Using Grids

When Max is started, the one element that is visible is the Home Grid. This grid is there to give you a reference point for creating objects in 3D space. At the center of each grid are two darker lines. These lines meet at the origin point for the World Coordinate System where the coordinates for X, Y, and Z are all 0.0. This point is where all objects are placed by default.

In addition to the Home Grid, you can create and place new grids in the scene. These grids are not rendered, but you can use them to help you locate and align objects in 3D space.

The Home Grid

You can turn the Home Grid on and off by choosing Views Grid Show Home Grid (you can also turn the Home Grid on and off for the active viewport using the G key). If the Home Grid is the only grid in the scene, then by default it is also the construction grid where new objects are positioned when created.

You can access the Home Grid parameters (shown in Figure 8.15) by choosing Customize Grid and Snap Settings. You can also access this dialog box by right-clicking the Snap, Angle Snap, or Percent Snap toggle buttons located on the main toolbar.

Figure 8.15: The Home Grid and User Grids panels of the Grid and Snap Settings dialog box let you define the grid spacing.

In the Home Grid panel of the Grid and Snap Settings dialog box, you can set how often Major Lines appear, as well as Grid Spacing. (The Spacing value for the active grid is displayed on the status bar.) You can also specify to dynamically update the grid view in all viewports or just in the active one.

The User Grids panel lets you activate any new grids when created.

Creating and activating new grids

In addition to the Home Grid, you can create new grids. To create a new Grid object, select the Create Helpers Grid menu command, or open the Create panel, select the Helpers category, and click the Grid button. In the Parameters rollout are settings for specifying the new grid object's dimensions, spacing, and color, as well as which coordinate plane to display (XY, YZ, or ZX).

You can designate any newly created grid as the default active grid. To activate a grid, make sure that it is selected and choose Views Grids Activate Grid Object. Keep in mind that only one grid may be active at a time, and the default Home Grid cannot be selected. You can also activate a grid by right-clicking the grid object and selecting Activate Grid from the pop-up menu. To deactivate the new grid and reactivate the Home Grid, choose Views Grids Activate Home Grid, or right-click the grid object and choose Activate Grid Home Grid from the pop-up quadmenu.

You can find further grid settings for new grids in the Grid and Snap Settings dialog box on the User Grids panel. The settings include automatically activating the grid when created and an option for aligning an AutoGrid using World space or Object space coordinates.

Using AutoGrid

You can use the AutoGrid feature to create a new construction plane perpendicular to a face normal. This feature provides an easy way to create and align objects directly next to one another without manually lining them up or using the Align features.

The AutoGrid feature shows up as a check box at the top of the Object Type rollout for every category in the Create panel. It becomes active only when you're in Create Object mode.

To use AutoGrid, click the AutoGrid option after selecting an object type to create. If no objects are in the scene, then the object is created as usual. If an object is in the scene, then the cursor moves around on the surface of the object with its coordinate axes perpendicular to the surface that the cursor is over. Clicking and dragging creates the new object based on the precise location of the object under the mouse.

The AutoGrid option stays active for all new objects that you create until you turn it off by unchecking the box.

Tip 

Holding down the Alt key before creating the object makes the AutoGrid permanent and active.

Tutorial: Creating a spyglass

As you begin to build objects for an existing scene, you find that working away from the scene origin is much easier if you enable the AutoGrid feature for the new objects you create. This feature enables you to position the new objects on (or close to) the surfaces of the nearby objects). It works best with objects that have pivot points located at their edges, such as Box and Cylinder objects.

In this example, you quickly create a spyglass object using the AutoGrid without needing to perform additional moves.

To create a spyglass using the AutoGrid and Snap features, follow these steps:

1. Before starting, click the Left viewport and zoom way out so you can see the height of the spyglass pieces.

2. Select Create Standard Primitives Cylinder, and drag from the origin in the Top viewport to create a Cylinder object. Set the Radius value to 40 and the Height value to 200. Then enable the AutoGrid option in the Object Type rollout.

3. Drag from the origin again in the Top viewport to create another Cylinder object. Set its Radius to 35 and its Height to 200. Repeat this step three times, reducing the Radius by 5 each time.

Figure 8.16 shows the resulting spyglass object.

Figure 8.16: This spyglass object was created quickly and easily using the AutoGrid option.