcut Override Toggle button, when it's not activated your shortcut keys will always be the same (ie. q=select, w=move, etc.) nomatter what mode you're in... you can also assign it to a hotkey to toggle it on and off.

If you do a search for 'Keyboard Shortcut Override' in the Help it will bring up a few hits for it also.

[voltron7]

Oh man, thank you! This has been driving me nuts lately as I try to do more edit poly modifiers now...

Best regards,
JR

[Dynedain]

poly objects are better than edit poly modifiers because memory usage is lower.

[voltron7]

@ Dynedain - Good point. I still usually convert to poly before I start rendering/lighting but I clone it first and save selected to a backup max file, just in case...

[Da_elf]

ill actualy use edit poly modifies when i get a model to a point where i like how it looks then drop another one ontop and continue modifing it rather than using a saved file. then when im certain i love it ill colapse the stack then add another. but yeah, the viewport shortcuts pissed me off till i found the shortcut

[voltron7]

I like how that works, thanks for the suggestion.

[chris-x//]

funny , just this morning I pressed M like about 10 times to open material editor with an object with ep modifier on it... needless to say it made the pc run out of memory as m applies meshsmooth to the object .. So this comes as a good trick for me, always wondered why the hell shortcuts were changing, thanks

[voltron7]

Hehehe, I feel like I'm using a new version or something!