8

Measuring Distances 13
Translation Options
By default, the Use Axis Constraints (page 1–418)
option is off. The cur rent setting on the Axis
Constraints toolbar (XY, for example) has no
effect. Turning on this option lets you use snaps in
conjunction with axis constraints.
The Translation group also lets you toggle display
ofarubberbandlinebetweenthestartandend
points during a snap operation.
Settings for Spinner Snap
You set the spinner snap on the General panel
(page 3–859)
of the Preferences dialog. Right-click
the Spinner Snap button on the main toolbar to
display this panel.
Spinner sna p—Sets a numerical increment
for spinner fields. If you’re using generic units of
1 inch, a setting of 12 would let you resize objects
by one foot with every click, or add 12 segments
to a sphere.
The same setting applies to all spinner fields. Since
spinner snap is a toggle, you can easily turn it on
when needed a nd use the default at other times.
Spinner snap has no effect on dragging a spinner,
only on single clicks.
For more information, see
Spinner Snap (page
2–37)
.
Measuring Distances
3ds Max provides several options for measuring
various aspects of your scene. The t ape, protractor
and compass helpers measure distance, angles and
direction respectively. The Measure utility has a
floatertodisplayvariousmeasurementsofany
selected object.
You can quickly measure the distance between two
points with the
Measure Distance tool (page 2–15) .
Helper Obj ects for Mea sur ement
Tape Helper
Yo u c a n c r e a t e a
Tape helper (page 2–23) by
dragging between any two points in 3D space,
much like using a physical tape measure. You then
read the length on the Parameters rollout.
IfyouturnonSpecifyLength,thelengthfield
lets you enter a value in current units. This i s like
locking a tape measure to a set length. You can
position the tape object and snap to its ends.
Thepyramidiconisthetapehelperobject;thecubeisthe
helper object’s target.
• To display length and angle settings, select only
the tape helper object (the pyr amid icon).
• To move the entire tape including its target (the
cube icon), selec t the connecting line.
Two sets of World S pace Angles give you current
readouts to the three world axes (X, Y, Z) and t he
three world planes (XY, YZ, ZX).
Tip: When measuring with precision, it is helpful
to use snaps to force the ends of the tape object to
exact locations. If there are no specific points to
snap to , you can use dummy or point helpers to
set points.
To measure with a tape helper using snaps:
1.
Locate points in the scene to which you can
snap to accurately make a measurement. If no
points like this exist, create
point objects (page
2–22)
at mea surement extremes.
2. Choose3DfromtheSnapToggleflyout.