Page 178 - Kitab3DsMax

Part I: Getting Started with 3ds Max

Cross-Ref
For a more detailed discussion of ghosting, see Chapter 21, “Understanding Animation and Keyframes.” n

Using the middle mouse button
If you’re using a mouse that includes a middle button (this includes a mouse with a scrolling wheel), then
you can define how the middle button is used. The two options are Pan/Zoom and Stroke.
Panning, rotating, and zooming with the middle mouse button
The Pan/Zoom option pans the active viewport if the middle button is held down, zooms in and out by
steps if you move the scrolling wheel, rotates the view if you hold down the Alt key while dragging, and
zooms smoothly if you drag the middle mouse button with the Ctrl and Alt keys held down. You also can
zoom in quickly using the scroll wheel with the Ctrl button held down, or more slowly with the Alt key
held down. You can select options to zoom about the mouse point in the Orthographic and Perspective
viewports. If disabled, you’ll zoom about the center of the viewport. The Right Click Menu Over Selected
Only option causes the quadmenus to appear only if you right-click on top of the selected object. This is a
bad idea if you use the quadmenus frequently.

Tip
I’ve found that using the middle mouse button along with the Alt key for rotating is the simplest and easiest way to
navigate the viewport, so although Strokes is a clever idea, I always set the middle mouse button to Pan/Zoom. n

Using strokes
The Stroke option lets you execute commands by dragging a predefined stroke in a viewport. With the
Stroke option selected, close the Preference Settings dialog box and drag with the middle mouse button
held down in one of the viewports. A simple dialog box identifies the stroke and executes the command
associated with it. If no command is associated, then a simple dialog box appears that lets you Continue (do
nothing) or Define the stroke.
Another way to work with strokes is to enable the Strokes Utility. This is done by selecting the Utility panel,
clicking the More button, and selecting Strokes from the pop-up list of utilities. This utility makes a Draw
Strokes button active. When the button is enabled, it turns yellow and you can draw strokes with the left
mouse button and access defined strokes with the middle mouse button.
If you select to define the stroke, the Define Stroke dialog box, shown in Figure 4.24, is opened. You also
can open this dialog box directly by holding down the Ctrl key while dragging a stroke with the middle
mouse button. In the upper-left corner of this dialog box is a grid. Strokes are identified by the lines they
cross on this grid as they are drawn. For example, an “HK” stroke would be a vertical line dragged from the
top of the viewport straight down to the bottom.
With a stroke identified, you can select a command in the upper-right pane. This is the command that exe-
cutes when you drag the stroke with the middle mouse button in the viewport. For each command, you can
set the options found below the stroke grid. These options define what the command is executed on.
All defined strokes are saved in a set, and you can review the current set of defined strokes with the Review
button. Clicking this button opens the Review Strokes dialog box where all defined strokes and their com-
mands are displayed, as shown in Figure 4.25.
One of the commands available in the list of commands is Stroke Preferences. Using this command opens
the Stroke Preferences dialog box, also shown in Figure 4.25, where you can save and delete different
stroke sets, specify to list commands or strokes in the Review Strokes dialog box, set how long the stroke
grid and extents appear, and set the Stroke Point Size.
130

6/30/10 3:35 PM
09_617779-ch04.indd 130 6/30/10 3:35 PM
09_617779-ch04.indd 130