Mesh Light: Applying mesh light to an object moves picked geometry out of positon.

[DanSHP]

Hello everyone. This one has been bugging me for a while!

I hope the images are clear enough, but to be certain I essentially have one object as sphere's/elements positioned over numerous floors in a tower. I want to use these element sphere's as internal lights, controlled by one or two different mesh lights for different light temperatures.

The problem I'm having though is that when picking the object as a mesh, it tends to move my geometry out of position. At first I thought this may have to do with pivot points etc, but I have aligned them to one another and this still occurs. This isn't a huge problem as I can just move them back into position, but still rather annoying!

Any ideas?

[ThomasHorsley]

Hi DanSHP
Did you find a solution for this?
The same is happening for me in VRay for Max Ver 5.20.02
I also tried adjusting the pivots of the vray lights and the source geometry before choosing & aligning to 0,0,0 - but the newly created Mesh Lights always seem to move.
What's also anoying is that you can't snap to the light geometry so have to re-align everything by eye which is slow.

Anyone found a permanent solution to this?
Thanks, Thomas

[DanSHP]

I haven't no sorry

[hermit.crab]

ThomasHorsley I don't understand the issue. Could you share a video reproduction?

[garipodelu]

Before selecting the geometry apply a reset xform modifier and it should be ok.

[Alex_M]

I've been having this problem for years as well. Please check the attached video and the 3ds Max 2023 scene for a test.

[squintnic]

this has been a nightmare for at least 3 years now.
i use it a lot and have had to resort to the xform technique.

[hermit.crab]

I see. This seems to happen to geometry with "baked" transformations, hence why Reset xForm resolves it. I've logged the issue (internal bug-tracker id: VMAX-12327) for developer investigation.