Hello, [3ds max 8] Our artist passed me a model of a building. But no matter how small I scaled it down to. The dimensions(appeared in properties) are still 20K*10K (x by y). I have been using Generic units... Could any one shed some light on this? Thanks in advance Jack

in 3ds, scale doesn't do that you think it does.

A model will have dimensions (like 20x10), and on top of that, have scale. Changing the scale to 10% will make the dimensions STILL 20x10, but the scale 10%.

Quote: Original post by Pete Michaud
in 3ds, scale doesn't do that you think it does.

A model will have dimensions (like 20x10), and on top of that, have scale. Changing the scale to 10% will make the dimensions STILL 20x10, but the scale 10%.

Hi Pete,
Really thanks for the reply. Is it anyway possible for me to scale it down to my accord?... I am no artist.. I am a programmer :)
I need a model of only sized around 500x500...
What I need is the knowhow of use of 3ds max... especially changing model's dimensions. Could you please show me how?
Thanks a lot
Jack

Scale the model in 3ds as normal then apply a reset XForm (Utils Panel on the right) to the model this will change the actual vertices values to the new scaled size and reset the scaling the factor. Convert it to an edit mesh and you should be ready to go for exporting.

Quote: Original post by spookycat
Scale the model in 3ds as normal then apply a reset XForm (Utils Panel on the right) to the model this will change the actual vertices values to the new scaled size and reset the scaling the factor. Convert it to an edit mesh and you should be ready to go for exporting.

Hi Spookycat,
Thanks for your help... I'll try it right away...
Have a nice day :)
Jack

Quote: Original post by lucky6969b

Quote: Original post by spookycat
Scale the model in 3ds as normal then apply a reset XForm (Utils Panel on the right) to the model this will change the actual vertices values to the new scaled size and reset the scaling the factor. Convert it to an edit mesh and you should be ready to go for exporting.

Hi Spookycat,
Thanks for your help... I'll try it right away...
Have a nice day :)
Jack

Hi Spookycat,
Thanks for your last two posts, they are very useful.
I have encountered another problem, I'd want to "round off" 3ds max units into 0 to 2 decimal places accuracy. e.g. if the building's dimensions are x:60.2 y:10.3
and z: 40.721, I want to turn them into X:60, y: 10 and z: 40
1 decimal place accuracy would be as good. Thanks
Jack

Suspect a MaxScript would be the best way to do that. Otherwise you can do it at load time in your engine or during export. If you are building objects from scratch you can turn on 'Snapping' in Max so everything you make is then aligned to whatever snap settings you have set.

As a matter of interest why do you need this functionality?

Chris

Quote: Original post by spookycat
Suspect a MaxScript would be the best way to do that. Otherwise you can do it at load time in your engine or during export. If you are building objects from scratch you can turn on 'Snapping' in Max so everything you make is then aligned to whatever snap settings you have set.

As a matter of interest why do you need this functionality?

Chris

Hi Chris,
Thank you for your reply once again!
I am working on some ray casts, since a little bit way off the target, it won't hit.... So It needs to be very precise :)
Thanks
Jack

Hello Spookycat,
I have one final question. What is it if there is an orange border around an object? I couldn't export that one out. Other geometries I could export fine.
I have put an XForm over it, underneath it there is editable mesh. I collapse them then I couldn't see that object in my export.
Thanks
Jack

The orange borders usually show the extent of the currently selected modifier in the stack, a lot of exporters dont handle reset xforms very well so the usual thing to do is to right click the object and convert it to an editable mesh after youve reset the xform, this removes the xform modifier but leaves its results.

Chris