edit mesh in max vs highpoly

hawken

I've been using this mode in max, pretty much as my only way of editing things, for longer than I can remember.

However now that I'm embarking on high poly editing, I find this mode amazingly limiting. For example I just want to evenly space a bunch of verts, however there seems to be no tool in max to do this. Are there any extended tools or scripts out there to expand the "edit mesh" tool set?

I've been playing around with Edit poly recently, but found it frustrating as all the shortcuts in max are re-mapped in this mode.

MoP

You do know that you can edit hotkeys, right?

If you're still using Edit Mesh for modelling work, I'm afraid you're stuck about 2 years in the past.

Learn Edit Poly, re-map your keyboard shortcuts to be closer to what you're used to, and leave Edit Mesh in the ditch. It's only useful for making geometry that's "illegal" in EPoly (like welding external verts onto closed geometry).

Bronco

hey Hawken

by posting this your just gonna start the standard,"Bitch Edit mesh mode" taht we all have seen so many times.

ive recently made the conversion myself and am learning the shortcuts to max gnerally a swell as this modelling mode.

If your worried about the short cuts what I would do is go through each short cut from edit mesh and switch it to the edit poly equivilent and gradurally you will get used to using the exstending tools edit poly has to offer.

john

MoP

Bronco, heh, it's not so much bitching about Edit Mesh as it is the surprise that people are still using it.
It'd be like giving someone a garage with 2 cars parked next to each other, a rusty 10-year-old Lada, and a shiny new Aston Martin. Which one would you choose?

FatAssasin

For some useful modeling scripts, go to scriptspot.com and look at the Fastest Movers list. Both Orionflame and Meshtools are very handy.

And yes, EDIT POLY all the way.

rooster

not ALL the way for me.. turn edge is better than edit triangulation imho

Ruz

I am nurbs man( I donl't mean i was built from nurbs surfaces)

I 'really' used edit poly, but I too hate the shortcut thing.
I hate that that you can't hide/unhide edges also

MoP

Ruz: Like I say, it's very easy and efficient to change keyboard shortcuts, quad menus and toolbars. Just look in the Customize User Interface menu.


Selecting an edge and pressing "Backspace" is essentially the same as hiding an edge. The edge is still there, you just can't see it.

All non-visible EPoly edges will show up as a dashed line if you go into EPoly's "Edit Tri." or "Turn" mode in the Edit Edges rollout.

You can recreate the "physical" edge by selecting 2 verts and hitting the Connect button (or CTRL-C, with my hotkeys). That's actually faster than the EMesh method of hiding/showing edges.


It seems most of the anti-EPoly sentiment comes from people refusing to make what little effort it actually takes to learn the new tools.

hawken

ok I'm gonna look into edit poly... heh!

MOP: I have my own shortcuts that I love and cherish, just in Edit Poly, they get automatically replaced by edit poly functions. So I press the key I use for Arc Rotate and everything gets re-triangluated. Like Max is having some type of bizzare argument with it's self. Vanilla shortcuts suck.

MoP

Why do you have a shortcut for Arc Rotate?

Viewport controls:

Middle mouse drag = Pan viewport
Middle mouse scroll = Zoom incremental (Hold down CTRL and scroll for larger increments, ALT and scroll for smaller increments)
ALT + Middle mouse drag = Rotate viewport
CTRL + ALT + Middle mouse drag = Zoom smoothly

I don't see why you'd need to set up any other keyboard shortcuts when those are the defaults. Unless I guess you keep your left hand on the Numpad side of the keyboard instead of the Esc side?

Bronco

"a rusty 10-year-old Lada, and a shiny new Aston Martin"

Id take the Lada,wouldn't feel to bad if I crashed it....my shares this opinion and he still drives a Nissan Sunny taht he got 7 years ago....it was seen as a wreck then....god knows how he gets it through the MOT.

John

Ruz

I do actually use edit poly , but I have a habit of converting to back to a mesh to check out the edge turning stuff. Old habits die hard.( I inow you can do this with edit poly too)

i do like some of the new tools in edit poly, ie hinge from edge and the selection tools are cool, along with 'connect' , which is a life saver

MoP

Let the old habits die, then! Every time you convert to Editable Mesh to turn edges, you're wasting time! The "Turn" tool in EPoly does exactly the same thing as the "Turn" tool in EMesh...

bearkub

uh oh, MoP is dropping the E-poly FAWKING FURY so ya'll better watch out! XD

MoP

YOU'VE UNLEASHED THE FOCKIN' FURY

Keg

is it wrong to be laughing so hard at this thread?

what is this edit poly and edit mesh you speak of?

MoP

Well, Edit Mesh is an old, outdated 3dsmax modelling system.

Maya's modelling tools are a little better than Edit Mesh.

Edit Poly is the newer, much more powerful modelling system for 3dsmax.

Maya's modelling tools are not as good as Edit Poly.

I speak from experience.

I do not know how they compare to XSI or Lightwave's modelling tools. If you've ever used Silo, that's fairly analogous to Edit Poly modelling. Modo seems to have a couple of nicer little modelling tools for poly-modelling, but mostly the same.

FatAssasin

[ QUOTE ]
not ALL the way for me.. turn edge is better than edit triangulation imho

[/ QUOTE ]

In Max 7 there's a "Turn" button that acts just like EMesh's turn edges tool. That and the addition of selections "By Angle" made me dump EMesh completely. I used to convert back and forth too, but no more.

Come on, you want to be cool don't you?

hawken

[ QUOTE ]
Why do you have a shortcut for Arc Rotate?

Viewport controls:

Middle mouse drag = Pan viewport
Middle mouse scroll = Zoom incremental (Hold down CTRL and scroll for larger increments, ALT and scroll for smaller increments)
ALT + Middle mouse drag = Rotate viewport
CTRL + ALT + Middle mouse drag = Zoom smoothly

I don't see why you'd need to set up any other keyboard shortcuts when those are the defaults. Unless I guess you keep your left hand on the Numpad side of the keyboard instead of the Esc side?

[/ QUOTE ]

MOP: ever heard of a "wacom" tablet? they sorta, don't have middle mouse or scroll wheels. The mapping I use in Max I got used to about 4 years back, and yes, I use the numeric keypad for all sorts of things

MoP

Well, the Wacom has enough buttons and customisability to have the middle-mouse button represented as any of the Wacom clicks.
Do you play Quake? If you use WSAD for controlling player movement, you'd probably be quite comfortable moving your left hand over to the left of the keyboard, there's a lot more options open to you over there. More key combinations, plus the (hard-coded) viewport controls.
If not ... well.. hey, best get used to being a bit slower... I guess it doesn't make that much difference in the end.

hawken

I'm gonna have to give it a shot either way, time to start remapping my keyboard.

(my laptop didn't come with a mouse My wacom pen doesn't support application only configuration, currently it's set to click for left, rmb on button two and double click on button three. I never use the eraser)

MoP

Ah, fair enough. Sorry if I've seemed a little harsh in here, it's been a long day

Rick Stirling

I always set my wacoms third button to middel mouse. Does anyone use it as double click? I know, lets not use it as something different, lets use it as the same button but TEH FASTAR!!11

And Emesh needs to be destroyed, like an old sheepdog who is blind and has lost a leg.

hawken

Rick, do you have windows set to single click in explorer? I've got that going on and it's pretty damn nice with the wacom (although takes some time to get used to)... if on mac is there the same thing?

I'm too used to double click on 3rd, I guess I use it a lot. Double tapping on my slidy "cling film glass slippery surface" Graphire "saphire" series A6 is a pain.

Still, gonna get me an A4 Intuos 3, with softpen and airbrush next week!!!! WOOPWOOP!! Only £200 here in the land of hello kitty mecha robots.

[edit]
why the hell did they leave EMesh in?[/edit]

pior

[edit]
why the hell did they leave EMesh in?[/edit]

I guess that's because of many scripts/plugins working only with Emesh... Just a guess.

I still use Emesh for... triangle counts. I know Martinez released that macropolycounter script but for some reason one day I used it wrong (or had it uninistalled after an upgrade or something) and gave wrong stats on a model, quads instead of tris, blabla. Since then I go the oldschool route

MoP

Pior: The "Polygon Counter" utility can count either tris or quads, although admittedly that does mean you have to go and open a little window with it in... I wonder if you could link that to a hotkey, like Shift+P to bring up the correct polygon count...

Rhinokey

i've been a big fan of epoly since max 5, and never use Emesh anymore, but it seems i find people (one here, and one at liquid) who still use emesh, and in both cases its not so much they think its better, as it is they just don't felel like taking a week or so and learning to incorporate all the asweome epoly tools in their work flow, if autodesk would just scrap emes (which they never will) i bet a whole slew of modelers would switch to epoly and bee so much happier with the program

Ruz

I gonna use epoly but will be thinking of emesh