- Now that we have an understanding of how
the scale works in 3ds Max,
we can set up our grid
which is a visual aid,
gives us a sense of where things are
and also how large they are.
We'll start by setting up our units.
Going into the customized menu,
to units set up,
and let's choose metric,
with centimeters.
Go ahead and click okay.
Now let's change up the grid.
We want to do this
before we begin modeling,
so that we don't run into any
unexpected problems later.
To change the grid settings, go up to the main toolbar
and you'll see some icons up here that have little magnets,
these are various types of snapping.
We have 3D snapping and angle snapping and so on.
Right click on the 3D snap icon,
and we get the grid and snap settings dialogue.
In the snaps tab,
we can choose what we're going to snap to.
And by default, we're going to snap to grid points.
But we're not concerned with snapping right now,
We're more interested in the grid.
Go to the home grid tab.
We have the grid spacing.
And right now it's set to 25.4 centimeters.
If I want to model a small object
like a consumer product,
then I probably want to set my grid spacing
to something like one centimeter.
Let's do that.
We'll set the grid spacing
to one centimeter and press enter.
And a couple things happened.
First of all, we can see
that the spacing of the grid has changed.
And second of all, in the perspective view,
the scale or the size of the grid is much, much smaller.
All right, let's talk about this next option here.
This field labeled major lines,
every Nth grid line.
That's a bit of a mouthful.
What that determines is the spacing of the major lines
which are these slightly darker lines.
And by default,
we're going to get a major grid line,
every 10th minor grid line.
So effectively, we're going to get a minor line
or a grid line, every one centimeter.
And we're going to get a major grid line,
every one times 10 centimeters.
If I was working in feet and inches,
I might do something like set my grid spacing to
one inch
and set the major lines,
every Nth grid line to 12,
so I get a major line every 12 inches.
But here in the metric system,
the value of 10 is exactly what I want.
And we have the perspective view grid extent,
that determines the size
of the grid and the perspective view.
Right now it's only seven centimeters
from center to edge.
So let's increase this value.
I'll set to 150 and press enter.
Now my perspective grid is 150 centimeters
from the origin to the edge of the grid.
Now, by the way, I can still snap to grid points
in the perspective view, even if the grid is not visible
in that area.
This is just the display of the grid
but the grid itself is actually infinite.
All right, next, we come to a very
important switch down here.
Inhibit grid subdivision below grid spacing.
That is on by default.
We want to make sure stays on
and I'll show you why.
I'll close this dialogue
and let's zoom in and out in the top view.
I'll go over there, click in that view to give it focus.
And I can zoom in with Control + alt and middle mouse drag.
And as I zoom in, eventually what will happen is
the grid will automatically subdivide.
So keep going in and boom, there, it just happened.
So zoom out and we have grid spacing
zoom in a little bit more and boom,
now that grid is automatically subdivided.
Okay, When that inhibits switches on,
the grid will never subdivide smaller
than the current grid spacing,
which in this case is one centimeter.
And that's important because
there are no numbers on the grid in 3ds Max.
There's no way for me to know,
exactly what these grid spacings represent.
If I keep zooming in Control + alt and middle mouse,
I will eventually get to a point where
we don't subdivide any smaller.
Now I know that the grid spacing
or the distance between grid intersection points,
is one centimeter.
If I zoom back out again
Control + alt and middle mouse,
again the subdivisions are going to be adaptive.
So when I zoom out here,
it may be deceptive.
I may think that this is one centimeter
but it's not.
The only way I'll know,
whether I'm dealing with a centimeter is
If I zoom in really, really tight,
and then it doesn't subdivide anymore.
Fact that there are no numbers
on the grid can actually get you
into trouble, if you're not careful.
So just to illustrate,
if I Dolly back
to quite a distance away,
I'm going to be creating objects
that are very, very large.
So let's just illustrate.
So I go over to the create panel,
click on sphere
and click and drag,
I've just created a mega massive sphere.
It's something like 20,000 centimeters in radius.
And that just happened because I had dollied way back
and I wasn't really clear on what my units were.
All right so I can delete that.
Just press the delete key on the keyboard.
And again,
if I want to make sure I'm dealing with centimeters
here in the view port,
I want to dolly forward until
those grid lines no longer subdivide.
And now I know for sure I'm dealing with centimeters.
My sphere tool is still active.
I can click and drag and know,
that I've created a sphere
that's approximately one centimeter in radius.
It's how to set up the grid spacing.