[3dsmax] Align pivot to vertex for rotating

Alice3d

Hi, Ive been struggling with this for days and I decided to come to you as I dont really know how to do this.
I have this pyramid (tetra) and I want to rotate its pieces, as you can see they are all equilateral triangles. I tried moving and adjusting my pivot in a way it works but it always ends up making a huge translation between the piece and the figure as you can see in the second image.

I want to make a rotation of 120º






I tried an 'easy' fix by setting animation keys and then playing the animation, but that doesnt help at all. I want a method for placing my pivot correctly. Any ideas?

I hope Ive explained myself, thanks in advance!

thomasp

if you want to align a pivot's position to a vertex, you could activate snap toggle, use the vertex setting and then move the pivot.

musashidan

Not sure exactly of your intention but if I'm understanding correctly you could 'affect pivot only' and rotate the pivot with angle snap on in the top view to align it parallel to the larger object.

Alice3d

Thanks for your answers, but even snapping the pivot to a vertex or rotating adjusting the angle with snaps doesnt work. It always has a translated movement.
I want to make this turn and all I get its the second image one



Isnt there any kind of way for attaching the pivot to 3 different vertex like AutoCAD?

musashidan

If you at any point rotated the object not in local mode then there will probably be some gimbal lock. Try reseting the pivot by collapsing the Xform.

thomasp

this might help in conjunction with using the working pivot - http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/align-pivotpoint-to-workingpivot

there's also - http://scripts.breidt.net/#3ptalign
and - http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/align-pivot-to-direction

(or use blender, so simple in there)

Alice3d

Thank you, Im going to try those scripts. Im used to work in AutoCAD and everything is so precise there, I dont know why 3dsmax doesnt have an easier way for doing this.

monster

If you are using Max 2015 or newer you can use the Select and Place tool combined with Center Face snap.