joed200 Posted March 3, 2007 Share Posted March 3, 2007 Ok this is something i have never figured out while using max. How can i enter an exact length of a line into studio max (just like autocad)?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MegaPixel Posted March 4, 2007 Share Posted March 4, 2007 I hear ya man. As a former Autocad user myself, I often wish the 2D shapes handled a bit more precisly like Acad did. I often find myself drawing a rectangle to the height I want, and then erasing the segments I don't want. How hack is that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mskin Posted March 4, 2007 Share Posted March 4, 2007 i am agreeable. I do it the same way, unless there is enough line work to justify doing it in acad and then importing it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
only3d Posted March 5, 2007 Share Posted March 5, 2007 so why not work with GRID N SNAP? im an acad user too and i do that there as well.. not that i dont agree with your sentiments about max's poor linework but still GRID gives u a good enough solution. oh and MSKIN, ur supposed to say "i agree with u".. what u said was "i am a greeble"..... :p cheers mate.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MegaPixel Posted March 5, 2007 Share Posted March 5, 2007 I stopped using the Grid years ago. It's to restricting and the grid size would have to change all the time to accomadate the wide range of unnominal dimensions these projects sometimes use. Now I could have swore that a few years back, on an earlier release of VIZ, maybe VIZ 3, a maxscript based toolbar shipped with it allowing for Autocad like controls like "Offset, Line,etc." Anyone else heard of it? It has to be possible to reproduce the same thing today... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brolloks Posted March 5, 2007 Share Posted March 5, 2007 Now I could have swore that a few years back, on an earlier release of VIZ, maybe VIZ 3, a maxscript based toolbar shipped with it allowing for Autocad like controls like "Offset, Line,etc." Anyone else heard of it? It has to be possible to reproduce the same thing today... I remember that as well. You could swop the Viz interface for something similar to Acad and then draw in Acad mode. When you're done you just go back to the Viz interface... Don't know how it was done though, but definitly existed... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShaunDon Posted March 5, 2007 Share Posted March 5, 2007 Max's shape creation definitely leaves a lot to be desired, so I've always prepped most of my lines in AutoCAD, especially since they're usually derived from CAD elevations and plans. I'll work on a separate layer with all others locked, then export those over to Max once I'm ready to start extruding. It's an expensive way of doing it in terms of software licensing, but you can get away with AcadLT for most tasks, and for speed and accuracy you really can't beat it in max. Shaun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brolloks Posted March 5, 2007 Share Posted March 5, 2007 Now I could have swore that a few years back, on an earlier release of VIZ, maybe VIZ 3, a maxscript based toolbar shipped with it allowing for Autocad like controls like "Offset, Line,etc." Anyone else heard of it? It has to be possible to reproduce the same thing today... I remember that as well. You could swop the Viz interface for something similar to Acad and then draw in Acad mode. When you're done you just go back to the Viz interface... Don't know how it was done though, but definitly existed... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nisus Posted March 6, 2007 Share Posted March 6, 2007 a maxscript based toolbar shipped with it allowing for Autocad like controls like "Offset, Line,etc." Anyone else heard of it? It's not exactly what you want, but it may help... http://www.vg2max.spb.ru/TwoPs.htm nisus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vizwhiz Posted March 6, 2007 Share Posted March 6, 2007 ok This zip file may be way old, but i dug it up in The autodesk.com viz newsgroup if you need To do some research Then go To The viz newsgroup and Type in 'autocad command swami', swami wrote all of These, we should clone him and get Autodesk To make viz and max more useful with some more autocad-like interface randy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cloaked_spectre Posted March 6, 2007 Share Posted March 6, 2007 ugh I hear ya.....I do all of my modeling in ACAD 2007 (awesome push/pull tools ripped off from sketchup) and 'reference' it all into Viz.....it work flawlessly....all of my building (and some site) editing is done inautocad, then i simply update the file manager in Viz....you can still use all of the modifiers on the those linked objects as well... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westrock2000 Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 I hear ya man. As a former Autocad user myself, I often wish the 2D shapes handled a bit more precisly like Acad did. I often find myself drawing a rectangle to the height I want, and then erasing the segments I don't want. How hack is that? I know this is an old thread, but I found this through Google and I just wanted to say and add...... Thank you! Thank you! I'm am new to 3Ds Max and this has been bothering me for a couple days trying to enter a line of a certain length. I thought I was being blind not seeing some hidden parameter panel. For anyone else in the future that might read this that is a noob like I. I created a Rectangle and then went to Modify Tab and dropped down to Edit Spline. Selected the middle red lightning thing (spline) and just selected 3 of the splines and deleted them. I was then able to do the particular task (Compound -> Loft in this case) as if it was just a single line. Very strange that 3DS Max allows parameters for all the other splines except for the most very basic spline. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Buckley Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 Pretty sure there is a script that allows this, and if not then why not setup your units and home grids so you know exactly what the spacing is between each gridline? Or use the keyboard entry method - bit cumbersome but it does work. I used to get bugged by the fact that i had to cancel my line if I wanted to go beyond the borders of the viewport but then I discovered the 'I' shortcut while in line mode to centre the viewport, allowing me to continue using my grids as a guide Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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