3ds Max Pivot Positioning???

MDuncan3D

I'm trying to switch over from rigging in Maya to 3ds Max. 

One of my favorite features in Maya is the ability to grab a group of vertices, find their perfect center pivot, and snap a joint to this position. I usually do this by selecting the vertices and then creating a cluster that acts basically like a placeholder. 

What is the Max equivalent to this action? How can I snap a joint to the center point of a group of vertices? 

Thanks,
-Monica

monster

You can create a script that places a helper object at the vertex selection center. Then manually align the bones to the helpers using pivot snap. When you are done run a one line script to delete all the points.

--//USES THE WORKING PIVOT TO CREATE A TEMP POINT OBJECT
(
	--//SET GIZMO TO SELECTION CENTER
	toolMode.selectionCenter()
	
	--//ENABLE WORKING PIVOT
	workingPivot.UseMode = true
	
	--//RESET WORKING PIVOT TO THE SELECTION CENTER
	actionMan.executeAction 0 "40845" 
	
	--//CREATE TEMP POINT HELPER AT THE WORKING PIVOT
	point transform:(workingPivot.getTM()) name:(uniqueName "Temp")
		
	--//DISABLE WORKING PIVOT
	workingPivot.UseMode = false
)

--//DELETE ALL TEMP OBJECTS
--delete $Temp*

The workflow would look like this...

MDuncan3D

Thank you! This script works perfectly for what I needed. 

McGreed

Yeah, I remember that XSI had an awesome temporary pivot you could place on your selection with just a key press, was really good and I wish that 3ds max had the same, with the same workflow.

monster

@McGreed set Use Working Pivot and Reset Working Pivot to hotkeys.

Use Working Pivot will enable the temporary pivot and align it to your object. If you have a subobject selection tap Reset Working Pivot to align to the selection. When done tap Use again to turn it off.

I actually put those two operations in and Edit Working Pivot in a quad menu because I use them so often.

McGreed

Does it allow you to activate and change and snap to vertex while while in sub mode? I guess one could create shortcuts for it as well, need to test it out and see if it's the same as XSI's.

monster

@McGreed  You might be interested in the  FB Sub-Obj Pivot script by Funky Bunnies. http://www.funkybunnies3d.com/tools.php