adjusting object transforms

Laughing_Bun

I feel like I should know this by now, but it's something that bugs the shit out of me all the time.

I am looking for answers for both 3ds max and maya. After performing specific operations you lose you're object transforms. I want to be able to re-adjust the object orientation to what it would be, had it not lost its transform. Any easy way to do this?

I know in Maya you can set it to an edge, which works decent but doesn't change the rotation axis for some reason.

any help is appreciated, THANKS!

.Wiki

This happens when the transforms got frozen. You can freeze them with a specific freeze command OR by merging to objects into a new object.
You could try to set the pivot point manually. In max it was below the hirarchie tab, but i hav´nt used max for some years.

PixelsGenerated

In 3d's Max you can use the reference coordinate system to get the orientation you want ?

http://docs.autodesk.com/3DSMAX/16/ENU/3ds-Max-Help/index.html?url=files/GUID-0F3E2822-9296-42E5-A572-B600884B07E3.htm,topicNumber=d30e28715

You can also reset the spinners at the bottem right next to the isolate en lock toggle.

You can also connect it to a dummy object and use that as your base for transforming.

Redsett

For Maya you can make an empty group and move and rotate it exactly the way you want the pivot to be. Then parent the object to it and freeze the object, it will use the groups' pivot.

Bartalon

I wrote a quick script for Maya that simplifies the Snap Align 3 Points to 3 Points tool. Just select 3 verts that are across the same plane and run the script. Should snap your object to the origin with an accurate rotation (you may have to center the object still).

{
    $sourceVerts = `ls -fl -sl`;
    polyPlane -ch on -o on -w 2 -h 2 -sw 1 -sh 1 -cuv 2 ;
    $plane = `rename vertexSnappingPlane`;
    select -r $sourceVerts[0];
    select -add $sourceVerts[1];
    select -add $sourceVerts[2];
    select -add ($plane + ".vtx[0]");
    select -add ($plane + ".vtx[1]");
    select -add ($plane + ".vtx[2]");
    Snap3PointsTo3Points;
    delete $plane;
}

Laughing_Bun

Thanks for the kickass responses guys. I used the reference coordinate system to pick an object object with correct orientation for max.

and basically used your method Redsett for maya.

that script wasn't working for some reason, but I didn't know about those snap align tools.

Thanks guys.

Bartalon

I left out a flag, The above script should work now

Laughing_Bun

Awesome, thanks man. It works great!