3d max - a couple of questions and problems
Hi guys, I'v got a couple of problems in 3d max. Could you help me?
(sorry for english)
1. 'Snap Vertex' - this tool doesn't work pretty often - why? It's very annoying
2. 'Chamfer' - when I use this tool on elongated object it doesn't work properly, please look here:
3. Material Editor - I use 'Multi/Sub-object' and I have 5 Sub-Materials there, Is it possilby easly to divide them into 5 separated Standard materials?
4. Selecting object - when I want to select the closest object in my Viewport (perspective), 3d max very often selects further objects first, and quite often it's impossible to select the object at all that I want, and I have to turn, rotate viewport and try it again -that's really annoing/ - Do you have the same? Is it possilbe to do sthg with this?
Thats all for now, thanks for help.
(sorry for english)
1. 'Snap Vertex' - this tool doesn't work pretty often - why? It's very annoying
2. 'Chamfer' - when I use this tool on elongated object it doesn't work properly, please look here:
3. Material Editor - I use 'Multi/Sub-object' and I have 5 Sub-Materials there, Is it possilby easly to divide them into 5 separated Standard materials?
4. Selecting object - when I want to select the closest object in my Viewport (perspective), 3d max very often selects further objects first, and quite often it's impossible to select the object at all that I want, and I have to turn, rotate viewport and try it again -that's really annoing
/ - Do you have the same? Is it possilbe to do sthg with this?Thats all for now, thanks for help.
Replies
2. if you've scaled your object at all, and have not reset x-forms, any tool you use will also be scaled the same amount.
3. go to the multi-sub overview area (where you can see all 5 materials) click & drag from the ball/name in the multisub to empty balls in the material editor.
4. uh. . . dunno dude. If you're in sub-object mode, it will often do this while trying to select polys or verts, but you can turn on "ignore backfaces" to help. I'm not really sure about entire objects. I seem to remember seeing this way back when, but haven't had it happen in a while (what version of max are you running?)
2) Not sure how to fix that, I don't use chamfer in those cases, almost always use connect. But the few times I have it works as you expect... wonky...
3) You can drag/drop materials out of a multi-sub but you can only apply them to separate objects otherwise it will just instance them into a multi-sub again.
4) Yep very annoying especially when selecting more then one stacked object. If you're just selecting one object, you can continue to click in the same spot and it will cycle through the layers of objects.
I have 3d max 2009 64b (and 3d max 9 before) - and problem with selecting objects still exist. (2 years ago I used Maya and there wasn't completly any problem with this).
This seems to be 'by design' in max. I also really prefer the maya behavior.
I've seen that brought up a bunch of times but I've never had that on and I've never had a problem. I've been doing arch vis for almost 5 years now so obviously vertex snap is very important to my work flow. if you turn on display marker, move your mouse over the vert you're moving and move it until the marker shows on the target vert it should be fine, without that option enabled. the mouse doesn't even have to be perfectly on top of it, just enough so that you don't deselect the vert when you click to move. Only difference I seem to notice is it gives me a sort of pivot snap as well.
OH, but I should point out I don't leave my transform gizmo active, I set my axis with the shortcut keys if I want to constrain to a single axis which is probably why it works for me.
I wish I knew why, since it seems to be ok for other people!
In the end I was pretty sure the only thing I did different from default was turn on "use axis center as start snap point". Since then its always worked after turning on 3D snaps. Not sure if some setting has carried over or not...
I just played around with it trying to break it. The only way I found was to turn on "Use Axis Constraints".
MattW, manually managing the axis constraints? I just grab the selection in the viewport and move it toward the snap point and it normally catches fine. Sometimes I'll toggle off the gizmo (x) so I don't grab an axis by accident.
Oh, I also use the snaps toolbar (which is hidden by default) to select which type of snap, instead of the right click pop-up menu. I'm not sure if that makes a difference or not...
About selection: Yea drives me bat sh!t nuts. After all these years you would think they could come up with a system that selects what's under the mouse. So far the best mouse select system I've seen is in Hammer. Too bad the rest of the editor is a pig...
Here's my settings:
I think that the more types of snaps you turn on (vertex, edge, midpoint, etc.) the more complicated and bigger pain in the ass it becomes. I tend to keep them all off, and ONLY turn on the ones I'm using at the moment.
I actually always have 'Use Axis Contraints' on. Which is probably why I tend to keep my gizmo off. I should point out I do a lot of work in front, left, top ortho viewports since I work a lot from autocad blueprints. By manually managing mine I mean exactly what you said, use (x) and keep it off, and just switch between x and y in view space. If I have to go to a User view, z as well. If i'm switching a lot, I'll turn the gizmo back on, but like you said, if I only want x, sometimes it's easier to turn it off and be sure I won't grab y.
Here's my settings if you're interested: