3ds Max 2012 Bible - Kelly L. Murdock [168]
To exit subobject edit mode, click the subobject button (displayed in yellow) again. Remember, you must exit this mode before you can select another object.
Note
Selected subobject edges appear in the viewports in red to distinguish them from edges of the selected object, which appear white when displayed as wireframes. •
After you're in a subobject mode, you can click on a subobject (or drag over an area to select multiple subobjects) to select it and edit the subobject using the transformation buttons on the main toolbar. You can transform subobjects just like other objects.
Cross-Reference
For more information on transforming objects, see Chapter 7, “Transforming Objects, Pivoting, Aligning, and Snapping.” •
When working with Editable Poly objects in subobject mode, you can use Press and Release keyboard shortcuts. These shortcuts are identified in bold in the Editable Poly group of the Keyboard panel of the Customize User Interface dialog box. When using these keyboard shortcuts, you can access a different editing mode without having to exit subobject mode. For example, if you press and hold Alt+C while in Polygon subobject mode, you can make a cut with the Cut tool, and when you release the keyboard keys you'll return to Polygon subobject mode.
Cross-Reference
You can learn more about the Customize User Interface dialog box in Chapter 4, “Changing Interface Units and Setting Preferences.” •
You can select multiple subobjects at the same time by dragging an outline over them. You can also select multiple subobjects by holding down the Ctrl key while clicking them. The Ctrl key can also deselect selected subobjects while maintaining the rest of the selection. Holding down the Alt key removes any selected vertices from the current selection set.
With one of the transform buttons selected, hold down the Shift key while clicking and dragging on a subobject to clone it. During cloning, the Clone Part of Mesh dialog box appears, enabling you to Clone to Object or Clone to Element. Using the Clone to Object option makes the selection an entirely new object, and you are able to give the new object a name. If the Clone to Element option is selected, the clone remains part of the existing object but is a new element within that object.
If you hold down the Ctrl key while choosing a different subobject mode, the current selection is maintained for the new subobject type. For example, if you select all the polygons in the top half of a model using the Polygon subobject mode and click the Vertex subobject mode while holding down the Ctrl key, all vertices in the top half of the model are selected. This works only for the applicable subobjects. If the selection of polygons doesn't have any borders, then holding down the Ctrl key while clicking the Border subobject mode selects nothing.
You also can hold down the Shift key to select only those subobjects that lie on the borders of the current selection. For example, selecting all the polygons in the top half of a model using the Polygon subobject mode and clicking the Vertex subobject mode with the Shift key held down selects only those vertices that surround the selection and not the interior vertices.
Subobject selection
The Selection rollout, shown in Figure 13.2, includes options for selecting subobjects. The By Vertex option is available in all but the Vertex subobject mode. It requires that you click a vertex in order to select an edge, border, polygon, or element. It selects all edges and borders that are connected to a vertex when the vertex is selected. The Ignore Backfacing option selects only those subobjects with normals pointing toward the current viewport. For example, if you are trying to select some faces on a sphere, only the faces on the side closest to you are selected. If