Making Blender more like max

Doxturtle

I am attempting to use Blender at the moment, I usually use max, however this is a student license.

Does anyone know if there are any plugins or themes for Blender which make it similar to the controls and layout of max?

Prime8

When you start Blender you can chose a Max or Maya preset from the splash screen, this is already included in Blender, no need to install additional plug-ins.

I cannot tell how well it is imitating the Max layout since I never used it and have basically no experience with Max either.

You could also just give the original GUI a try, I actually do like it a lot.
The learning curve is quite steep though and there are many features quite hidden.

I highly recommend to switch "Select" from right to left mouse button.

Dataday

Doxturtle wrote: »

I am attempting to use Blender at the moment, I usually use max, however this is a student license.

Does anyone know if there are any plugins or themes for Blender which make it similar to the controls and layout of max?

Here ya go, might not work past versions 2.71 though (worth testing).
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?306867-BMax-Tools-or-how-I-left-3ds-Max-%29&highlight=bmax

You can also try requesting it be updated to 2.74 (may still work, i have no idea) or get familiar with it to the point where you can customize it yourself. Themes are pretty easy to find/make so thats not an issue.

Ideally I would recommend just going with the Maya keymap for now as it has the most universal appeal, it shouldnt take too much to get used to.

Alternatively, if its not required to stick with Blender might I recommend grabbing Modo Indie instead... subscription is like $10 a month on Steam or one flat rate of $299. Sub is better considering the free upgrades and well 901 just came out. Commercial viability. While you may lose modifiers, you will really gain a better modeling, retopology, UV and render package. http://store.steampowered.com/app/321540/

themindstream

The Max preset is what made Blender usable for me; I did have to make some tweaks to the defaults. Most notably, E is shared by both rotate and Extrude depending on the mode; I changed all the Extrude functions to Shift-E. On a Mac (currently using a borrowed one as a secondary machine) I had to assign the Delete key manualy because Delete on Mac is actually Backspace. And I should do something about the viewport hotkeys as Right and Back are religated to numpad assignments. Also, the preset keybinds don't carry over to UV editing. I could remap them but so far I've just worked around it.

Another thing that tripped me up is that Ctrl-select for multiple elements will try to select everything between them unless you hold down Shift.

The UV mapping/unwrapping compared to Max is pretty sucky. I've gotten around some of the annoyances with plugins but I still want to stab it often enough.

RN

In the Blender Mega Thread there's some debate if it's better to change the hotkey bindings or just get used to the default ones:

MmAaXx wrote: »

CJE wrote: »

My keybinds seem completely different.

I'm using the 3ds max preset.

S turns snap on and off.

I can hold Shift and drag LMB to select verts, but can't find any key combo to remove verts from a selection. MMB just rotates the camera. RMB doesn't do anything.

please don't use maya or 3dsmax preset, you will lose all the blender benefits.
for me was enough to change the selection from right to left click..

pior wrote: »

Yeah man, it's really, really good. The UI is actually quite elegant - the only real issue is the way some of the hardcore Blender fans swear by the default hotkeys, probably because they are so convoluted that starting to edit them is a bit of an undertaking. It personally took me a few weeks to get comfortable with the program and bend it to my workflow, but it is now my main 3d app. [...]

RyanB wrote: »

CJE wrote: »

I'm not sure if it's just the pain of learning a new package, or the software itself, but I'm trying to learn Blender and am finding it insanely frustrating.

Everything seems needlessly complicated and even simple operations hard to do.

Blender does everything differently. It doesn't even use left click to select.

But, if you spend three weeks re-training your brain to work in Blender, it's worth it. Blender has a lot of great things that are worth the investment of time.

Don't give up!

AtticusMars

The 3DS Max preset nearly rendered the program useless to me because all the documentation/tutorials are written for the defaults. I ended up just using the defaults and I customize the keys as I need them, rather than loading an entire preset.

The thing that helped the most for me was rSelection and rRMB. I found them via Pior's thread on the blender forums which has a lot of good info about customizing blender, don't have the link but you can probably find it in the Blender Megathread in the last few pages.

Unfortunately these scripts both have a problem which is that they stop working when you close Blender, when you restart blender you have to go into your addons menu and uncheck/check them in order to get them working again.

It's annoying but worth it. I can only pray that they will continue to be updated.

Good luck.

Dataday

Dont forget theres an official keymap change coming anyways and from what I am seeing it will be more far more conventional. So trying to force muscle memory to adapt to the blender default is a bit of a pointless endeavor at this point. The tutorials btw will mention whats being done, its not hard to find out what it is with the new keymaps as well.

Macrow

I don't know to what extent you need Blender to remind you of Max, but I will suggest that you might feel more at home with Quad View mode, which you can toggle with Ctrl Alt Q.

You'd also be better taking Prime8's advice with switching the default "Select" button from RMB to LMB (File > User Preferences > Input > Select With... ).


There are also a few UI themes (located in User preferences > Themes > Presets) that also might ring more visually familiar, as well as the option to customize your own theme. Though, I'm not sure if UI color scheme is as big a deal to you or not, but it's there if you need it.


Personally, some things in Blender's available workflow I prefer over Max in terms of workflow, particularly the handy hotkey-based workflow provided by addons such as:

• Dynamic Spacebar Menu (which lets you quickly add objects, modifiers, etc.) (included in Blender in User Preferences > Addons, but an overview here)
• Quick Tools (which allows context-sensitive access to handy options via Q key)
• F2 (handy addon that extends the 'Make Edge/Face' functionality via F key)
• A Pie Menu is now available in Blender (available in User Preferences > Addons) that uses Spacebar as a pie menu (though, personally, I rarely use it--I prefer using Dynamic Spacebar Menu and the Tab key instead)

I find these save so much mousing around and menu-hunting for me. Efficient workflow.


Though, I think you'll likely find yourself settling with your own customized solution, where you set up some of Max's UI vibe but learn some of Blender's hotkey heart.

Personally, I'd find ways to make it easier to use Blender's system, rather than ways to make it feel more like Max. You can get some Max traits back, but Blender's just a different beast internally.

Xizu

Probably not a good idea to use the whole max preset. I just copied certain elements from it.

Namely, the "Select or Deselect All" function so that you can click on an empty space to deselect everything. At first I hated the "Pick shortest path" being on Ctrl and multiple select being on Shift, but pick shortest path is quite useful so I got used to it now.

Nevil

I know this is late reply but maybe new guys looking to same subject in blender 2.80 too.

yeah, there is an add-on under development Called BsMax. that just mimicking the other 3D software's UI for who want use blender with habits from other 3D softwars.

I hope you enjoy BsMax & Bledner

musashidan

@nevil do you have a demo or any details on it? There's nothing on that linked page.

sacboi

https://devtalk.blender.org/t/bsmax-for-blender-2-80-3dsmax-ui-simulator/5790

...sounds interesting but no demo?!

Poly_Nut

Nevil said:

I know this is late reply but maybe new guys looking to same subject in blender 2.80 too.

yeah, there is an add-on under development Called BsMax. that just mimicking the other 3D software's UI for who want use blender with habits from other 3D softwars.

I hope you enjoy BsMax & Bledner

Nasser your work is simply amazing for former user of max it made the transition as painless as possible given the amount of drawback in the current blender architecture.

You are very talented and i can't wait to see how far you will bring blender to a fast modeling tool because as it is even in 2.8 it is far from perfection in many area like having to click so many time just to get UV color grid to show on object in viewport while in max it's a one click button on the top tool bar of the UV editor, in blender it's a pain.

What annoy me to no end is that box selection you have to re activate each time with the b hotkey when you use move,rotate or scale making it very counter productive.

The UV tools are outdated and i solved this one with rizom uv tool with the blender bridge since i was losing so much time because of the poor uv tools.

I wish blender had an object sub selection in edit mode since in blender it's tedious work. 

Nominous

@Poly_Nut In 2.8, if you wanna use selection tools while a transform tool is active in the left toolbar, you can set this up in your keymap. In Preferences > Keymap, navigate to 3D View > Object Mode and expand the dropdowns for 3D View Tool: Move, Scale, Rotate, and Transform. Click the Add New button for each category and paste this shortcut in them all: view3d.select_box. Make sure to set the event mapping to Tweak. I have three of these shortcuts for each category set to modifier keys in order to set, extend, and subtract from selections. Repeat for the same categories within 3D View > Mesh if you also want the same functionality in edit mode.

[spoiler][/spoiler]

This is one of the first things I researched since I wanted the same functionality as Max. I don't need the above anymore since I have the box select tool active all the time and I learned to use the gizmo-less transform shortcuts. They're much faster than trying to click gizmo handles once you get used to it. Minor downsides include having to memorize six more shortcuts for two different types of axis constraints--individual axes and dual axes. My only complaint is that I sometimes get confused distinguishing which part of my model faces which direction for the X, Y, XZ, and YZ constraints. The 3D viewport axis (similar to a viewcube) in the top-right corner of the viewport is my main point of reference and it disappears during transformations. I also have the default floor axes disabled since they're distracting. Gizmo-less transforms are still very fast and I feel slower, although accurate, using gizmo transforms.

I find the default UV tools good enough for hard surface models. Just like in Max, I add seams manually and then hit unwrap for similar functionality to quick peel. For straightening UVs, Align Auto is Align Vertically/Horizontally rolled into one, whereas it's two separate shortcuts in Max when I last used it. There should be plenty of UV unwrapping/packing addons for getting similar Max and RizomUV functionality. This thread is priceless for 2.8 users: https://blenderartists.org/t/list-of-addons-that-work-with-2-8/1132912

Poly_Nut

Nominous said:

@Poly_Nut In 2.8, if you wanna use selection tools while a transform tool is active in the left toolbar, you can set this up in your keymap. In Preferences > Keymap, navigate to 3D View > Object Mode and expand the dropdowns for 3D View Tool: Move, Scale, Rotate, and Transform. Click the Add New button for each category and paste this shortcut in them all: view3d.select_box. Make sure to set the event mapping to Tweak. I have three of these shortcuts for each category set to modifier keys in order to set, extend, and subtract from selections. Repeat for the same categories within 3D View > Mesh if you also want the same functionality in edit mode.

This is one of the first things I researched since I wanted the same functionality as Max. I don't need the above anymore since I have the box select tool active all the time and I learned to use the gizmo-less transform shortcuts. They're much faster than trying to click gizmo handles once you get used to it. Minor downsides include having to memorize six more shortcuts for two different types of axis constraints--individual axes and dual axes. My only complaint is that I sometimes get confused distinguishing which part of my model faces which direction for the X, Y, XZ, and YZ constraints. The 3D viewport axis (similar to a viewcube) in the top-right corner of the viewport is my main point of reference and it disappears during transformations. I also have the default floor axes disabled since they're distracting. Gizmo-less transforms are still very fast and I feel slower, although accurate, using gizmo transforms.

I find the default UV tools good enough for hard surface models. Just like in Max, I add seams manually and then hit unwrap for similar functionality to quick peel. For straightening UVs, Align Auto is Align Vertically/Horizontally rolled into one, whereas it's two separate shortcuts in Max when I last used it. There should be plenty of UV unwrapping/packing addons for getting similar Max and RizomUV functionality. This thread is priceless for 2.8 users: https://blenderartists.org/t/list-of-addons-that-work-with-2-8/1132912

Thank Nominous i will give this a try and see if i can tailor it to fit my need. I also found an addon that do some pretty neat stuff here : https://blenderartists.org/t/qwer-addon-or-how-i-stopped-using-the-transform-active-tools/1157507

I also bought this addon here to help making a faster UI experience : https://blendermarket.com/products/pie-menu-editor

Since i work in game development with UE4 i also bought auto rig pro for easy import/export animation to UE4 mannequin.

Without addons i would still be paying my autodesk subscription.