Page 272 - Kitab3DsMax

Part II: Working with Objects

Using the Snaps toolbar
As a shortcut to enabling the various snapping categories, you can access the Snaps toolbar by right-clicking
the main toolbar away from the buttons and selecting Snaps from the popup menu. The Snaps toolbar,
shown in Figure 7.21, can have several toggle buttons enabled at a time. Each enabled button is highlighted
in yellow.

FIGURE 7.21
The Snaps toolbar provides a quick way to access several snap settings.
Snap to Endpoint Snap to Edge/Segment
Snap to Pivot Snap to Frozen Object

Snap Snap Snap Snap to Face Snaps
to Grid to Vertex to Use Axis
Points Midpoint Constraints

Tutorial: Creating a lattice for a methane molecule
Many molecules are represented by a lattice of spheres. Trying to line up the exact positions of the spheres
by hand could be extremely frustrating, but using the Snap feature makes this challenge . . . well . . . a snap.
One of the simpler molecules is methane, which is composed of one carbon atom surrounded by four
smaller hydrogen atoms. To reproduce this molecule as a lattice, you first need to create a tetrahedron
primitive and snap spheres to each of its corners.
To create a lattice of the methane molecule, follow these steps:
1. Right-click the Snap toggle button in the main toolbar to open the Grid and Snap Settings, and
enable the Grid Points and Vertex options. Then click the Snap toggle button (or press the S key)
to enable 3D Snap mode.
2. Select the Create ➪ Extended Primitives ➪ Hedra menu command, set the P Family Parameter to
1.0, and drag in the Top viewport from the center of the Home Grid to the first grid point to the
right to create a Tetrahedron shape.
3. Click and hold the Snap toggle button, and select the 3D Snap flyout option. Select the
Create ➪ Standard Primitives ➪ Sphere menu command. Right-click in the Left viewport, and drag
from the top-left vertex to create a sphere. Set the sphere’s Radius to 25.
4. Create three more sphere objects with Radius values of 25 that are snapped to the vertices of the
Tetrahedron object.
5. Finally, create a sphere in the Top viewport using the same snap point as the initial tetrahedron.
Set its Radius to 80.
Figure 7.22 shows the finished methane molecule.

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