- [Instructor] To move objects with precision,
we'll use snaps.
The snap button is here on the main toolbar,
and it enables snap mode.
We can also get it at the snap settings.
Let's right-click on that 3D snap button.
We'll go to grid and snap settings
and we could potentially snap to all kinds of stuff
like vertices or grid lines.
But by default,
we're only going to snap to grid points
or the intersections of grid lines,
and that's what we want.
So just make sure that only grid points are enabled
in this case.
So I'll close that dialogue.
Let's now enable snaps.
Just click that button to turn it on.
And we can go over to one of these view ports
like the top view and click in there.
And move the cursor around.
We don't see anything special happening,
and that's because positional snaps
will only work when a position-based tool is active
such as the select and move tool or primitive creation tool.
If we activate the select and move tool
and move the cursor around,
now we see something.
We've got a yellow box.
That's the snap cursor.
And it's different from the mouse cursor.
The snap cursor can actually move in three dimensions,
it can be placed anywhere in the scene.
The mouse cursor operates only in two dimensions.
So Max uses that mouse cursor position on the screen
to move the snap cursor to somewhere in the 3D world.
And you can kind of tell that they're not the same
because if you move the mouse just ever so slightly,
just a tiny bit,
you'll see that the snap cursor doesn't necessarily move.
It snaps to the nearest grid point
that's close to the mouse cursor.
Okay, so that can get tricky sometimes.
Even if you're not careful,
the cursor might move to an unexpected location
and you may not even realize it's happening.
I will show you how to control snaps
so you don't get unpleasant surprises.
Let's talk about the different types of snap.
Go up here to the button
and hold it down and you'll get a flyout.
You'll see, we have 3D snaps, 2D snaps
and something called 2.5D snaps.
All right, let's look at 2D and 3D snaps.
We'll start with 2D snaps.
When 2D snap is enabled,
the cursor will snap to something
on the current construction plane,
and the construction planes by default
are the 3D plane of the world.
That is the X,Y plane, the Y,Z plane and the Z,X plane.
And since we're snapping to grid points,
we're going to snap to grid points on one of those planes.
Okay, but 2D snaps only work
if the object is already on the current construction plane.
So that means it's really kind of not that helpful.
Unless your object is already on the construction plane,
2D snaps won't even work.
So to illustrate,
2D snaps are on,
got the select and move tool active.
I'll select one of these pergola cross beams here
and try to move it around,
and I'm not getting any snapping.
Nothing's happening.
Hmm, all right, I'll undo that with Control + Z.
Try it in another view port,
maybe go over to this perspective view
and grab the move gizmo and move it around.
And we'll see that,
not only is it not snapping,
but something even weirder is happening.
The object is moving in all three dimensions.
We can see in the other view ports
that it's changing elevation.
So that tells us that the 2D snap tool, if it's active,
it just work only if the object
is on the construction plane,
but additionally, 2D snaps will cause the object
to move relative to the current view port.
When I move this object around,
it's moving in the space of the picture plane
of the perspective view
and that's why it's changing elevation here.
All right, I'm going to undo that with Control + Z
a couple of times, send that back where it was.
So again, 2D snaps are absolutely only useful
if the object is already on the construction plane.
So just to illustrate, let's make a box,
activate the box to go over to the top view port,
click and drag to set the footprint,
release the mouse,
drag upwards to set the height
and click again to create that box,
and then right-click to exit that creation.
We've got the move tool active and in 2D snaps
the box has an elevation of zero.
We can see that the Z value for the position is zero.
And as long as we move that object in the top view port
and the object is at a position of zero in the Z-axis,
then 2D snaps are actually going to work.
Okay, that's all just to illustrate
that 2D snaps have very limited usefulness.
I'll delete that box.
Press the Delete key on the keyboard.
Now let's talk about 3D snaps.
We'll go up here and choose 3D snaps.
And when that's enabled,
it will cause the cursor to snap
to something in the 3D world, wherever it is.
And if we're snapping to the grid points in 3D snap mode,
then it's going to snap to points on the grid
that is displayed in the active view port.
Okay, so to illustrate that,
and if I select one of these pergola cross beams
in the top view port and then move around,
look at what's happened in our front and left views.
It has actually sent the pergola cross beam
down to the construction plane
or the grid that's visible in the top view port.
It's sent the object down to an elevation of zero.
Hmm, okay, I'll undo that with Control + Z.
Let's try it in the perspective.
You do the same thing.
Right-click so we don't lose our selection,
and then click and drag on that move gizmo.
And once again, the same thing has happened.
It's moved that object down to the construction plane
or the grid that's visible in that perspective view.
Okay.
So let's undo that with Control + Z.
And that will operate the same in other views.
It's going to cause the object to snap to the grid
that is visible in the current view.
So if I go over to the left view,
right-click in there so I don't lose my selection,
and then move that cross beam around.
It's snapping to the grid that's visible in the left view,
which is the Y,Z grid,
and that effectively sends the object
to an X position of zero.
We can see that here.
That cross beam has now had an X position of zero.
Okay, I'll undo that with Control + Z as well.
Okay, so that's how snaps work,
and those are actually some of the bugaboos
or the things you need to be aware of.
These are things that be kind of gotchas
that will kind of get you in trouble,
but in next movie, we're going to look at
how to work around these issues
and get a bit more predictable behavior to the snap tools.