[3ds Max] Certain Numbers Round Strangely

Nightingale

It has occured to me that this is probably not that uncommon a problem for novices of 3ds Max, but it's one of those problems that you can't really enter properly into Google so please bear with me if this is a problem with a really obvious fix:

When I enter certain values into certain dialogs (ex: cylinder diameter, snap grid spacing, scaling percentage), very certain numbers get "approximated" strangely. For example, I am able to enter 0.1 and 0.001 into the grid spacing of my scene, but if I enter 0.01 it gets rounded to 0.999999987 no matter how many times I re-enter it. I cannot accept even such a small degree of imprecision because I am working on seamless tileable meshes.

Could someone tell me how to get it working "normally" or, failing that, explain why these numbers have to be "rounded" so strangely?

Amsterdam Hilton Hotel

I've had this happen infrequently. I dunno if there's a better way, but usually I just set the value to some significantly different integer (like 500 or whatever) and then set it back to what I want. It seems to get hung up sometimes when the new value is very close to the old one.

MethodJ

Not sure of your scene scale, but Max may be having problems with really small numbers. You could try scaling up by 10x or 100x and see if that resolves the issue, and then scale back down when complete. I'd be interested to know if this fixes it.

Nightingale

Unfortunately, I cannot scale it up and then back down because that requires entering 0.01 into the scaling dialog, which results in me scaling it by 0.0100000015. Is this a rare problem that only happens to certain users working in small units? Should I try just updating from 2013 to 2014 and seeing if it fixes the problem?

Nightingale

I upgraded to 2014 and it fixed the problem. Just posting this here to let others know if they happen to Google it sometime in the future.

Nevermind. Shit is fucked for me if I ever want to work on a scale between 0.0 and 1.0.

Noors

I think this is inherent to every viz software. Max isn't designed for such precision. But really, who needs a precision at 0.000000001 unit ? NASA ? Use a CAD software then.
I'm not even sure a graphic card can handle that.
You won't see any seams with such a low difference.

Nightingale

Yes, I think you are right. I figured out how to properly set up my grid spacing for exporting to CryEngine, so this was all a result of misunderstanding instructions.