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4 Chapter 10: Precision and Drawing Aids
Usi ng G r id s
One grid establishes the pitch of the boat, another the pitch
of the ship
Gridsaretwo-dimensionalarraysoflinessimilar
tographpaper,exceptthatyoucanadjustthe
spacing and other features of the grid to the needs
of your work.
Grids have these primary uses:
• As an aid in visualizing space, scale, and
distance.
•Asconstruction 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 grid is
fixed; it cannot be moved or rotated.
• The home grid is visible by default when you
start 3ds Max, but its display can be turned off.
• You can u se any view of the home grid as a
constructionplanebydrawingintheviewport
in which the grid’s view appears.
See Viewing and Navigating 3D Space ( page 1–21)
for a complete introduction to the home grid.
Gri d obj ects—Agridobjectisahelperobjectyou
can create whenever you need a local reference
grid or construction plane somewhere other than
thehomegrid.
• You can have an y number of grid objects in
yourscene,butonlyonecanbeactiveatatime.
• When active, a grid o bject replaces the home
grid in al l 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 ang le 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 Gr id
Thehomegridprovidesready-to-useconstruction
planes, much like a leveled building site marked
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 use 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.