3D Studio Max question

[steve_pss]

It's a software question that directly relates to cab building. Hope you guys don't mind me dropping it on the main board.

I noticed a few folks here use 3DS Max to design and render out  cabinets (least I assume your using it). I know my way around Max faily well but I've never had to create anything to scale in it.

Is there a ruler/guide type setup you guys are using?

[1UP]

This question doesn't really belong here.  There are Max forums for this.  Read the help files.  There is a units setup in Preferences, and there is a tape measure available in the Create panel.  Also, the grid setup will be helpful (set grid divisions to 1 per inch, and major lines at 12 to mark off feet.

[night]

ya, max has a built in standard measurement setting somewhere. i used it the first thing i built. but i del max after 30 min of having maya, so i dont remember it to well. maya just flows better.
in maya i set the grid to 80 max, lines every 1, and subdivisions every 4 or 8 for the fractions.

[steve_pss]

Thanks 1up. I deserved the lambasting for posting this here but the Max forums are far to surly to get a straight or useful answer and I knew one of you guys would step up and help me out.

[RandyT]

MAX defaults to "generic" units.  1.0 can mean 1mm, 1ft or 1 mile.  It's up to you.

But you can assign a name to the units.

In 5.1, click on "customize", then "units setup".  From there you can set what you want the units to be referred to as.  You may even be able to use fractional values instead of decimal (for the conversion impaired )

RandyT

[grafixmonkey]

I used Maya to layout my cab, but unfortunately the way it deals with point locations in objects doesn't give me direct access to their "world positions".  (If anyone knows offhand how to view point world positions instead of geometry-original offset positions, I'd love to hear it...)

I've just been using planes in space to measure cardinal distances, and locators to measure arbitrary distances, pretending their generic units meant inches.  (MEL script expression can give me a realtime distance between two locators.)

I bet you could work the same way in Max but I don't know how.

[night]

can you explain better what you mean? i used maya myself (http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=10;action=display;threadid=9292) and didnt have any problem making my cab with it. but i dont know much about maya yet and dont know all these technical terms .

[grafixmonkey]

sorry, no prob.    I've been using it steady for 3 years, and I'm applying to Pixar soon trying to get into the industry, so it's easy to forget and get technical...

I first tried making a polygon object and placing the points in 3D space where the corners of things should be, using their xyz coordinates to get proper distances.  But then half way through, I noticed the xyz values I was reading weren't actual xyz values, they were offsets from where the points were when the object was created.  (so make a 2x2x2 cube, look at all the points' xyz coordinates, and they would all read 0,0,0.)

So I made a couple polygon planes with only one square to them, and moved them on their perpendiculars to get measurements in the cardinal directions  (had two x-y planes I used to measure z distances etc.)

then I realized I could make two Locators (Create --> Locator), add attributes to them (Modify --> Add Attribute) called "Length" and maybe "vertical angle" or whatever I want, and have those attributes set by a MEL script programmed in the Expression Editor (Window --> Animation Editors --> Expression Editor).

Then whenever I move the locators around, it spits out the length between them, in generic units.

[night]

basically you mean how a poly is created dead center in the axis? ie, i make a 26x22x.625 board, but the axis is centered in the board width. that drove me a bit nuts. but i just figure out the math, and started adding .313 or whatever i needed to my movements. like after the first one, i knew moving over 13 then turning it 90, would place a piece dead center in the cab. then just a matter of of lining it up in the side view.
i set my grid as 1 line an inch and subdivsions at 4 or 8 for fractions. worked well enough for my. and good enough to take measurements off to draw on the MDF.

anyway, we probly still arent on the same page :p. but i do like modeling, but after a class of that and a drawing class i really like the more traditional art. i could draw with pencil and charcoal all day.

[grafixmonkey]

I mean if you model something in polygons, and try to figure out where the edges and points are by looking at their x,y,z positions, you don't get their real positions...  you get the difference between each point's current position, and where it was when the point was created.

You get better with time.    Maya has the most interesting learning curve...  you can't do squat for the first few months maybe, but then all of a sudden you figure it all out and you can do everything!

oh yeah, and it's mainly for animation...   it can do decent looking renders by itself, but when people use it professionally they don't use the Maya render engine, they use a plugin.


By the way, if by 'axis' you mean the 'center' or 'pivot' of the poly object, tap the Insert key and you can move its pivot anywhere you want.  Hold down the 'X' key while you move it, and it snaps to grid lines.  Tap Insert again and you're back to normal editing mode.