Datasheet

the bottoM line

The Bottom Line

Navigate and conﬁgure the viewports. The 3ds Max viewports can be conﬁgured in sev-

eral ways, including setting the quantity and conﬁguration of the viewports.

Master It Conﬁgure the viewports so that three small viewports are stacked on the left

side and one larger viewport is on the right. From top to bottom, set the three stacked

viewports to be Top, Front, and Right respectively; then set the large viewport to a per-

spective view.

Dock and ﬂoat toolbars. The 3ds Max user interface has several customizable features,

including the ability to hide or expose and dock or ﬂoat the program’s toolbars.

Master It Detach the Command panel from the right side of the 3ds Max window and

release it so that it ﬂoats in the middle of the 3ds Max window. Select the Command

panel again and attach it to the left side. Expose a hidden toolbar and dock it to the left of

the Command panel.

Copy objects and use the Transform tools. The Transform tools (Move, Rotate, and Scale)

are the most commonly used tools in 3ds Max. With them, you can position, orient, and scale

your objects as required in the scene. You can quickly create a copy in 3ds Max, a process

called c lo n ing, by holding down the Shift key while using any of the Transform tools.

Master It Make a box that is 3´ long, 10˝ wide, and 8˝ high. Make ﬁve instance clones of

the box and rotate each clone 20 degrees more than the previous clone. Stack the boxes

like a spiral staircase, with an increasing amount of swing with each stair and leaving no

vertical or horizontal gaps in the stairs.

Create a named selection set. Whenever any objects are selected in 3ds Max, the

selected objects are referred to as a selection set. Often, you may need to repeatedly

select the same objects for different operations. By creating named selection sets, you can

quickly select objects by selecting the selections set name from a drop-down list.

Master It Continuing from the previous Master It exercise, rename the boxes to Step1,

Step2, Step3, and so on, starting with the top step. Make and test two named selection sets,

one containing the lower three steps and another containing the even-numbered steps.

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