How do I stop my camera view from panning?

[Michael J. Brown]

I've noticed that as of 3dsMax 2013, it takes only one slip-up for my camera view to be knocked out of whack due to an ill-timed Pan operation.

 

It used to be that, while in Camera view, if you tried to Pan by holding down your scroll button, nothing would happen. This was an effective way of Max telling you, "Hey idiot! you're still in Camera view. Switch to Perspective first, and then pan!". Because it wouldn't actually let you move your camera position with the Pan operation until you tried panning a second consecutive time.

 

But now that margin of error has been completely removed. There's no more '1st attempt' safety net. If you mistakenly pan while in Camera view it immediately jacks up your camera placement. Zero tolerance.

 

Is there a way to restore the legacy preference for this condition?

[John Dollus]

I've always just locked the transforms on cameras once they are set to prevent such a thing.

[Chris MacDonald]

Same, just lock the transform/rotate on the camera and the target. I've been caught out by it numerous times now too.

[Michael J. Brown]

Thanks guys. But I'm not sure how to do that.

Edited February 4, 2013 by renderhaus

[Corey Beaulieu]

In the hierarchy tab, go to link info. Then under the lock section tick x,y,z for move, rotation, and scale. this will make your camera selectable, but not able to be moved, scaled or rotated.

[Michael J. Brown]

Thanks, Corey.

[Scott Dombrowski]

I found a great script that checks all those boxes automatically. http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/lockunlock-link-info