Datasheet

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Part I ✦ Learning the Max Interface
The Create Camera from View (replacing the Match Camera to View) command (Ctrl+C) cre-
ates a camera and positions it to match the current view. The Add Default Lights to Scene
command converts the default lights to actual light objects in the scene. This feature lets you
start with the default lights and modify them as needed.
The keyboard shortcut for the Create Camera from View command is Ctrl+C, which is the
same as the commonly used Copy command in most other Windows programs. The con-
cepts of Cut, Copy, and Paste don’t really work in Max, and you might find yourself using this
keyboard shortcut by accident occasionally. If you find that you’ve used this command incor-
rectly, you can use the Undo View Change (Shift+Z) to undo the change.
The Redraw All Views (keyboard shortcut, `) command refreshes each viewport and makes
everything visible again (as objects get moved around, they often mask one another and lines
disappear). Activate All Maps turns on all maps, and Deactivate All Maps turns off all maps.
Material maps can take up lots of memory and can slow the viewport rendering. Update
During Spinner Drag causes a viewport to interactively show the results of a parameter value
change set with spinner controls. Spinners are controls with up and down arrows to their
right that can be changed by clicking and dragging on the control. The Adaptive Degradation
Toggle (O) is an option that enables the animation to degrade the image resolution (by down-
grading the rendering method) in order to maintain a consistent frame rate. This can help
when you’re trying to perfect the timing of an animation sequence and you don’t need the
prettiest-looking images in the viewports.
The Expert Mode command (Ctrl+X) maximizes viewport space by removing the menus, main
toolbar, Command Panel, Viewport Navigation buttons, status bar, and prompt line from the
interface.
Most of the Views menu commands are covered in detail in Chapter 2, “Seeing It All—
Working with the Viewports.”
The Create menu
The Create menu includes an easy way to create objects without your having to access the
Command Panel. Selecting an object from the Create menu automatically opens the Create
panel and selects the correct category, subcategory, and button needed to create the object.
After selecting the menu option, you simply need to click in one of the viewports to create
the object.
Several new categories have been added to the Create menu in 3ds max 6, including AEC
Objects, Compound, Patch Grids, NURBS, Dynamics, Helpers, Space Warps, and Systems. The
previous categories must have been really lonely.
The Create menu includes several categories, and you can find a corresponding button for
each submenu item in the Command Panel. Table 1-1 lists the Create menu and submenus.
Almost all the submenus found in the Create menu have a chapter dedicated to them. For
example, coverage of primitive objects can be found in Chapter 5, “Creating and Editing
Primitive Objects.” The one exception is the Helpers category, which is scattered throughout
many chapters, but you can find several helpers discussed in Chapter 12, “Modeling Basics.”
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