Share your 3dsmax Secrets

#421

I read some pages and I didn’t find anything about Fn shortcuts .Then enjoy :

F1 : Opens the help window ( does anyone doubt ? )
F2 : when you have a selection of Patch\Polygon sub-objects it switches the display of selected sub-objects between shaded and wireframe . try it once and you’ll get it .
F3 : switches the display of a wireframe viewport to shaded and visa versa . Really useful .
F4 : switches a simple shaded viewport to edged faced and visa versa . useful again !

F5 : chooses the X dimension for Transform operations ( Move , Rotate , Scale ) .
F6 : chooses the Y dimension for Transform operations ( Move , Rotate , Scale ) .
F7 : chooses the Z dimension for Transform operations ( Move , Rotate , Scale ) .
F8 : Switches between XY , YZ , XZ planes for transform Operations ( Move , Rotate , Scale ) .

F9 : Renders the viewport by according to the last assigned options for render dialog . Very useful .
F10 : opens the Render Dialog . very useful .
F11 : opens the MAXscript listener dialog .
F12 : opens the Type-In dialog for Transform operations ( Move , Rotate , Scale ) .

#422

I didn’t get a chance to read all of the posts, but you can disable your viewports by pressing “D” so that when you have a large collection of geometry then it will run faster. It will only update when the viewport is focused on.

That and…

Once you use something on your quad menu then you can click the quad title to repeat the action. (it is lighted in blue by default)

#423

yellow if you using the dark UI :slight_smile:

MODs: this thread had gotten massive, could we clean out the questions and unrealted stuff?
#424

Thank you for clarifying that :slight_smile:

#425

maybe nothing new …

drag n drop modifiers out of the modifier stack from obj A to obj B

drag n drop any texture from the explorer directly in the material slot

try all possible comibations between alt strg shift and right mouse to popup serveral menues

strg + Z for undo last step (just kidding)

#426

a workflow tip:

when you need to collapse your stack very often, but do not want to set up your modifiers again and again (i.e. uv map modifier", you can “copy” them by rightclicking them. then they are in the clipboard and can be applied again, by pasting into the modifier stack.
so far nothing new…but when you restart max, your clipboard is empty…

so to prevent the loss of your modifiers (or even whole stacks) just set up a “stackholder”
for doing so, just copy all your modfiers you will need again in the near future onto a box, or any other primitive. then save.

so they remain in the scene, when restarting max.

you can even “rename” the modifiers in your stack, so that you better can navigate them, when you have much of them.

#427

Bones are nothing more than boxes with hierarchy. Parent starts at its pivot and ends at the distance that child begins. This can be very useful for really precise rigging.

#428

Here’s a neat trick in editable poly.

If you want to select the edges around the perimeter of a polygon, or group of polygons, first select those polygons.

Then, hold [CTRL] and click the edges sub-object button and the edges of all your selected polygons will be selected.

This is a lot quicker than selecting edges manually, and saves having to straighten the model in the perspective viewport to use the select tool.

Hope this helps

#429

Paint deformation:
Brush Size—Change brush radius interactively, release mouse button, press and hold SHIFT+CTRL+left mouse button, and then drag the mouse. This works with Skin > Paint Weights and VertexPaint.
Brush Strength—Change the brush strength interactively, release mouse button, press and hold SHIFT+ALT+left mouse button, and then drag the mouse. This works with Skin > Paint Weights and VertexPaint.

Ah, read the max help, helps a lot before asking.

#430

The “alt” key toggles “Push/Pull” by the way.
Is there a keyboard shortcut for “Push/Pull” and “Relax” for Paint Deformation? I cant find these tools under the editable poly shortcuts in the customize UI menu.

#431

The beauty of this function is that you can keep your Camera selected, have two-window mode and have one window in perspective view and other in camera view. Then you can compose your picture in persp. view and just hit Ctrl-C to translate that view to active camera. Much more convenient to use Alt-MMB/wheel to move cam than those dolly/pan etc commands. Plus you get to see original cam in other window to make comparisons before locking the shot.

#432

in softselection you can create a nearly linear falloff by using:

pinch= 0.3
bubble= 0.3

to achieve this very fast, just click into “pinch” and press -> .3 -> TAB -> .3
or write yourself a script.
(take note, that in europe, mostly -> .(points) are -> ,(commas), in that case use the matching type)

#433

Many a times while computers operate on a LAN network, saying file open in max takes a long time since it checks for links of all files in the history. To reduce this opening time, open 3sdmax.ini, the congiguration settings file from ur installed 3ds max root. (open it with notepad). Scroll down to find a list of history rows named like Histry00= C:\xyz and so on. Delete all the history rows keeping only the first one as History_00=. Close the file and say yes to save chages. Open max again to see the difference.

#434

Doesn’t that destroy one of the greatest ways to navigate thru multiple-folder setups?
IMHO Folder History feature is very important and I think it should be implemented for every single program!

And if you want to disable that feature, you should change the Count-parameter in 3dsmax.ini to zero I think, not just delete history rows.

(I have never had any slow-downs because of that History feature even with LAN materials)

#435

This does not destroy that feature…only clears the history

#436

Utilize the attribute holder for your custom attributes. It makes it erasable and allows you the ability to copy it from one object to another.

Check out PEN’s attribute holder… Awesomness!!! Presets = virtue…

Peace out!
Jon

#437

Acutally I’ve been using Max Since Ver 2 and I’d never come across that one. (using V to select th view in the viewport)

#438

Does anyone here not like the new snap in 7.5? Personally I find it much more difficult to use that previous versions (although the ‘link bar’ which shows you which element you’re snapping to is kind of a cool feature). Anyways, much more the reason to bind your ‘snap’ function to a hotkey (and make sure its a tough key if you use snap alot!)

#439

I don’t know if this has been answered yet, I’m still reading through the thread, but I actually know the answer.

Rightclick the snaps button to bring up the options and select midpoint. Then you can cut snapping from midpoint to midpoint. I did a little Dance I was so happy to find this one out.
But depending on what you’re doing you could just use edit poly, select faces and click connect.

#440

Hi all. I said a few months ago that I was going to do a wiki site for all the tips on this thread. As it turns out I haven’t had much time at all and so have only managed to put up tips to page 4 of this thread. Any and all help would be appreciated to get this up and running.

The address for the wiki site is:

http://3ds.wikispaces.org/

Obviously there are a few headings there already and there may be some cross over of topics but I think it’s a good start. I’ve tried to get some sort of order and style for the layout keep continuity. But there will be far more qualified people than I how I’m sure could do a better job.

Please all feel free to contribute and continue.

Thanks.