Ok here is the question explanation. I need to rotate a circle that alligns to a line for which I don’t know the angle. In my drawing if you are looking from the front view, the circle looks like a horizontal line. The line to which I want to align is not horizontal, but at about 75 degrees. So how would you make the circle align to the line (ie. so that you couldn’t tell the circle from the line (make them parallel) - in the front view.) I think it would be a cool feature for Max, if you could rotate something to a vertex or another snap feature (like midpoint or edge, etc...) It could probably be done by freezing the “pivot” vertex and moving the others.

Any ideas? Come on autodesk. Sounds like a Service Pack feature :)

Wouldn’t you click the ‘Align’ icon, then pick on the Line & select either X, Y or Z axis in the “Align Orientation” section?

Trevor Specht
3DS Max V9, Combustion V4, Adobe Production Premium CS3
Asus P5-BE Plus, Window Vista Ult 32bit, QX6600 Quad Core, 3Gb RAM,
2x320Gb Hard Drives, XFX 8800GTX Graphics

In general, if you want to rotate an object around any arbitrary point (vertex):-

Select 3D Snaps and check the Vertex box (only) in the Grid and Snap Settings dialog
Select the object you want to rotate and lock the selection (spacebar)
Click “Rotate”, choose the “View” coordinate system and then choose “Use Transform Coordinate Center” from the flyout
Click the axis you want to rotate about on the gizmo itself (or use the Axis Constraints Toolbar) then place the cursor over the vertex you want to be the center, click and drag to perform the rotation.

Max 4.2 through 2013.
XP-64 (SP2)
NVidia 9800GTX-512 (Driver 266.58).
Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz, 8Gb Ram, DX9.0c.

tspecht 29 October 2007 05:34 AM

Wouldn’t you click the ‘Align’ icon, then pick on the Line & select either X, Y or Z axis in the “Align Orientation” section?

No, this will aling the circle to to the line, but not rotate it.

Steve,
In 3ds you can’t snap to a vertex while in the rotate gizmo, at least I couldn’t do it following your instructions.

You can - I just did it - see the images. 1st is with the cursor snapped to a corner vertex on the box, 2nd is immediately after clicking and dragging a bit. Note how the Gizmo has “jumped” to the new center.

Max 4.2 through 2013.
XP-64 (SP2)
NVidia 9800GTX-512 (Driver 266.58).
Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz, 8Gb Ram, DX9.0c.

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Oh cool thanks, but it still doesn’t help me in to do what I need. Now I can rotate about a vertex BUT how do I snap to the vertex that lies on the other end of the line - while rotating about the first vertex? Sorry I am noob…

Turn on the angle snap tool and set to 5 degree increments in the options - this sounds like what you want? Also make sure you have pivot from center selected which is pull down next the the top “view” thing (just to right of that)

Also here is Max 2008 working pivot demo movie which might help you out:

http://download.autodesk.com/us/...os/Modeling%20-%20UVW.mp4

If the line has arbitrary rotation in all 3 axes, then it’s unlikely the the angle of the line, as viewed in any ortho viewport, is going to be exactly on 5 degrees. I’ve been worrying at this on and off all evening - I cant find a precise method of doing it. Other than doing it “by eye” of course.

Max 4.2 through 2013.
XP-64 (SP2)
NVidia 9800GTX-512 (Driver 266.58).
Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz, 8Gb Ram, DX9.0c.

He needs to screen grab what hes trying to do so I can tell what the exact problem is.

MaxHomeMayaWork 29 October 2007 08:14 PM

Turn on the angle snap tool and set to 5 degree increments in the options - this sounds like what you want?

Nope, I know about the angle snap, but what if I don’t know the angle by wich to rotate. I could find out by using the angle measure, but it might not give me an exact angle. Some things in MAX are approximate, I know, which can be very frustrating when I need to do something more precisely.
Hehe you posted while i was writing. Steve is correct about this - the only way is by eye.

From reading the 1st post again I believe the attached shows what he’s trying to do.

in short - Rotate the blue circle such that in one ortho viewport it appears to be precisely aligned with the line, like the Orange circle is in the Left viewport. That was rotated “by eye” and is therefore not “perfectly” aligned, but is sufficient to demonstrate the problem (I think).

The Line has been rotated randomly in all 3 axes, the circles started out flat on the ground plane (XY).

NB File is a Max2008 scene.

Max 4.2 through 2013.
XP-64 (SP2)
NVidia 9800GTX-512 (Driver 266.58).
Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz, 8Gb Ram, DX9.0c.

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499_dWbbsB8gtRqWVkRtyMEp.zip