subject: Setting Units and Grid For 3D [print this page] Author: Daniel Kreimer Author: Daniel Kreimer
Although this may be a basic operation to many of you, some people overlook these settings and struggle with inaccuracy in creating and placing objects in 3D programs, making these settings is a vital step in production. From the Views pull-down menu, click Units Setup. In the Units Setup dialog, pick US Standard and choose Feet w/Fractional Inches from the list. Leave the other values at their defaults and press OK.Take the time to devise a well-thought out naming scheme for all objects in your scenes. Do not use the default Box01, Cylinder01, Line01 names assigned by the 3D program. You will quickly become lost and inefficient without standardized object naming conventions. 3D programs enables case-sensitive sorting in the Select by Name dialog box. Take advantage of this option; it can increase productivity by keeping your important objects near the top of the list. One possible naming scenario might be: OBJECT_NAME: Use all caps for important animated objects Objectname: Use initial caps for stationary objects Pathname: Use all lower case for 2D objects. From the Views pull-down menu, click Grid and Snap Settings. In the Grid and Snap Settings dialog, pick the Home Grid tab. Type 0'6" in the Grid Spacing field, and 8 in the Major Line Every Nth field and close the dialog. From the File pull-down menu, choose Save As, and save the file in the 3DSMAXSCENES subdirectory with the filename MAXSTART. MAX. Now, MAX automatically loads the settings information each time you open a new file or choose File/Reset from the pull-down menus. You can now use the Snap and Osnap tools to control object creation or object transforms to the degree set in the Grid Spacing field. The settings can quickly be adjusted by right clicking any of the Snap icons at the bottom of the screen and changing the settings. About the Author:
Daniel has been writing articles for nearly 4 years. Come visit his latest website over at http://blackoutshades.info/ which helps people find the best Blackout Shades and information they are looking for Blackout Shades.
