Switching from Max to Modo - Tips?

C86G

Hey guys.

I am a Max user (and I DO like Max!) but I want to learn Modo. Do you have any tips for me that makes learning/ switching easier?
Maybe some good introduction tutorial or something like that? And in advance, is there anything I should know as a max user?

Any tip is appreciated.

Thank you : )

igi

Press 'O' and set Trackball Rotation as 'no'.
Modo allows you to create all sort of illegal geometry rather than max. When in doubt use mesh cleanup tool often. Binding it to a key is even better.
Easiest way to binding keys is to press F5 then go to history tab. Right click to tool and select Map Command to Key.
Download Seneca's Scripts pack. You'll find a lot of useful stuff in it.
When using modo you may need to unlearn how some stuff done in max as it mostly depends on modifiers. I don't have much thing to say about it, it depends on experience. Modo have more destructive workflow than max but less bureaucratic(even though produceral tools are newly introduced in modo but they need to be matured).
Don't hesitate to make your own viewport configurations, pie menus, custom hotkeys and so on.

Gaurav Mathur

The Foundry made some training videos on folks coming over from the 3D Studio Max paradigm:  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDhLs0swq2I&list=PLi2GhhsPL-RqPPzr3BfiTTkodtkEm4ubL

They were made for Modo 801, but the basics are still consistent, I believe.  Godspeed, Christian!

Gaurav Mathur

Customization is a necessity with Modo.  I'm in the process of documenting the Modo kits, scripts, macros and preferences I use to create assets for UE4.  I hope to share my notes on polycount sometime in the next couple of weeks.

C86G

Thank you, guys. ALready helps me alot. WIll have some trying and tetsing in the next days.

Will surely come back here and bother you with questions : )

Anchang-Style

igi said:

Modo allows you to create all sort of illegal geometry rather than max. When in doubt use mesh cleanup tool often. Binding it to a key is even better.

This. From experience Modo will at every point create geo with randomly flipped normals, double faces, double vertice and alot of other stuff that can't be fixed by hand and has to be done tthrough cleanup. Like Bridging a gap, extruding along spline, and so much more seem to cause flipped normals.
Also you have to really be careful about the symmetrie, which i think is still horrible in Modo. As far as i know, there is no local symmetrie option. There are tricks using Instancing to simulate a local, 3 axis symmetrie.
Also activating the Subdivision Surface can help finding mesh errors, since your mesh will basically blow up if there are errors.

Zack Maxwell

Modo is amazing superficially, but it has some serious issues. First, stability is a bit of an issue. Doing some things, like tweaking hotkeys, will cause frequent crashes. Some settings will behave in weird ways as well, like the whole screen going blank any time you open a pie menu set to open on mouse click like Maya. A lot of random quirks and errors will crop up as well, some of them serious. And because the community is so small, you WILL NOT find support. The Foundry themselves do not seem to provide support on problems either.
I had no choice but to stop using it all together when I couldn't get it to export any animations, and no one could answer why. As in no one even replied, and I couldn't figure it out on my own because there was no information to be found online.

peanut™

Modo is notorious for the vast quantity of plugings, make sure you experiment with them as much as possible.

http://www.prespondek.com/modo-scripts/
http://pushingpoints.com/v2/
http://www.modo.stenson.tv/
http://www.indigosm.com/modoscripts.htm
http://fb1.fh-bielefeld.de/~loescher/assets/info/ModoShortcuts.html

Anchang-Style

Also it's important to know that there are a couple of functions that are named the same but are working differently. Like Inset. In Max you can do group or single polygon insets (if i remember corretly). In Modo it only does single poly. To do Inset groups you have to apply bevel (without doing anything) and then Scale it in. Same with Extrude. Modo's extrude tool can't do extrude along normals (so extrude all faces of a tube into their normal directions) by itself. Instead you have to apply extrude without extruding and then using scale. Same with trying to extrude several items the same time. You have to work with the work planes (in Local) then. You could use smooth shift but that tends to change sizes (since it will add a fall off).

And yes modo has some major issues that drive me towards going back to Max.

TerminatorJQ

Anchang-Style said:

Also it's important to know that there are a couple of functions that are named the same but are working differently. Like Inset. In Max you can do group or single polygon insets (if i remember corretly). In Modo it only does single poly. To do Inset groups you have to apply bevel (without doing anything) and then Scale it in. Same with Extrude. Modo's extrude tool can't do extrude along normals (so extrude all faces of a tube into their normal directions) by itself. Instead you have to apply extrude without extruding and then using scale. Same with trying to extrude several items the same time. You have to work with the work planes (in Local) then. You could use smooth shift but that tends to change sizes (since it will add a fall off).

And yes modo has some major issues that drive me towards going back to Max.

Glad to see I'm not the only one who is annoyed by these things. As I've said on the Foundry forums, the current version of Modo seems overly complex for no apparent reason. Modo is powerful and it has potential but in its current form, its not giving me any reason to jump ship from Autodesk. Once upon a time, Modo was known for being the best software for modeling. The only benefit of using Modo now is the price. $1800 for a full license and $500 for upgrades is a far better deal than any of its competitors. Other than the price, I can't think of any advantage of switching from Max to Modo. In fact, workflow wise, it may be a downgrade. 

Of course, Modo 11 is right around the corner. Foundry may release something that puts everything else to shame.  I'm eagerly waiting to see what they come out with. With Autodesk raising prices, Foundry has a perfect chance to come in and sweep away Max and Maya users. 

Zack Maxwell

TerminatorJQ said:
Once upon a time, Modo was known for being the best software for modeling. The only benefit of using Modo now is the price. $1800 for a full license and $500 for upgrades is a far better deal than any of its competitors. Other than the price, I can't think of any advantage of switching from Max to Modo. In fact, workflow wise, it may be a downgrade. 

Modo is obscenely fast when you learn how to use the tools effectively.
The Bevel tool in particular is a work of art.

TerminatorJQ

Grimwolf said:

Modo is obscenely fast when you learn how to use the tools effectively.
The Bevel tool in particular is a work of art.

Depends on what your making. If your modeling a single object with a lot of detail built from multiple combined meshes, such as a detailed tank, fighter jet or mech, then the Modo workflow certainly has the potential to be faster (once you learn the program). However, for larger scenes with multiple separate objects such as when modeling for architecture or level design, Modo is certainly not as fast as Max, Maya or even C4D. Even die hard Modo fans on the Foundry forums have admitted that the Modo interface is far too "clicky". What takes 1-2 steps in Max or Maya, takes 3-4 steps in Modo. As as for the Bevel tool, head over to the Foundry forums. There's a thread right now about how the bevel tool has major issues that have continued to be ignored for many updates. 

I dont mean to bash Modo, every 3D app has its ups and downs. On the plus side, the mesh fusion tools in Modo are far above any other boolean tools from the competition. It also has a pretty good built in renderer that delivers good results pretty fast. 

Anchang-Style

I also hope they, at some point, start using Multi Threading. Trying to move a 20.000 Poly mesh basically makes my System take a break for seconds at a time.
Also, i love the snapping but it has it's issues. Like the crosshair not appearing in certain situations or it not wanting to snap to a spline.

nervouschimp

The bevel tool in Modo is far from a work of art. It has many issues, and is bested by blender, Maya, C4D, Houdini, etc.

Linko

Why do you leave 3ds max to stay with another proprietary software it's pointless. If you want to learn a new software it's best to switch to a free and open source software (Blender is  more advanced than Modo in many topics).

Zack Maxwell

nervouschimp said:

The bevel tool in Modo is far from a work of art. It has many issues, and is bested by blender, Maya, C4D, Houdini, etc.

Maybe if you're talking about literally just beveling, which I don't know I agree on anyway. It's amazing because it combines several tools into a single key press, and has a lot of extremely useful modifiers attached.
If you don't know what I'm talking about, I made a blog post on it back when I was still using Modo that I thought would be helpful. Would certainly help the OP if he's planning to start using it.

kadeschui

I've been using Modo for about a year and half now and trying to model in Max at work now feels antiquated and clunky. 

It will take you 6 weeks or so (at least it did for me) to get really comfortable with the program but once you do, you'll wish you'd always used it.

Spoon

TerminatorJQ said:

 for larger scenes with multiple separate objects such as when modeling for architecture or level design, Modo is certainly not as fast as Max, Maya or even C4D. Even die hard Modo fans on the Foundry forums have admitted that the Modo interface is far too "clicky". What takes 1-2 steps in Max or Maya, takes 3-4 steps in Modo.   

As an environment artist, this is exactly the part that worries me about switching.
But can you elaborate why MODO is worse in those cases?

Anchang-Style

Would be really interested in hearing about that too. 

Tzur_H

you can customise the crap out of Modo, customise tools hotkeys per component selection saves you so much time and headache (1 bevel hotkey for all components for example), and using macros saves lots of time too, and they are fucking easy to create so no excuse not using them (no need to write any scripts or anything complicated like that in some text editor).  I'm not a hotkey person myself, I use pie menus (maya marking menu look alike) and I have organised them into categories such as; cutting tools, mirroring and instancing, etc etc.  I rarely move the hand from the left side of the keyboard (ctrl,shift alt area)  and my mouse usually stays within the main viewport.

I'd say the biggest issue Modo has is the viewport, it's really a piece of crap compared to Maya / Max.
Another thing I don't quite like is the shader tree, for me, personally, it's too complicated.  I'm used to Maya's one and miss it... :[
Oh, and you really have to rely on some amazing scripts created by the smart peeps over at the forums to get the full experience

TerminatorJQ

Spoon said:

TerminatorJQ said:

 for larger scenes with multiple separate objects such as when modeling for architecture or level design, Modo is certainly not as fast as Max, Maya or even C4D. Even die hard Modo fans on the Foundry forums have admitted that the Modo interface is far too "clicky". What takes 1-2 steps in Max or Maya, takes 3-4 steps in Modo.   

As an environment artist, this is exactly the part that worries me about switching.
But can you elaborate why MODO is worse in those cases?

I guess it depends how big the environments are. The main issue is performance and stability. All 3D programs will slow down when you add a bunch of objects but Modo hits its limit much quicker than Max or Maya. Also, since Modo is layer based, the process of adding new objects takes more time in Modo than it does in Max (create a new mesh item, pick your primitive, draw the shape, choose your subdivision, drop the tool, center the pivot). The most annoying thing to me is that Modo is so dependent on 0,0,0. New empty mesh items start at 0,0,0 no matter where you place the first primitive within it. Also many tools in Modo (such as the mirror tool) generate their handles at 0,0,0. When working on a single object or small scene, this is no big deal. However, with a larger scene where your working away from the world center, this behavior can slow you down. 

This is not to say that Modo can't be used for level design and creating large scenes. I'm just saying that Max would be the better tool for that kind of work (just like Modo would be a better tool for modeling a 3D car model or mech). 

nervouschimp

@TerminatorJQ that is why Modo has the workplane. Also, in Modo, people tend use objects differently, often having many mesh shells within one layer. Because the section tools are so good, this is never an issue. I personally prefer the mesh layer based approach in Modo to the absolute polysurface91274 nightmare mess in Maya. The hierarchy in Maya needs constant babysitting. Keeping your scene perfectly organized in Modo is very easy. That's the one thing I miss in Maya.

WilliamVaughan

Be sure to take advantage of all the free MODO training here:
http://www.pixelfondue.com/training/

Other software is covered but the majority is  MODO content. Videos, source files, scripts etc.

Prophet

Don't know if anyone mention yet, but when you do a lot of customization (layouts, scripts, etc), when you are happy with it, just close and open Modo again so it saves that config. It crashes quite frequently even doing simple things and then you lose all your settings.

About the Layout, if you by mistake make some change in the Layout and you don't know how to get back, the best way is to go to the Task Manager, and stop Modo process. This way when you open it back it will have the previous Layout Configuration.

I was using 3ds Max back in 2010 and had to switch to Modo because of my workplace, but never regret it. For modeling itself, I like it much better than Max. For me, I think it's more "free" to use.

Gaurav Mathur

@Prophet, I tend to use File > Config Save (Alt + F12) every so often when I'm customizing Modo.  It lets me keep working.  Stability is becoming less of an issue with Modo, at least for me.

Have you tried Layout > Restore to get back to a saved state if something in your Layout changes and you want to revert?

Gaurav Mathur

Quick Tip:
I was previously going between the UVEdit layout and the Game Tools layout to prep my mesh and UV Sets for Unreal and Substance.   I *just* streamlined this by customizing the default UVEdit layout so that the tabs on the right of my viewports default to the Items List and the Vertex Maps list.  This way I can more easily work with UV Sets for the selected Mesh Item.  

1. In the Lists tab, right-click on the little arrow to the right and select the Data Lists > Vertex Map List.  
2. Right-click on the little arrow again and select Viewport Controls > Min Header
3. Layout > Save

I have no idea why I waited so long to do this!  I'm sure there are plenty of other such optimizations game artists can make to default Modo...

Prophet

gauravcm said:

@Prophet, I tend to use File > Config Save (Alt + F12) every so often when I'm customizing Modo.  It lets me keep working.  Stability is becoming less of an issue with Modo, at least for me.

Have you tried Layout > Restore to get back to a saved state if something in your Layout changes and you want to revert?

Yes. But never worked decently for me. But I'm still with 801, though...

Duard

Ive aslo been using Max for a while now, came from Maya and started trying out Modo since Ive heard its a modelling beast, but....

I dont like the destructive way it works, just like Maya (bring back the modifier stack )
Item groups (still trying to wrap my head around that)
Sometimes need to use 2 tools that does kinda the same where in Max you can use one tool?
No shift extrude

there is more but this is all I can think of just off my head but then it has its pros as well....
Nav - almost as Maya, Max has the worst nav config in my opinion
Baking/Rendering - The baker/renderer built in is pretty awesome and gives really nice results 
Paint Selection all the time - MAYOR PLUS!!!
Recording of macros , pie menus etc, really something id love to have in Max

I know there is a lot I have not mentioned, I am still learning and testing the waters with Modo, but this is what I can say off the bat

I dont see me using Modo for a gaming workflow anytime soon mostly because of the easy way it handles illegal geo and the destructive manner it works, that said I love using the chamfer workflow which works like a charm in Max with the modifier stack.

So with all this said, I see the potential of Modo, and it has some awesome modeling tools etc, its definitely something id love to learn more and play more with, I can see how this can maybe become my primary modeling software but at this point Im still leaning towards Max, maybe because I just know it better, but all of this is just my opinion. When I know it a lot more ill post more about my experience 

TerminatorJQ

Duard said:

Ive aslo been using Max for a while now, came from Maya and started trying out Modo since Ive heard its a modelling beast, but....

I dont like the destructive way it works, just like Maya (bring back the modifier stack )
Item groups (still trying to wrap my head around that)
Sometimes need to use 2 tools that does kinda the same where in Max you can use one tool?
No shift extrude

So with all this said, I see the potential of Modo, and it has some awesome modeling tools etc, its definitely something id love to learn more and play more with, I can see how this can maybe become my primary modeling software but at this point Im still leaning towards Max, maybe because I just know it better, but all of this is just my opinion. When I know it a lot more ill post more about my experience.

From a fellow Max/Maya -to-Modo migrant:

1. The destructive workflow is being addressed. Procedural tools and meshes are in the latest version of Modo. The sad thing is that all of the procedural stuff is hidden away in a separate menu. Hopefully, this will be fixed in the next version of Modo to speed up the procedural workflow. I'd suggest looking at the procedural tools videos on YouTube.

2. It took me a while to wrap my head around item layers too. In fact, I still find myself frustrated by it from time to time. Basically, an empty mesh item is just a container, sort of like an empty game object in Unity. This is one area that is very different from any 3D app I've used. I've found that the Modo way works well for some projects but it can be a little too clicky for other projects. 

3. I agree with your point about tools 100%! I don't understand why we need a separate tool for extrude, inset and thicken! This should all be one button. 

Modo has a lot of potential. Modo 11 is right around the corner, so hopefully some of your concerns will be fixed in the new version. 

Dataday

If Modo isn't quite hitting the sweet spot when coming from Max, it is worth checking out one of the other fallback options.
Blender. For former max users, this might be especially useful https://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?306867-BMax-Tools-or-how-I-left-3ds-Max-)

PolyHertz

Since this appears to have become a general 'ask questions about modo' topic, wanted to ask (since I haven't kept up with modo during the last 2-3 years and have also forgotten some things):

1. How are the UV packing features atp? Are they anywhere near as good as ipackthat?
2. Is there a way to move/scale/rotate geometry without using the gizmo/manipulator handles (like in Blender)?
3. Can you snap vertices to splines (like in Max or Maya)?

Also, what happened to the modcasts and their forums? Did they stop making modcasts? And their forums are so much worse to navigate now then the last time I was there

nervouschimp

1. No, and Maya 2017 is much better at packing UVs than Modo 10.
2. Like blender? Some tools can sort of be used without the gizmo, but no, blender is leagues ahead here.
3. Sorry, not a Max user.

Dataday

PolyHertz said:

Since this appears to have become a general 'ask questions about modo' topic, wanted to ask (since I haven't kept up with modo during the last 2-3 years and have also forgotten some things):

1. How are the UV packing features atp? Are they anywhere near as good as ipackthat?
2. Is there a way to move/scale/rotate geometry without using the gizmo/manipulator handles (like in Blender)?
3. Can you snap vertices to splines (like in Max or Maya)?

Also, what happened to the modcasts and their forums? Did they stop making modcasts? And their forums are so much worse to navigate now then the last time I was there

So the good and the bad:

1. I don't think Modo's packing features are bad at all. In fact you can get some pretty good results fairly quickly, however that said ipackthat uses some dark magic that is hard to compare to. I know farfarer wrote a script to send UVs back and forth from Modo to Ipackthat, however never tried it myself.
2. Sort of. You do not actually need to click the widget in Modo. For example if you toggle rotate via R then drag anywhere in the viewport, it will rotate based on where the pivot is. In other words your mouse/wacom pen does not need to be on the actual widget.  This rule applies to most tools as well. Bevel is a classic example. Even though the widget appears when you trigger bevel via B, just click dragging anywhere in the viewport will still give input to input or bevel based on the direction.
3. Yep, if you have edge snapping on, verts can be snapped and dragged along splines.

Modcasts... they died. Brad Peebler quit. Not a good sign tbh. Foundry's corporate like behavior didnt seem to be in a rush to make up for the loss in community building podcasts. That said, he does have some pod/modcasts via an independent venture known as Pixel Fondue. http://www.pixelfondue.com/

The forums seem to be some kind of rebranding attempt. The changes are not too popular so far.

Gazu

Hey so i also plan to switch to modo. The reason are the prices for Autodesk products. Its not really affordable ;(
I love Max and im thankful for free Student Versions. But 200 Bugs for a Month? Come on Autodesk...This is a price for a 3 Months Subscription in my eyes. Compared to Modo its round about 4 times more expensive.

Anyways, there are still things im searching in Modo, here are important things i need for my workflow:

1. Axis Constraint to align Vertices, often used with 2 Axis at the same time:


2. I cant connect vertices clean and straight. Because with the "C" Tool i have to do it manually in Modo, click per click... It also doesnt work when there are Edgeloops "between" those vertices. Is there a way to do it like in max? Its like, click to one edge, then to the next one and so on...I can´t cross cut it.


3. Select By Angle for UVs and while modeling:


4. For Example: Aligning a LowPoly to a HighPoly:


5. Planar out a uneven bunch of faces:


6. Cap Polys. Is there a Border Selection in Modo or must i use the "Edge" Mode and double click the holes?


7. Loop and Ring Selection for Edges:


8. Attach multiple objects into one:


9. Is there some kind of Loop Regularizer for Modo?


10. Just correct the Normal Direction:


11. The Way MAX rotates around my object:

The Way Modo rotates around my object: (Can i change that?)


So these are the things which i need to learn in Modo. I already watched a few Video Tutorials for noobs. But the things showing in the GIFs are still not familiar to me. Can somebody help or recommend a good Video Tutorial for this kind of stuff?

@WarrenM
Maybe you can create a cool Video on your YouTube Channel covering this stuff, because i already watched some Modo Videos from you ^^

Thanks,
Gazu

Farfarer

1. Turn on snapping and do pretty much the same thing (grab the axis handle and mouse over the vertex you want to snap to).

2. Enable "Multi Slice" in the edge slice tool's properties.

3. There's currently no select by angle built in

4. Drag the item you want to align to the item you want to align it to (either in the viewport or the item list) and wait for a second for the popup to appear, then choose "Match". You can also set the default drop action from the option at the top of the Setup layout (so you don't need to wait for the popup to appear). On the popup, you should also see the keyboard shortcuts for the various actions, so you can hold those before dragging and that's the action that will be performed when you drop, also meaning you don't need to wait for the popup to appear.

5. In the "Deform" tab in the modeling tools, select "Linear" under the "Align Tools" section.

6. Hold shift and click on the edge button at the top. That'll add border edges to your selection. Hit "P" to fill them.

7. Ring selection: Alt+L, Loop selection: double click on an edge.

8. Select the meshes you want to merge, right click on one of them in the item list and select "Merge Meshes". Alternatively, just cut and paste.

9. In the "Deform" tab in the modeling tools, select "Radial" under the "Align Tools" section.

10. "F" is flip polygon.

11. You can disable this per-viewport in the viewport options (hit "O" while hovering over the viewport), labelled Trackball Rotation. Alternatively, you can set the default option (or set the default to override the per-viewport option, if desired) to disable it from the preferences (Preferences > Display > OpenGL > Viewport Rotation).

Gazu

@Farfarer
Thank you very much. You are developer and working @ The Foundry on Modo , or?
Point 3 = Next Update

Thanks so much for your instructions. I will see if i can bring your instructions into my modo learning curve.

Gazu

Oh and i forgot something for Point 1:
Can i have Axis Constraint enabled while Edge Constraint Enabled is enabled?

Farfarer

Yeah, I work at Foundry, although not directly on MODO.

Gazu

Thanks @FarFarer , the most things you told me work super fine, it feels much more comfortable now
Still dont know how to use Edge Constraint, to not deform the shape while moving the edges per vertex snap down. Action Center -> Element and then select the Edge as selection dont work, because then only one side of this towers follows the Shape correctly, the rest still deforms.

"Slide" works, but not with multiple edges selected and with "snapping" turned on.

Farfarer

Ah, the edge slide can be a little tricky... I think the direction that it travels in is related to the order you select the edges in. In this case, it looks like two of the edge loops have been selected in one direction and the third has been selected in the opposite (i.e. clockwise or anti-clockwise around the geometry).

Gazu

Slide doenst work with Snapping. Even when i select only one of the Towers, and when i want to snap-slide-move only one edge loop, it doesnt snap on the right height

Super Important thing here

musashidan

@perna on the other hand these threads also lead to people like farfarer easing people's transition frustration by explaining similar tools that may function differently. Of course outright whinging about a new software after 10-odd years in another is ignorance but if it results in learning then we all should be happy.

Gazu

Ok i asked Connor McCampbell for help.
Its not 100% that what i was looking for, but its a workaround and i must thank you Connor for your help.

Ok so for example we want the same support loops hardness for left and right. It fails because the right side deforms: (In this Case Slide would work fine, but eyeballed, without snapping)


Instead we cut on the same height a new Support Loop:


Will see if this works on more complicated meshes in the future.

Thanks People!

Gazu

Hey Per!
Thanks for your answer. (still waiting for your E-Mail answer, haha, joke )

Im pretty new to modo, so i really dont understand what you exactly mean. Do you mean something like Symetry or Mirror?

Well, actually i made some pretty bad examples for the edge constraint. And at the moment i have no ideas how to show you guys some good examples. In the past i used it so often, funny that i can´t bring a good example for edge constraint at the moment. It comes while modeling, so i will be back with a better example very soon!

Thanks Guys!

Gazu

Ok not the best example for a need of edge constraint but something similar happens to me very often in typical modeling situations:

Let say we want to soften the edgeloop at the bottom, without to loose the shape on the left side:

Yeah, with manually work its easily possible, but that should not be the point of this

Bek

Slide tool works perfectly in that example. Though you'd (probably) want to get rid of the edge that intercepts the loop in the middle.

Usually for adding edge loops I'll be using square bevel, slice, edge slide, poly bevel, edge slice... Also if you can, try and work to the grid, it makes life easier when you don't have to worry about snapping to other geo. Also — if you work with logical (easy to remember and in line with the grid) increments for your edge widths (say, tight loop = 5mm gap, softer = 7.5mm) then you can use the slide tool anywhere, and just type in 5mm, and bam, it's perfectly equal to your other loops, and you haven't gone off grid. Plus if you run into a situation where it's going to be quicker to use edge/poly bevel to create the loops, you can type the values in there and have it stay consistent. Slide tool also lets you have extra segments for easy double/triple loops in one move.

If you're working on stuff that's duplicated I'd either do the duplication last, or duplicate with instances, or duplicate with a procedural verson of the tool, so you don't run into issues with loop slides going the wrong way on duplicates. Don't underestimate the ability of going to side views just to cut a new loop in. Speaking of, something that can throw new users off is that by default Modo treats wireframe and shaded viewports differently when it comes to selections. In shaded view, you need to use MMB lasso to select through. In wireframe, the regular right-click lasso does select through, while MMB does not. You can disable this behaviour in System > Preferences > Input > Selection > check "Ignore Shading Style". I think the idea is that right-click lasso selects what you can see, so in wireframe you're not blocked by any polygons so everything technically 'visible' is selected. Have a poke around in settings too, you might find some other defaults you want to change, like the copy+paste settings in Defaults > Mesh Items.

Gazu

Thanks Bek for your long answer.
Yeah its all a bit confusing right now, but thats part of learning new software. Thank you for your explanations. I really

appreciate any help of you guys!

The "Overall Selection" is also a bit funny ^^ but im sure i will get into it!

Bek

you can enable partial polygon selection in the settings too (Input > Selection) if you prefer it that way

Gazu

Thanks Bek. That works.

Well, today i started just for fun a little modeling exercise, just to see if i "can" do it in Modo. Modeling goes well but as always, new hurdles have to be mastered, like for example the subdivion preview on "Tab" :
Modo:

Max :

Under "Surface" -> "Subdivision" i set the options to 24 Subdivisions, but it still looks like "1 or 2 TurboSmooth Iterations"
The other thing was that i had to find out how to make the mesh Transparent to see the MP5 Handgrip Reference.
I googled a lot, and at the moment there is no integrated X-Ray View for Meshes, or?
So i made a workaround by setting the "Transparent Amount" under Material Trans to a high value.

Thanks Folks,
Gazu

Bek

tab = regular subdivision, shift+tab = psub (better smoothing). Shift+d to apply a subdivision. Each type has it's own options in Surface > Subdiv for levels, so make sure you're using the right one (you should see the GL count increase). By default I think + and - on numpad alter the regular subdiv level.

For xray there is Overlay Drawing (O -> Drawing and Control) but I just use wireframe for that stuff.

Gazu

Thanks dat worked fine

I checked Overlay Drawing but nothing happened. I googled it and the people say that this option is for Non-Geo Things.
Whats your Workflow for this?

Something else is this little Plane, inside my Reference Plane. When i grab for example the X Axis and move it, the Picture of the MP5 moves. It was created while i dragged and dropped the Picture of the mp5 to the Plane. It disturbs a bit and i dunno how to remove it, without to remove the ref picture itself.

But its my second day in modo. I think that in about 2 or 3 weeks everything will be fine.
So sorry for asking a lot

Edit: Ok this Plane dissapears when i hide the TextureGroup.