3DS MAX Tips

[olli96]

Originally Posted by JONYTO

4_if the viewports are slow , maximize the one you are actually using, so the gpu don´t have to process the four at the same time(yes..it´s common sense..but...jej)

good tip, but if you switch back you have to wait till all four viewports (depending on your layout) are updated again. for me it works better if i deactivate the other viewports (simply press 'd' in the viewports), now they will only update if you click in them and it doesn't matter if you maximize one viewport and then go back to view all four viewports.

but its generally a matter of preference...

Olli

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[hovercrafter]

First a must:

- Take the time to customize your colors to what you are comfortable with. Different people are more comfortable with different levels of contrasts. Doing this will make your modeling time much more enjoyable.

One basic one I haven't seen that should probably be here (even though Cris does mention it in plenty of his tutorials):

- Control click on the selection buttons will select the sub-objects that make up the object already selected (ie. Select a 4 sided polygon. Control-click on edge selects the 4 edges that makes it up, or control-click on vertex selects all the vertices that make up the polygon)

Some good practices to work better. This applies to all programs actually:

- Get one of the freeware break timers out there. A lot of people end up spending countless hours working on a project without taking a break (I use to do this). You can get freeware break timers that sit in your tray and you set to a certain amount of time (mine is at 1 hour) to remind you to get up off your butt and move around some.

- Calibrate your monitor. There are freeware monitor calibration programs on the net and you should pick one and use it. If you use Photoshop, it comes with a decent one.

It is amazing how many people have monitors that are skewed or the color/gamma is way off on. The color is very important. You spend all your time working on a map in photoshop (or whatever graphics program), only to find out the colors aren't quite right (or the specular highlights are washed out - one of the most common side-effects). On a side note: if you use Paint Shop, don't use the monitor calibration software in that as it only works while Paint Shop is running. Once you close Paint Shop, everything reverts back.


These are a little more advanced for Max:

- One thing that has helped me out is assigning a hot-key to show/hide the command panel (I use space for that since I hardly use the lock selection). There is much you can do from the context menus (or hot keys if like me), so it saves moving back and forth plus gives you much more space to work in

- Also take the time to assign hot keys to your liking (once your comfortable with Max). You spend more time actually modeling and less time searching around for stuff.

- You can assign buttons to the top of the modifier panel. This is great for quick access to the commonly used modifiers (I only use a few buttons myself - ffd(box) ffd(cyl), editable mesh, smooth, symmetry).

- If there are certain actions you repeat a lot, use the script listener to see the actual coding that is being executed. Use that as a reference to make your own script and then assign that script to a hot key or your context menu.

[IEAT3D]

Press Alt+Q to Isolate a selection.

[sandmanninja]

edit: Carnage fixed it up.

[AndyHalfLife]

just use a dam proxy, and it WILL work, God everyday you see a person saying that

-Andy

[Carnage]

Originally Posted by sandmanninja

if I was a Mod, I'd nuke you...

wrong forum, ignoring messages saying don't clutter up with posts, AND you did not search for several well-placed, clearly identified posts with your subject and about 20+ pages of things to try to fix it.

Looks like an old post that slipped through there sandmanninja :P

Taken care of.

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[sandmanninja]

you Rock Carnage.

Wasn't "dissing" the Mods, just felt like nuking someone.

[rvicter2]

press "v" in viewport for a dropdown for da views. useful when working in full screen.

I just moved from maya to max. i'd greatly appreicate some advice. i mostly do modeling.

[Flux]

(^^thread necrophiliac^^)

Get the "Outliner" script/plugin and replace the H hotkey with it. Stacks things in heirachy, shows hidden (greyed out) and frozen objects (in italics, but you can still select them which is good) and with a simple right click can choose to hide, unhide, freeze or unfreeze all from the outliner panel. Also has all the filters and sorting options that the regular select object list has.

[solim]

yes thx