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CHAPTER 1 GettinG to Know 3ds Max desiGn 2010
The Information Center Toolbar
All the way across the screen at the upper-right corner of the interface, near the traditional
Windows Minimize, Maximize, and Close buttons, is the Information Center toolbar. The
Information Center toolbar provides a search function for 3ds Max topics in the local Help files
and on the Autodesk website; the Subscription Center (if you have Subscription Center access);
the Communication Center, where you’ll receive notices of program updates and other relevant
announcements; a Favorites panel, where you can store links to commonly accessed websites;
and pages and elements from the 3ds Max Help menu.
The Main Toolbar
Just below the menu bar is the main toolbar. The tools on this toolbar offer tooltips, which are
exposed when the cursor pauses over them, to help you remember their purpose.
The first set of tools is for linking and selecting objects. The two Linking tools, one for link-
ing and the other for unlinking, cause one object to move, rotate, or scale based on commands
applied to another object. The third Linking tool, the Bind to Space Warp tool, can be used
to attach objects and space warps together. The Selection tools let you select objects by click-
ing them or by selecting them by name. The Selection filter allows you to limit what can be
selected with the cursor. You can also specify the method for selecting objects by using a selec-
tion window, which lets you indicate a selection by placing a rectangle, circle, or other border
around the objects.
To the right of the Selection tools are the Transform tools. This set of tools lets you move,
rotate, and scale objects. You can also choose the reference coordinate system, set the center of
the transform using the pivot options, toggle the keyboard shortcut overrides, use different snap
options, work with named selection sets, and use tools to mirror and align objects.
The next group of tools to the right includes access to the Layer Manager, Graphite Modeling
tools display toggle, the Track View Curve Editor, the Schematic View tools, and the Materials
and Rendering tools. The Layer Manager gives you control over all the settings for layers in
your scene and the objects contained in those layers. The Graphite Modeling tools are a com-
pletely new set of over 100 tools to improve creating and editing poly objects within 3ds Max.
The Curve Editor tools display your scene information as graphs or wiring diagrams to indicate
the functionality or relationships of scene objects. The Schematic View tools provide a visual
graph and control how all the elements of your scene are linked. The Materials tools give you
control over the appearance of objects by defining and applying their surface properties. With
these tools, you can create color, texture, opacity, and other material characteristics, and then
apply these characteristics to objects in your model. You can also open the Render Setup dialog
box, select the render type, and perform a quick render with the buttons on the far right.
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