Page 172 - Kitab3DsMax

Part I: Getting Started with 3ds Max

Caution
Be cautious when working with objects that are positioned a long way from the scene origin. The farther an object
is from the origin, the lower its accuracy and the less precisely you can move it. If you are having trouble pre-
cisely positioning an object (in particular, an object that has been imported from an external file), check the
object’s distance from the origin. Moving it closer to the origin should help resolve the problem. n

Handling mismatched units
Imagine designing a new ski resort layout. For such a project, you’d want to probably use kilometers as the
file units. If your next project is to design a custom body design on a race car, then you’ll want to use
meters as the new units. If you need to reopen the ski resort project while your units are set to meters, then
you’ll get a File Load: Units Mismatch dialog box, shown in Figure 4.20.

FIGURE 4.20
The Units Mismatch dialog box lets you synch up units between the current file and the system settings.

This dialog box reminds you that the units specified in the file that you are opening don’t match the current
units setting. This also can happen when trying to merge in an object with a different units setting. The dia-
log box lists the units used in both the file and the system and offers two options. The Rescale the File
Objects to the System Unit Scale option changes the units in the file to match the current system units set-
ting. The second option changes the system units to match the file unit settings.

Tip
If you rescale the file object to match the system file units setting, then the objects will either appear tiny or huge
in the current scene. Use the Zoom Extents All button to see the rescaled objects in the viewport. n
Rescaling world units
If you discover halfway through your scene that you’re working with the wrong units, you can use the
Rescale World Units utility to scale up the entire scene or just selected objects. To access this utility, click
the Utilities panel and then the More button. In the utilities list, select the Rescale World Units utility and
click OK.
The Rescale World Units dialog box has a Scale Factor value, which is the value by which the scene or
objects are increased or decreased. If your world was created using millimeter units and you need to work
in meters, then increasing by a Scale Factor of 1000 will set the world right.

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