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3ds Max snapping system


Chris MacDonald
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[rant]Honestly, it makes me want to punch people in the face.

 

It is without a doubt the worst snapping system in a 3D program I've ever come across.

 

To snap to an end point, you don't so much hover over the end point as within a 50 pixel radius of it, hoping that it will pick it up, sometimes for minutes. Then when it does, you release and it turns out that NO; you have snapped to something several kilometers away.

 

Absolute shite. If a program as "basic" as Sketchup can do it with such fluidity and simplicity, why the hell can't something that costs thousands of pounds? And don't get me started on how bloody good SketchUp's inferencing system is.

 

God damn it, it's AWFUL. I hate it. In fact, everything to do with the viewport in max is crap. Wanna build a big model and zoom into a detail? Try again. Wanna build a normal sized model and not have it clipped when you zoom extents? You wish.

 

[/rant]

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Yes, the snapping system and navigation of max is a joke if you're used to sketchup. And i really don't get it why they can't simply adopt it - SU has it now for more than 15 years. The only explanation i have is that it must be performance related and that the inference engine is the main reason why SU can handle much less polys compared to max.

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Sounds like you're about to snap.

 

Ouch!

 

 

I know several people who model in Autocad and then import in Max. What are the pros and cons of going that route?

 

It's OK, but as my 2D's are often approved by client before the project moves into MAX, I have all the AutoCAD info there. I just reference it in bit by bit, bind and extrude, map, apply mat's - done.

 

It all works fine - sometimes, I'll clean up spline curves as you can end up with too many superfluous vertices but other than that AutoCAD's snapping makes life so much quicker. I'll sometimes flick back to AutoCAD and just generate a few polylines to avoid Max's snapping issues. (Perpendicular anyone)

 

At some point though I still come to share Mackers pain with Max snapping and thus my previous rants about this. My issue is that these are or at least were the two flagship pieces of software from the same company with a clear operator overlap - why the hell couldn't they take the snapping algorithms that work in one program and port them through to their other program, at least get a bit of consistency in the workflow. You have to think differently and approach tasks differently from one piece of software to the other.

 

That said there are plenty of great things they could port from Max to AutoCAD that could make me a really happy user there too, but I know it ain't going to happen.... :(

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A bit off-topic but this new unreal engine editor feature makes me realize how much the Max interface just plain suck. It's slow and sluggish.

 

More a tech demo or gadget but still freaking smooth. I don't see myself working that way for many hours tho!

 

 

Tim Sweeney looks like the coolest CEO ever! I want to work for Epic haha.

Edited by philippelamoureux
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