Maya user learning 3DS Max
polycounter lvl 7
Hello Polycount!
I Know am not the first and I won’t be the last to try and learn Max coming from Maya and I thought I would document my experince and post any questions I have here. Hopefully others can save themselves some time while learning Max and if the also have some questions feel free to post in this thread looking for answers.
INTRODUCTION
Below are some usefull tips for the Maya users learning Max"
As a new Max use coming from Maya the first thing most people struggle with is the Viewport navigation. At first it feels like modeling with boxing goves on :poly127: .
I know it would not take to long to get used to this but I didn't want that frustration to be getting in the way while try to learn something new. So to remove that barrier you have two solutions out there one Commercial solution called Switcher by dRaster ( $68 ) and a FREE alternative called MEM's Max2Maya
They both do a good job but the free soultion is know to have conflicts with the Graphite Modeling Tools.
Next up is Hotkeys. I was never one to use custom hotkeys in Maya but did use the defaults ones often and would like to have some Maya Style Hotkeys in Max. Max can easily allow you to customize your hot-keys or you and download this file and replace your defaults one.
Few other things I missed in Max being a Maya user one if them is having having the Hotbox. I used this all the time for changing cameras. Thankfully there are a few solutions the one I am using 3DS Max Hot Box it doesnt offer as many context menus as you would find in Maya but it allows me to change the View-port camera quickly
If your not happy with it then you can try getting onto the closed beta for 3DS Max Hot Box which appears to offer more menus and is also customizable.
Someone has also made Max script to replicate Maya's Outliner called Outliner 2.0
Another useful tip is the F1 key for help if you click on something and press F1 it will open the corresponding help page which can be useful, also new in Max 2011 and Improved is 2012 is the Tool Tips for the Graphite Modeling Tools where if you hover your mouse over for a second it will give you brief desorption OF what the tool does and for more info you can press F1.
COMMON QUESTIONS AND SOLUTIONS
Q: If I select a face in wireframe mode it Turns read. How to disable?
A : Press F2 or you can press ALT+X to switch to transparent mode for that particular selection.
Q: What Hotkeys are used to change between selection types Vertex,Edge,Face and Object
A: 1 = vertex, 2 =edge, 3 = border, 4 = polygon, 5 = element, and 6 exits sub-selection and returns you to the whole object.
Q: How Grow/Shrink polygon selection region
A: *Pending
Q: How to convert selection type. For example convert selection of faces to their contained edges.
A: With the desired selection made, right click anywhere in the viewport and hit "convert to edge/face/vertex" .
Q: How to delete a edge without deleting the surrounding polygon face?
A: Ctrl+Backspace in edge mode to remove an edge and its verts just backspace will remove the edge but keep the verts intact.
Q: How to convert selection type. For example convert selection of faces to their contained edges.
A: with desired selection made, right click anywhere in the viewport and hit "convert to edge/face/vertex
Q: Instead of pressing J to switch off Selection Brackets for each object how can I disable them all for all view-ports ?
A: Each viewport has to be disabled on its own. This can be done by press the [+} button found in the top left of your viewport then going to Configure Viewports... then un-checking Use Selection Brackets.
I Know am not the first and I won’t be the last to try and learn Max coming from Maya and I thought I would document my experince and post any questions I have here. Hopefully others can save themselves some time while learning Max and if the also have some questions feel free to post in this thread looking for answers.
INTRODUCTION
Below are some usefull tips for the Maya users learning Max"
As a new Max use coming from Maya the first thing most people struggle with is the Viewport navigation. At first it feels like modeling with boxing goves on :poly127: .
I know it would not take to long to get used to this but I didn't want that frustration to be getting in the way while try to learn something new. So to remove that barrier you have two solutions out there one Commercial solution called Switcher by dRaster ( $68 ) and a FREE alternative called MEM's Max2Maya
They both do a good job but the free soultion is know to have conflicts with the Graphite Modeling Tools.
Next up is Hotkeys. I was never one to use custom hotkeys in Maya but did use the defaults ones often and would like to have some Maya Style Hotkeys in Max. Max can easily allow you to customize your hot-keys or you and download this file and replace your defaults one.
Few other things I missed in Max being a Maya user one if them is having having the Hotbox. I used this all the time for changing cameras. Thankfully there are a few solutions the one I am using 3DS Max Hot Box it doesnt offer as many context menus as you would find in Maya but it allows me to change the View-port camera quickly
If your not happy with it then you can try getting onto the closed beta for 3DS Max Hot Box which appears to offer more menus and is also customizable.
Someone has also made Max script to replicate Maya's Outliner called Outliner 2.0
Another useful tip is the F1 key for help if you click on something and press F1 it will open the corresponding help page which can be useful, also new in Max 2011 and Improved is 2012 is the Tool Tips for the Graphite Modeling Tools where if you hover your mouse over for a second it will give you brief desorption OF what the tool does and for more info you can press F1.
COMMON QUESTIONS AND SOLUTIONS
Q: If I select a face in wireframe mode it Turns read. How to disable?
A : Press F2 or you can press ALT+X to switch to transparent mode for that particular selection.
Q: What Hotkeys are used to change between selection types Vertex,Edge,Face and Object
A: 1 = vertex, 2 =edge, 3 = border, 4 = polygon, 5 = element, and 6 exits sub-selection and returns you to the whole object.
Q: How Grow/Shrink polygon selection region
A: *Pending
Q: How to convert selection type. For example convert selection of faces to their contained edges.
A: With the desired selection made, right click anywhere in the viewport and hit "convert to edge/face/vertex" .
Q: How to delete a edge without deleting the surrounding polygon face?
A: Ctrl+Backspace in edge mode to remove an edge and its verts just backspace will remove the edge but keep the verts intact.
Q: How to convert selection type. For example convert selection of faces to their contained edges.
A: with desired selection made, right click anywhere in the viewport and hit "convert to edge/face/vertex
Q: Instead of pressing J to switch off Selection Brackets for each object how can I disable them all for all view-ports ?
A: Each viewport has to be disabled on its own. This can be done by press the [+} button found in the top left of your viewport then going to Configure Viewports... then un-checking Use Selection Brackets.
Replies
but as I am only using MAX for Modeling and Rendering it seems like a good choice for me
S = Smooth
Now when I want to work on a different object in my scene I just press Q. But I miss using the Hotbox to change the Selection
A: In polygon level of the edit poly menu under selection, the shrink and grow buttons (at the top of the window by default) I have Ctrl-G bound to grow, not sure if there's a hotkey by default
Q: How to convert selection type. For example convert selection of faces to their contained edges.
A: with desired selection made, right click anywhere in the viewport and hit "convert to edge/face/vertex
Q: How to delete a edge without deleting the surrounding polygon face?
A: If i know what your asking here, you use combination of Ctrl+Backspace in edge mode to remove an edge and its verts (just backspace will remove the edge but keep the verts intact)
It can be assigned to a hot key and there are + and - Buttons in edit poly.
Also make note of the arrows next to "Ring" and "Loop" when in edge mode, these will also grow and shrink selections.
Graphite modeling tools has some advanced options to grow/shrink. Options like:
Dot Ring: selects every other edge in a ring, same goes for Dot Loop. This is handy when optmizing a mesh and you want to cut the edge/poly count in half.
Also make note of the "select by angle this can be great in selecting faces quickly. You can also select faces by mat ID and smoothing groups.
You can also hold ctrl and click the mode icons in edit poly, under the selection rollout. This does not work for the modifier stack.
In the graphite modeling tools there is a great little mode to also help with this called "step build".
Also there is a script for max that handles smoothing like Maya does, soft/hard edges instead of the clunky 3dsmax "smoothing group". It's on script spot, I don't have time to find it but its great!
I also have a more in depth question for you. I was looking for a way to zoom into my view port and my background image at the same time. I know this is possible in Maya and wondering how to do this in Max
Thanks again :thumbup:
Everyone is not the same tough, on your latest question try checking this button.
Really, though, for reference you're better off making a plane and applying the bitmap to that. There's a lot of good info in this thread: http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=83453
But I just want to ask:
Sticky inc? I can see this thread becoming a "3dsmax for smart people" of sorts.
Anyways good to hear from Mark about the new graphite tools as one of my clients has recently began using 2011 for downressing models so I'm definitely going to look at that.
cheers
RogueOne The script I was talking about can be found here: http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/hard-soft-edge
Pier Janssen also wrote Outliner... I can't really use max without outliner.
i have been a silent user on this forum for quite some time. I've come across this post and it had changed my entire 3ds experience! THANK YOU SO MUCH! all of you for putting together such a great helpful post. I have been using maya for 5+ years and now im on 3ds due to work. im alright at max atm but i will always be a maya user. this has helped me so much and changed my experience
I'm a recent max user and long-time Maya user like all of you. I've checked the:
Customize -> Prefences -> Interaction Mode Tab
recently, which can be found in 3DS Max 2014 and it allows you to switch your mouse and keyboard interaction to the Maya tools as opposed to the default 3ds max ones. So, for example, I can zoom with alt+right, pan with alt+middle mouse button, and rotate view with alt+left-click.
tldr;
My question is: has anyone used the Maya keyboard interaction for Max function and what was your experience with it?
My concern is that I may be making things more complicated taking this route because I might be eliminating important max hotkeys or what not that I will need in the future. Is it better to bite the bullet now so to speak and learn their system or can I delay it or forget about it entirely because of the aforementioned function.
I was also curious if anyone has tried out the Max hotbox scripts that replicate functions in the Maya hotbox and what people's thoughts were on those. Here is an example I found:
http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/3ds-max-hot-box