Max's minor capabilites?

[Karin Skaug]

Hello forum

 

I am starting to learn Max, and wonder if I am missing something essential...

 

Why can I not do something as basic as to copy/paste geometry from one file to another?

Is Max actually unable to have multiple files open?

[Scott Schroeder]

Max can't natively copy/paste objects across files as you would in windows. There are scripts that can do this for you, or you can just use the "Merge" function and merge in objects into your current scene from other files.

[Corey Beaulieu]

What you want to do is merge it from one file to another. You can drag and drop one file into another and select merge if it doesn't matter where it goes right away, but if you need a specific placement from another file, then you would use the merge from the file menu. File> insert> merge.

 

You can either do a save selected on what you want to merge for the drag and drop method or just pick the objects by name from the menu option.

 

and you can have two file open if you want, you just run two instances of max by openning the second one from the file (double click on the second file).

[John Dollus]

http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/copypaste-0

[Fooch]

http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/copitor

[Karin Skaug]

Thank you very much for your quick responses.

Good to see there is solutions, but don't you agree that this is something Max should handle by itself?

[Stephen Thomas]

I don't think it's really a problem that comes up too much to be honest. Why not just model the second thing in the same file as the first?

[Karin Skaug]

Thomas - the architects I work for reuse a lot of elements from one project to another. And so do I in the models I make for them. I frequently wander off to other files and look for reusable stuff, and having multiple files open and copying between them is - for me- the best way to do this. I do it every day.

 

I also have a strong habit of selecting vertices and nudging them by (the arrow) keys in user-specified increments. Can I do this in Max?

Edited September 27, 2012 by karinskaug

[Corey Beaulieu]

I find that the best way to work is to hit F12 (opens the transforms menu) and just "nudge" things based on the local coordinates. With the menu open you can move by increment or distance from origin, you can rotate by angle from current position or from the object normals from when it was built (usually the same as world), and scale by current size or size at the time of object creation. Target cameras add the ability to dolly based on the camera Z, but you can do the this by switching the coordinate system to local on a free cam too, just use the local values instead of the absolute.

[John Dollus]

In addition to f12 (same way I do it), there's the transform area at the bottom of the UI. it defaults to world position but if you click on the crosshair button between the selection lock and the x:, it switches to relative mode so you can type in your increments for moving bits and pieces.

[Umesh Raut]

Thomas - the architects I work for reuse a lot of elements from one project to another. And so do I in the models I make for them. I frequently wander off to other files and look for reusable stuff, and having multiple files open and copying between them is - for me- the best way to do this. I do it every day.

 

As long as I know, the world uses commercial computer programs like this one by the authors' way of doing things right, not what we think should be; and this company in particular is well known for (though they gather feedback, but) caring less and less for the end user. Though in a typical environment users would expect the simple approach, we need to use proprietory bits of scripts for that purpose.

 

And now to your everyday situation. I trend to save individual pieces of geometry that can be used again and again in separate files, sometimes with the lighting setup, you never know what'll look right in some future situation when I would not want to go through the same tweaks. And some good data management comes in handy, to search down that particular thing fast.

[Karin Skaug]

Thank you. (All of you).

Edited September 27, 2012 by karinskaug