I came across some snapping goodies and thought I would pass them along to all of you.

1.            Polar and Ortho Snap - This first one has been in 3ds max for a few versions and I recently "found" it when looking for something completely different. Both of these snaps are hidden in the customize UI but you can access it in the following manner. Open up your Customize UI and go to the Toolbars tab. You will find them both in the list under Ortho and Polar (it's all alphabetical) :

Simply drag these to a toolbar of your choice. I use the Snaps toolbar which ships as the default: 

Once activated, the ortho snap limits you to 90 degree snapping when using something like the Line tool. Notice the angle gizmo. The ortho snap works in the same way only it's limitation is in 5 degree increments:

2.            Alternate Snapping - This function allows you to alternate between snapping modes. Say you have 3 snaps selected, but you need to temporarily override to vetex, then switch back to all. This is accomplished via the snaps override which is a keyboard command. If you open your snaps window (right-click on one of the snaps tools), you will see an "overrride OFF" button in grey.

Once you initiate a snap, use the Alt+S to cycle between the overrides. The temp override is highlighted in yellow with the name of the override snap: 

As you continue to hit the Alt+S, you will see the override button switch between the various snaps you have active, i.e. Pivot to Vertex to Edge/Segment as in the graphic above. This is a great way to snap a pivot to a vertex or a vertex to an edge.

I hope this was useful to at least one of you. Enjoy!

Mark Kauffman
Technical Lead / PA
Project Visualization TEC
Parsons Brinckerhoff, Inc.
Kauffman@pbworld.com

Glen Loyd

Lead Design Visualization Specialist  | Parsons Brinckerhoff
www.pbprojectviz.com