More Max questions
polycounter lvl 18
I don't know if there's something I've done wrong, but the cut and insert vertex tools won't work properly.
I'm having extreme difficulty getting verts to go where I want. I've had it happen where I'll click on the middle of the edge, inserting verts in edge mode, and the vert will snap to the neareast random vert making up that edge.
I have no snap options turned on.
The same thing is happening with the cut tool where, if I'm vert mode, the vertex will not follow where my cursor is on the screen. Does that make sense? I can move my cursor around, but the vertex I'm about to place won't follow it.
Inserting verts in face mode is a huge problem, too. I'm having the same problem in edge mode where the vert won't insert in the exact location I want.
I'm working on an instanced half of the model... it's worked fine before, so I'm not sure why it's broken all of a sudden.
I'm having extreme difficulty getting verts to go where I want. I've had it happen where I'll click on the middle of the edge, inserting verts in edge mode, and the vert will snap to the neareast random vert making up that edge.
I have no snap options turned on.
The same thing is happening with the cut tool where, if I'm vert mode, the vertex will not follow where my cursor is on the screen. Does that make sense? I can move my cursor around, but the vertex I'm about to place won't follow it.
Inserting verts in face mode is a huge problem, too. I'm having the same problem in edge mode where the vert won't insert in the exact location I want.
I'm working on an instanced half of the model... it's worked fine before, so I'm not sure why it's broken all of a sudden.
Replies
First off, I'd try a Reset XForm on the original object, then Instance Mirror it again, see if that has any effect - it might be something to do with scaling?
If that doesn't work, try just rotating the view around and Cutting from a different angle...
Inserting a vertex in Face mode has never been a problem for me - always worked perfectly. I don't recall it ever being a problem in edge mode either.
Then again, I don't tend to use Insert Vertex a whole lot, and only Cut now and then.
Maybe someone else will know more on this subject... it may be just a random thing, although I believe it's tied into object scale and viewport orientation somehow.
Is there an alternative to inserting a vert along an edge?
Say... I want to place a vert dead center on an edge. How would I go about on doing that?
Sure I can snap, but there has to be a one-click-auto-divide type thing that I'm overlooking.
Another question...
There verts along the center of my geo that I can't seem to weld. And I can't really figure out why because the other verts welded fine. I even set the tolerance to some obsene number and they still won't weld.
I unified all the normals... so that can't be it. I can't really figure out any other reason why they won't weld.
And my max just crashed.
I think there's something fucked in my file... damnit.
My recovered file is broken. Verts have just been randomly placed all over the scene.
I'm seriously ready to pick my chair and throw it at my machine.
About the corruption issues . Regardless of how powerful your machine is Max sucks up your computers memory and once the memory starts getting low max freaks the fuck out . It was probebly auto saving the file and that file was probebly already corrupt . I truly think that might be a problem to address with more senior max artists on site . Maybe your wigging it out somehow ?
Whoooo! Working in games is FUHN
Anyways... I fixed the problem. I managed to export my geo as a .3ds (which I'm hoping cleaned out the file of any hidden evil), then imported that into a fresh scene. Reset XForm and Unified the normals again. Turns out there were faces connected to the verts I couldn't weld that were facing the wrong way. Which is bizarre because I ran a Normals modifier on the stack to unify my normals.
*shrug*
Is there a way to clean out my materials? There's a lot of excess shaders that were somehow imported from the .3ds file that I don't want. I can't find any option to let me "reset" the shader list.
http://www.sloft.com/2004/12/02/material-editor-v10-utilities-released/
pretty good tools for the material editor..
Is there somekind of backface selection option that's turned on by default in Max?
I have no problems selecting the verts I want, but I'm having extreme difficulty selecting the edge/faces I want. 85% of the time Max will select the edge/face on the other side of my object. As you can imagine, this is really frustrating when you're making multiple selections.
The Max8 demo has been able to load the file almost fine, and I exported to 3DS to recover the geometry. Good thing I was still in the 30days thing.
So the good point might be : R8 is more stable than R7, yeah!
As for material editor cleanup you can also try out the Blur plugin pack. Tons of useless dev plugins in that, but also some every-day-use ones like Clean Material Editor and Kill Animation. I think the 3 Point Light readymade script is also in that.
For vert insert, I use the tools from the CSPolytools+Meshtools combo pack. I have the 1,2,3 numpad keys set to inert 1,2 or 3 verts on edge, and the "." key for connect selected verts.
You might want to try out the Slide tool from that pack as it allows you to slide a whole set of edges (from the same loop) towards or away from the next loop.
Also, someone posted a ConnectRounded script here recently. Say you have an edgering you want to connect across, the script will find out the needed curvature for the newly created edges.
Hope that helps!
SouL: Very weird errors you're getting there, I've never experienced anything of the sort. In the event of a "whatever_recover.max" file that it saves on crash not working, you should still have the Autoback files to work from. And you should probably be saving to numbered incremental scenes anyway (something I do in Max, Maya, Photoshop, whatever - it's good practise).
Pior makes a good suggestion of getting the CSPolytools/Meshtools pack - they have some very handy tools in there which are most likely just what you're looking for.
or it might simply be a matter of habit. because for me it's exactly the other way around - selecting components in maya inevitably leads to spontaneous outbursts of anger and i start to pull out my beard...
on a side note: i've never worked at a place where a modeller/texture artist (that's your job, right?) was forced to use a certain package. all that mattered was that the assets were delivered in the right format - the companies never had a problem with people using their preferred tool.
if i was you, i'd try to get maya onto the machine. in the end, assuming you're more productive with that one, the people in charge needed a pretty big stick in their rectum to deny that, no?
Is there an alternative to inserting a vert along an edge?
Say... I want to place a vert dead center on an edge. How would I go about on doing that?
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Try this workflow and see if it helps...
- Instead of inserting verts on edges, select two or more edges and use the "Connect" button in edge mode. This will place a new edge with it's end verts right in the middle of the selected edges, which is what you want right?
- If you don't want them right in the middle, change the dropdown list next to "Constraints" and select "Edge". Switch to vert mode and move the verts up and down the edges wherever you want without changing the basic topology. You can also select "Face" and move the verts around the surface of a face, but I tend to use edge constraining more. Assign a hotkey to "Edge Constraint Toggle..." and you're all set.
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Another question...
There verts along the center of my geo that I can't seem to weld. And I can't really figure out why because the other verts welded fine.
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Just so you know, when working on an editable poly object, you can't just weld any verts together that you want. What's going on is that it's forcing you to keep your mesh "clean" in terms of how the polys can be joined. It's both good and bad. Good, because you don't end up with a sloppy mesh with things like coplanar faces, but bad because it can be frustrating when it's not doing what you want it to do. But you can always keep certain verts unwelded and then, when you know you're done, convert to editable mesh, select all the verts, and weld selected with a really low threshold setting.
Pior makes a good suggestion of getting the CSPolytools/Meshtools pack - they have some very handy tools in there which are most likely just what you're looking for.
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Do these tools work with Max 8?
Just so you know, when working on an editable poly object, you can't just weld any verts together that you want. What's going on is that it's forcing you to keep your mesh "clean" in terms of how the polys can be joined. It's both good and bad. Good, because you don't end up with a sloppy mesh with things like coplanar faces, but bad because it can be frustrating when it's not doing what you want it to do. But you can always keep certain verts unwelded and then, when you know you're done, convert to editable mesh, select all the verts, and weld selected with a really low threshold setting.
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I've noticed this too, but I think you can get around it by connecting the 2 verts you want to weld, and then welding them. I have connect set to A and collapse set to V, so it's really not that annoying / time consuming once you get used to it, just a quick couple hotkey presses.
If it was just a centre seam bit that wasn't welding, then there's geometry in the way, ie. not an open edge. You shouldn't need to export to 3ds or anything, just check, chances are there's some stray geometry you accidentally created/missed earlier.