max tips & tricks

[jonahhawk]

In See-through mode the textures don't display...

The transparent face/element selection really depends on your display driver. It's usually not as fast these days but try Open GL. I can get it to work with DX.

Also F2 will change your selected faces to only Red outlines, my favorite.

I wish you could set the % visibility. that would rock.

[jonahhawk]

anyone know of a quick way to set keys for vertices? I frequently animate at the subobj level and would love to be able to set keys for vert positions.

There's got to be a simple answer...

thanks

jonah

[overseastom]

If you have an object and your points all need to be in the same plane (like say a wall where the top face has gotten distorted and the points aren't all at the same height anymore) you can select all those points, and scale by 0% the dimension you want them aligned in. So in the case of this wall, select all the top faces, scale by 0% in the Z, and they will all be perfectly linged up and ready to be put in the right Z location.

Nice one Dynedain - I use this all the time. It gets even gets better though - if you have your 3-snaps on and set to vertex snap (or edge) and "Use Selection Center" activated then you can make a selection, lock it with space bar, hover the mouse cursor over the vertex you want to move everything to and then begin scaling. It'll all go towards that vertex you snapped over. Awesome if you know one vertex is in the correct position, say, a corner, cos then you don't need to move anything afterwards. Also works great when you combine it with Grids. You can also use this 3 snaps+selection center on tip with the rotate gizmo to give you a makeshift pivot point without having to actually move a pivot.

(that was my first post ever - hello VRay peeps - goodbye cherry)

[overseastom]

Orhtogonal Viewports at funny angles...

If I'm working on a building that has facades at angles not at 90 degree angles to the world then you can't always use the standard viewports for easy movement along normals. To remedy this, create a Grid by checking Autogrid and then dragging over the face you want the camera to point at (like a wall or window). Now right click the viewports label at the top left of the window and go to Views >> Grid >> Display Planes (this gives you a top viewport of the grid that'll update as you move the grid). Also, you can use Soulburn's awesome scripts (just Google SoulburnScripts) which includes the script alignViewportToFace. Only major diff is that the script actually creates a camera in your scene. bye

[dellis]

I'm sure people know this already...helped me out a tonne around here when i stumbled on it.

Lets say that your units are in inches and your display units are in inches...then someone gives you a dimension in feet or meters or millimeters or whatever. Instead of doing the conversion on your calculator or the numeric expression thingy or switching your display units...you can just type in the value with the unit type following the number and MAX will do the conversion for you.

For example, with units and display set to inches:

50"=127cm

so if you type in 127cm it will automatically get converted to 50".

Might not be useful for most, but we do a bunch of stuff in imperial and metric....and the enginerds are always rattling off dimensions in both...regardless of what system i'm working in.

[overseastom]

you all moght know this but...
on edit poly , select an edge the select ring and then press ctrl and hit the polygon selection , it will automaticly select all the faces between those selected edges.

Also, if you have selection of polys, hold down Shift while clicking the edge subobject and it will only highlight the borders of the selection. Useful for chamfering edges and cutting paths into things.

[overseastom]

Scripts can be incredible time-savers. I wholeheartedly recommend using Neil Blevins SoulburnScripts. So many awesome scripts in one pack, some of my fave timesavers are:

-- findInstances - great to check the exact objects you'll be affecting if you have some instanced and non-instanced items
--edgeSelectByAngle - awesome for one-click selecting the very outer edges of an object to chamfer.
--materialRemover - use it if i'm attaching 2 objects and don't want to generate multi/subs
--subdivManager - With one click can select the whole scene and make sure that anything with SubD modifiers (MeshSmooth Turbosmooth or even the EPoly smothing) has them turned off in viewport and can set render iterations too.
--randomTransform - scale and rotate instanced landscape plants and trees with a few clicks.
--imagePlaneMaker - super-easy to set up textured planes to build a model from.
-- WireColorRandomizer - good to change object colors from imported AutoCAD lines.
-- measureDistance - exact same as Tool >> Measure Distance but in a handy button. Use with snaps on to...Measure Distance!
--putPivot - handy gizmo for putting pivots at an objects xyz centers/minumums/maximums.


Awesome scipts - check em out here:
http://www.neilblevins.com/soulburns...urnscripts.htm

[Da_elf]

me too cool tip.

[Candelero]

Hi @ all !

I would like to ask you if anyone of you has found a way-arround to clone elements (Edit poly) under MAX 2008, the way it behaves in MAX 8/9.

(*) Make a box - Convert to Poly
(*) Select a polygon
(*) Press < Shift > and click over the selected polygon.

You will see a window, which says: < Clone part of Mesh > with 2 options:
(1) Clone to object
(2) Clone to Element.

How do you do this under MAX 2008 ? It seems that the default installation, doesn't support it.

Best regards,
nikki Candelero

[pentool]

You need to have the Move tool active and click and move the selected poly with the SHIFT key. Then you get the dialog box.

[kalografik]

same question as Candelero!

I use this all the time. Cloning selections to elements (objects) using the max8,9 manner doesn't require precise mouse snapping and moving. That manner let me to clone and place fast the newly created geometry without mouse aiming on snaps. So removing this feature in max2008 disappoint me too.