Max cut tool quirk

scourgewarper

Occasionally when i'm doing cuts in 3ds max, it will only let me cut from one vertex to another and not vice versa. It seems to be very picky regarding which vertex I initiate the cut from.

Is there any reason for this or is it just a bug in max? Does it happen in other modeling programs?

Ruz

if you are cutting from vertex to vertex, use the connect tool instead

Mark Dygert

You might be working on a small scale. It will probably have an easier time cutting if you scale your objects up. If that isn't an option you can change the radius Snap Preview Radius, or Snap Radius. Get to that menu, right click any of the snap tools, like 3D snap, Angle Snap bla bla bla

Basically you're working on a sub pixel level and it's having to guess.

You can also toggle on 3D snap, and turn on Mid Point, if you want to cut to a mid point.

In general, cut makes a mess of your UV's and its cleaner to use connect.

breakneck

Vig: is that a general rule with other programs (maya)?

Rob Galanakis

Vig wrote: »

Basically you're working on a sub pixel level and it's having to guess.

The scale of your scene has nothing to do with pixels, which only come into account with rasterization.

Max's problem is much worse because it deals with scale in a very bad way, especially very small scales. Floating point numbers are only accurate to 6 digits, I think, so at very large or small scales there are inaccuracies- but like everything in Max, if it were programmed with the future in mind, there are many workarounds (including using doubles, and scaling better with internal units). The cut tool's erratic behaviour, I think is just some bug with it (fixed in 2k8 and newer)- but many things in Max have problems at scales which is a more nefarious problem.

pior

Hi Scourge,

The cut tool in max is one of the most powerful tools I know of. Unfortunately it has one drwback - it is very picky if used ... in perspective. If you switch to a ortho view or user 'flat' perspective, it should work.

Connecting verts to verts can be a clean solution for simple shapes, but it is extremely slow compared to freeform cuts.

Breakneck : my cut experience is limited to Maya, Silo and Max (was running some tests just yesterday). Both Silo and Maya are okay if you go from vert to vert or edge to edge. However Silo messes up the Uvs extremely fast, and Maya gets confused as soon as you try to hit somewhere in the middle of a face. It will show you the correct 'path preview, but once you reach the end of your cut and hit enter most of it will disappear. Basically :

Silo, okay if no need to preserve UV info. Mostly edge to edge cuts.
Maya, very picky even if preview seems fine. Seems confused if the resulting cut is more than quad sided. (needs simple cut 'anchors')
Max, works freeform but better in user mode. (in perspective verts are sometimes impossible to hit). Respects UV info.

As a general rule, if you are cutting from vert to vert and the path is clear inbetween, connect will do a great job and you will be sure you don't get double vertices. Ideally there should be a kb shortcut for that (I use the "." key for all connects, both connect verts or connect edges by the middle). But for freeform cuts... solutions are limited and frustrating, if performed with other apps than Max.

scourgewarper

Hi Pior, I tend to use perspective for nearly all my cuts so maybe thats the problem. To be fair i'd say max doesn't allow my cuts only 10% of the time (I use max 2009) and I mix it with using connect depending on the complexity so I guess I can live with that.

I didn't know max had problems with scaling, is this relative to the units your using? The display unit scale and system unit scale have many orders of magnitude so would you only get scaling problems if you say had display units set in km but you were trying to make cuts at the scale of millimeters?

Sage

hmm the default max cut tool is garbage when you compare it to other programs like say Maya, Silo or XSI. Autodesk claims to have fixed it finally, but I haven't used Max 2009 much to say. There are plugins that let you cut much better, like polyboost for example.

try these tools http://www.illusioncatalyst.com/ they are really good.

breakneck

good to know information. yea, i was hoping there was some awesome work around for freeform cuts in maya - its soooo annoying building a cut - hitting enter - and watching that cut simply disapear. .

Rob Galanakis

breakneck wrote: »

good to know information. yea, i was hoping there was some awesome work around for freeform cuts in maya - its soooo annoying building a cut - hitting enter - and watching that cut simply disapear. .

Anchoring the first and last point to an existing edge, I don't think I've EVER had a cut disappear in Maya. That said, sometimes you forget and sometimes you miss the edge...

breakneck

Rob: thats what i've been doing wrong this whole time?? pfffffttt. . .awesome. i feel stupid.

butt_sahib

Hey guys i have a question.
Why would free-form cutting with the uv's preserved screw up the uv's?

JohnnyRaptor

also, using the cut tool in user view mode instead of perspective works a lot better.

scourgewarper

Those Illusion catalyst tools look awesome, and for free too! I'm a polyboost man myself but i'm checking these out.