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The ViewCube also lets you click and drag on the cube to rotate the view around. You can also click and drag on the base ring to spin the model about its current orientation. Above the ViewCube is a small house icon. Clicking this icon changes the view to the defined home view. You can set the Home view by right-clicking the ViewCube and selecting the Set Current View as Home option from the pop-up menu. These same menu options are also available in the Views⇒ViewCube menu. If the ViewCube isn't visible, you can enable it using the Views⇒ViewCube⇒Show For Active View. There is also an option to Show For All Views.

Other pop-up menu options let you switch the view between Orthographic and Perspective views. You can also set the current view as Front, reset the Front view, and open the ViewCube panel that is located in the Viewport Configuration dialog box, as shown in Figure 2.4.

FIGURE 2.4

The ViewCube panel in the Viewport Configuration dialog box lets you control where and how the ViewCube appears.

The ViewCube panel in the Viewport Configuration dialog box includes settings for turning the ViewCube on and off for All Views or for Only the Active View. You can also set the ViewCube size and its inactive opacity.

Tip

If you like the ViewCube but you feel that it takes up too much of the viewport, then you can change its size to Small or Tiny or you can set its inactive opacity to 0. When its inactive opacity is set to 0, the ViewCube isn't visible at all until you move the cursor over its location, causing it to appear. •

You also have options to control what happens when you click or drag the ViewCube. You can snap to the closest view when dragging the ViewCube and options to automatically make the models fit to the view when the view changes, to use animated transitions, and to keep the scene upright. If you find that the view keeps ending up at odd angles when you drag the ViewCube, try enabling the Keep Scene Upright option. Finally, you have an option to display the compass under the ViewCube and a setting for the Angle of North so you can change the compass' orientation. The compass is helpful in being able to spin the model around, but if your model is something like a planet that doesn't have a top or bottom, disabling the compass makes sense.

Using the SteeringWheels

The ViewCube is great for switching between the default views and for rotating the current view, but there are many additional navigation tools that aren't covered with the ViewCube. To handle many of these other navigation tools, such as zooming and panning, Max includes the SteeringWheels, another gizmo for navigating the viewports.

When Max is first started, the SteeringWheels are turned off, but you can enable this gizmo with the Views⇒SteeringWheels⇒Toggle SteeringWheels menu or by pressing the Shift+W shortcut. Once enabled, different parts of the wheel are highlighted when you move over them. The full navigation wheel, shown in Figure 2.5, includes the following modes:

FIGURE 2.5

The SteeringWheel gizmo includes several different ways to navigate the viewports.

• Zoom: Causes the view to zoom in and out of the scene about the pivot. The pivot is set by holding down the Ctrl key while clicking.

• Orbit: Causes the view to orbit about the pivot. The pivot is set by holding down the Ctrl key while clicking.

• Pan: Causes the view to pan in the direction that you drag the cursor.

• Rewind: As you change the scene, Max remembers each view where you stop and keeps these views in a buffer. The Rewind mode displays these views as small thumbnails, as shown in Figure 2.6, and lets you move through them by dragging the mouse. This allows you to rewind back and move forward through the buffered views.

Tip

Moving between the buffered thumbnail views with the Rewind feature gradually animates the transition between adjacent thumbnails and allows you to click to change the view to one that is between two buffered views. •

• Center: Lets you click an object to be the pivot center