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4 Chapter 10: Precision and Drawing Aids
Usi ng Gr i ds
One grid establishes the pitch of the boat, another the pitch
of the ship
Gridsaretwo-dimensionalarraysoflinessimilar
tographpaper,exceptthatyoucanadjustthe
spacing and other features of the gr id to the needs
of y our work.
Grids have these primary uses:
• As an aid in visualizing space, scale, and
distance.
•As
construction planes where you create and
align objects in your scene.
• As a reference system for using the Snap feature
to align objects.
HomeGridandGridObjects
3ds Max provides two kinds of grids: the home
grid and grid objects. In addition, it includes the
AutoGrid feature, an automated way of creating
grid objects.
Home gr id—Thehomegridisdefinedbythree
planes along the world X, Y, and Z axes. Each of
these axes passes through the world coordinate
system’s origin point (0,0,0). The home g rid is
fixed; it cannot be moved or rotated.
• The home grid is visible by default when you
start 3ds Max, but its display can b e turned off.
• You c a n use any view of t he home gr id as a
constructionplanebydrawingintheviewport
in which the grid’s view appears.
See
Viewing and Navigating 3D Space (p age 1–21)
for a complete introduction to the home grid.
Gri d objects—Agridobjectisahelperobjectyou
can create whenever you need a local reference
grid or construction plane somewhere other than
thehomegrid.
• You can have any number of grid objects in
yourscene,butonlyonecanbeactiveatatime.
• When act ive, a g rid object replaces the home
grid in all viewports.
• Each grid object has its own set of XY, YZ, and
ZX planes. You can freely move and rotate grid
objects, placing them at any angle in space, or
attach them to objects and surfaces.
•Youcanchangeaviewporttodisplayaplan
(top) view of any active grid object.
• Grid objects can be named and saved like other
objects, or used once and deleted.
AutoGr id—This feature lets you create new objects
and grid objects off the surfaces of other objects
on the fly. See
AutoGrid (page 2–7) .
Using the Home Grid
Thehomegridprovidesready-to-useconstruction
planes, much like a leveled building site m arked
w ith stakes and strings. When you create an object
in a viewport, the new object is placed on the
home grid plane of that viewport.
To us e the home grid effectively for construction,
you often need to change the defaults to the job at
hand, analogous to moving the stakes and strings
to match your own site plan.