3ds max transform gizmo question

afb3d · Feb 2020

This might be a locked core functionality but just out of curiosity. Would it or is it possible to disable moving a face or vertex without the transform gizmo?

What I mean by this is.......when in polygon mode or edge or vertex......you are able to manipulate the face,edge,vert directly without using the gizmo.....ideally it would behave like Maya where you need to select the gizmo to manipulate.

PolyHertz · Feb 2020

You should only ever be in move/rotate/scale mode when you intend to perform one of those actions, the rest of the time you should be in Select mode ("Q" hotkey) to avoid accidentally transforming your selection.

afb3d · Feb 2020

I knew this would be the first reply lol whilst I appreciate the advice and somewhat agree....I just find it's not intuitive at all to constantly switch between Q , W whilst modeling. Trust me I know the power of the smart select as I built a script that automatically places you in smart select everytime you make a selection change. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to respond in subobject mode though. Max has a tendency to default back to the move tool after doing certain operations even if your in smart select mode.

The biggest issue I find and you don't have this in Maya is....if youre in polygon mode and have the move tool active, you cant marquee select over a face whithout moving it (if you start from the centre of the face).

afb3d · Feb 2020

to demonstrate this further here's a gif that shows what i mean....

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/kw/kw6ehp1b9xwy.gif

Also here's another gif demonstrating a weird issue with the selection marquee not displaying which kind of points to this entire functionality having some underlying issue in the first place?

If you have the move tool active. Activate the smart select and try to marquee a bunch of faces, the marquee wont appear. Do it again and it will......

Eric Chadwick · Feb 2020

We've talked about this before.

How's your script coming along?

https://polycount.com/discussion/196410/3ds-max-2o15-disable-move-amp-select-tool-free-moving

afb3d · Feb 2020

yeah thanks i was already part of that convo.....thought maybe something had moved forward over the past year regarding this...one thing i never even noticed before digging into this more was max's gizmo doesn't move with the transform lol it updates after you let go.....been using max for 7years and honestly never noticed it till now

not sure how or why this is a good idea.......seems like max respects the mouse cursor more than its gizmo

Eric Chadwick · Feb 2020

Upvoting on the Area has a definite impact on future features, so I suggest doing that if you haven't already.

Talking with Autodesk developers, they definitely factor those votes into their development plans.

afb3d · Feb 2020

Thanks ill be sure to do this.....these things are so minor but make a big difference in the overall experience. Such a shame at times.

DavidCruz · Feb 2020

x - stoped you from using the axis's afaik, just telling you what you asked for. "disable moving a face or vertex freely without the transform gizmo?"

Sry if this is unhelpful i tried, gl.

afb3d · Feb 2020

maybe i need to take the word freely out......hmm
thanks for the help though

PolyHertz · Mar 2020

Just wanted to add, you can disable to inner box on the transform gizmo by running this script:

tmGizmos.useCenterBox = false

(you can also turn it back on by setting the value to true instead of false)
That should greatly reduce the risk of accidentally moving the selection when creating new selections in move/rotate/scale mode. Of course it also means you wont be able to use the center box to move things in screen space either.

3ds max transform gizmo question

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