Relative transforms in MAX

[mmowry]

I'm a long-time modeller in Autocad, and only recently I've started getting into modelling in MAX. Autocad has has an option in the rotate and scale commands where you can enter "R" for relative. The basic idea in the Rotate command, you can select two points that describe an existing angle and then select 2 new points that describe a desired angle, and autocad will rotate your selected objects the difference between the two angles. The scale command has something similar, in that two lengths can be selected and autocad will scale the selection relative to the proportion of those two lengths.

 

Can MAX do this same thing? Is there a script that can accomplish this?

 

Thanks

[quizzy]

Check my script section on my homepage....

[mmowry]

quizzy - thanks for your quick response. The Spline Align script is almost exactly what i had in mind, though i do have a couple questions about it -

 

1. i was hoping to be able, instead of picking an object and using it's coordinate system, to pick 2 points that describe a reference angle, for use in those situations where something needed ot be, say, 32 degrees out of alignment from another angle. i know that i can use your script to align something perfectly, then just rotate it 32 degrees...

 

2. how hard would it be to make the script work in 3D space, instead of just in the Top View? I realize it's probably a matter of getting into adjusting coordinate systems, from World to View, or vice versa.

 

3. where'd you learn to program in MAXScript? where should i learn about it? i've been coding in AutoLISP and VBA for AutoCAD for sometime, so the concepts and structure of MAXScript look somewhat familiar. I'm sure there are some resources on the web, but what are they?

 

Thanks so much for your help -

Michael

[quizzy]

to answer your questions:

 

1. dont know what you exactly mean

 

2. thats a little more to it than just changing views.. the script is designed to align to a spline. the z-rotation (or rotation in the direction of the spline itself)of a spline does not exist. so to make a such a script you have to gues that rotation.

 

3. read the introduction on my script page.. thats the way I learned it, and after that I bought a book. I also download a lot of them (to see how they use certain functions), use the maxscript reference, and just try till I figure something out...

 

Resources:

 

http://www.scriptspot.com

http://www.tdp.nu/index.shtml