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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.

FIGURE 7.22

A methane molecule lattice drawn with the help of the Snap feature

Summary

Transforming objects in Max is one of the fundamental actions you can perform. The three basic ways to transform objects are moving, rotating, and scaling. Max includes many helpful features to enable these transformations to take place quickly and easily. In this chapter, you learned these features:

• Using the Move, Rotate, and Scale buttons and the Transform Gizmos

• Transforming objects precisely with the Transform Type-In dialog box and status bar fields

• Using Transform Managers to change coordinate systems and lock axes

• Aligning objects with the align tool, aligning normals, and aligning to views

• Manipulating pivot points and using a Working Pivot

• Working with grids

• Setting up snap points

• Snapping objects to snap points

In the next chapter, you work more with multiple objects by learning how to clone objects. Using these techniques, you could very quickly have too many objects (and you were worried that there weren't enough objects).

Chapter 8: Cloning Objects and Creating Object Arrays

IN THIS CHAPTER

Cloning objects

Understanding copies, instances, and references

Using the Mirror and Snapshot tools

Spacing clones along a path with the Spacing tool

Using the Clone and Align tool

Creating object arrays

Using the Ring Array system

The only thing better than one perfect object is two perfect objects. Cloning objects is the process of creating copies of objects. These copies can maintain an internal connection (called an instance or a reference) to the original object that allows them to be modified along with the original object. For example, if you create a school desk and clone it multiple times as an instance to fill a room, then changing the parameter of one of the desks automatically changes it for all the other desks also.

An array is a discrete set of regularly ordered objects. So creating an array of objects involves cloning several copies of an object in a pattern, such as in rows and columns or in a circle.

I'm sure you have the concept for that perfect object in your little bag of tricks, and this chapter lets you copy it over and over after you get it out.

Cloning Objects

You can clone objects in Max in a couple of ways (and cloning luckily has nothing to do with DNA or gene splices). One method is to use the Edit⇒Clone (Ctrl+V) menu command, and another method is to transform an object while holding down the Shift key. You won't need to worry about these clones attacking anyone (unlike Star Wars: Episode II).

Using the Clone command

You can create a duplicate object by choosing the Edit⇒Clone (Ctrl+V) menu command. You must select an object before the Clone command becomes active, and you must not be in a Create mode. Selecting this command opens the Clone Options dialog box, shown in Figure 8.1, where you can give the clone a name and specify it as a Copy, Instance, or Reference. You can also copy any controllers associated with the object as a Copy or an Instance.

Caution

The Edit menu doesn't include the common Windows cut, copy, and paste commands because many objects and subobjects cannot be easily pasted into a different place. However, you will find a Clone (Ctrl+V) command, which can duplicate a selected object. •

FIGURE 8.1

The Clone Options dialog box defines the new object as a Copy, Instance, or Reference.

Note

The difference between