Re-aligning objects

Reverenddevil

I was wonderign what is the best way of getting an object back to its original position in XYZ space?

Example- I moved around a cylinder and rotated it etc... I am now trying to texture it and need it to be vertical so I can use a cylindrical unwrap on it. What is the best way of getting an objects orientation back to 0 0 0. I tried zeroing them out but they were still skewed..
I also tried to align the cylinder to a new one that is aligned properly using the local orientation checkboxes in the align tool itself.

I also tried aligning it to a normal cylinder but didnt work.. Any other suggestions would be appreciated.. Thanks...

killingpeople

what modeling package are you using?

have you centered the axis point to the geometry?

Reverenddevil

This is for max 2009. I did center the axis point...

killingpeople

did you reset the x-form? can we get a screen with bounding box, grid, wires and axis? include the x y z transofrm numbers at the bottom, under the animation bar (highlit the geo and have the move tool selected)

Reverenddevil

Here it is...Yes, x form was used.

killingpeople

oh, i follow...

i would have to eyeball a rotation and reset the x-form.
this doesn't help, but i try not to model anything at an angle if i can help it. if i have to, i'll make an instance and work on the "vertical" one.

i would be interested to hear if there was a quick way or align script to do this. sorry i can't help.

sprunghunt

you can use the normal align tool (tools>normal align) to align one of the faces to a vertical or horizontal face on another object.
In this case you could align the bottom of the cylinder to the top face of a box and you'd have your rotation back the way it was when you made it.

Reverenddevil

I didnt model it at an angle. I just moved it for a render not thinking and didnt save an instance of the original in a vertical position..

How do you align a face to another face in max? I have never done that before.. Thanks..

sprunghunt

Reverenddevil wrote: »

How do you align a face to another face in max? I have never done that before.. Thanks..

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?siteID=123112&id=2380907&linkID=9242896

normal align tool is half way down the page

Reverenddevil

Ok, that method appears to have worked.. Thanks man, I appreciate it...

renderhjs

a few days ago I wrote this maxscript to do this for selected objects, which was setting the poistion and rotation of the object to {0,0,0}
you can try it out if you open the Maxscript listener (F11) create a new maxscript window (ctrl+n) paste this code and hit evaluate (ctrl+e)

in coordsys parent $.pos = [0,0,0];
in coordsys parent $.rotation = (quat 0 0 0 1);
completeRedraw();

other options are the transfrom type in Box (F12) or as mentioned the align tools if you have another object to snap to.

killingpeople

oh yeah... duh!