3dsmax question: Rotate mesh around a point

glib

So I still haven't figured out how to do this in max, and I'm tired of working around it:

How do I rotate my object (or possibly just a subobject selection, I need that also sometimes) around one vertex instead of the object's pivot? In maya I would just quickly snap the pivot to whatever vertex I needed, make my rotation, and hit my center pivot keyboard shortcut when I was done.

I read something somewhere recently that makes me think this is possible, and it involves locking my selection?

I know max has given me the behavior I want every once in a while, but I can't ever repeat it afterward, or figure out what I did to make it work.

cw

look into 'working pivot' in max (last 2 versions i think)

Bal

Yeah they added the working pivot in Max 2008, it's a poor man's Maya pivot, it's highly recommended to add a shortcut to Working Pivot and Edit Working Pivot, to be able to move it around quickly (still not as quick as Maya though, it's one of the things I miss most from Maya...).

glib

Sorry, I forgot to mention that working pivot makes me want to kill kittens.

I know that there's a way to do this without involving the working pivot. I've heard it mentioned recently (and forgot to bookmark the page, doh!) and I've seen max do it for me a couple of times. I just can't figure out what I did differently those times that made it happen.

Somebody must know this?

MoP

You have to edit the pivot point. Whether you do this by using the Working Pivot stuff, or by just going into "Affect Pivot Only" mode to move the pivot point (permanently), doesn't matter. It just has to be one of them.

SyncViewS

Hi glib,
what you're looking for is explained in the Max Reference under "Transforming About Snapped Points". Basically you have to:

- Set "Use Transform Coordinate Center"
- Activate Object Snap, and be sure mesh Vertex is checked
- Select the Object or Sub-Objects to rotate
- Lock the selection with spacebar (or it will be deselected when clicking away)
- Go with the mouse over the vertex rotation center (the snap cross will be visible)
- Perform the rotation

glib

SyncViewS wrote: »

- Set "Use Transform Coordinate Center"

That was the one bit missing!

Thank you thank you thank you.

Yozora

different way to snap pivot to vertex;

(Slighty edited version of this;
http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/affect-pivot-and-center-pivot)

(
Try
(
max snap toggle
pt = pickpoint prompt:"Click to desired location." snap:#3d
$.pivot = pt
)
catch()
max snap toggle
)

added the max snap toggle at front and end so you dont have to toggle it yourself - only problem is if snaps is already on then it turns off when you use the script... is there a way to tell max to "enable snaps" instead of it being a toggle? That way it will always work properly...


Or this one;
http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/pivot-to-vert

Same thing but backwards, select vertex first and then use script.



And on the topic of pivot positioning, theres also this; http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/pivot-by-2-vertex which lets you put the pivot in between 2 selected vertices.


Also got a question; does anyone else experience really messed up positioning when they try to snap a pivot by using the "affect pivot only" tool? Assuming the pivot is not already on a vertex, then its impossible to snap it onto one without some script.

Mark Dygert

Make sure "Use Axis Center As Start Snap Point" is checked on in the Grid and Snap Settings dialog. For some reason they set the default to off.

If I didn't know any better I'd think it was a plot to make people abandon 3dsmax. Since it makes snaps largely useless with it off.

Yozora

Now that is silly thanks vig

I've been using snaps with that off since forever... I wouldnt call it useless though because I found it did work for what I wanted it to do, snapping objects next to eachother.

Mark Dygert

In that case you could probably do Shift-A to activate quick align. It will snap the selected object to the next object you click on, based off the pivot points.

If you have Keyboard Shortcut Override on and you're in sub object mode of edit poly Shift-A will activate "attach" instead.

Yozora

Hmmm I'm confused. I dont see how quick-align is relevant at all for doing this? If you have 2 cubes, both with default pivots, and you use quick align... you'll end up with the 2 cubes intersecting eachother and not next to eachother like a row of buildings.

It would work if you first position the pivot point for each cube to the correct vertex first but thats more hassle, and doesnt make sense because once you add a 3rd cube to put next to these 2 you'll have to edit the pivot of the existing buildings again etc.

Enabling snap toggle is a lot quicker and better way of doing this


Edit: lol theres another recent topic for this snap thing, how did I miss that -.-

Mark Dygert

Oh I didn't read "next to" in your post. I thought you wanted to move one object to the same position of another, not align it to one of its extremes. In that case snaps would work pretty well.

Regular align would also work with it set to Min/Max. It would align the current object to the bounding box of the target object. Switching min and max on the target and current object will place it on either side of the object.

mLichy

Idk, I think working pivot is great. Although it has caused some things to fuck up a couple times.

danr

MoP - For versions pre-2008 without working pivot, you DON'T have to move any pivots. Haven't got max in front of me, but -

there's a "pick" at the bottom of the world/screen/local etc rollout, whatever that's called. Pick a physical point, be it an object with its own pivot, helper, dummy point, whatever. You can now select that point off the list. Then pull down the thingy next to it - the rotate-around-point rollout - to the bottom option, called "rotate around external point" or something. Actually, i have no idea what these things are called, but the icon is a dot to the side of 2 boxes iirc

edit with max open - "Use Transform Coordinate Center". Like what someone up there already said. An apparenlty the local/view etc rollout is called the "reference coordinate system". Funny the things you learn, innit