I have been trying to figure this out forever, and now it is just driving me insane. Does anyone know if it is possible to loop the mouse cursor from the bottom to the top of the screen (loop from any position to the opposite) so that you can continuously manipulate a face/poly when extruding, beveling or using some other tool?

Example: Extrude a face. You click on the face then drag down to pull it out. However, once your mouse cursor hits the edge of the screen, you run out of space and have no way of manipulating it further without typing in the attributes or using a different tool. I want it to loop to the top so I can keep pulling it down indefinitely. I know that some software applications do this by default…

Anyways, I am working in meters, large scale (Setup for the UDK). That is why it is such a problem. I can barely manipulate the object at all because of this.

Update:

So I have had others tell me it should act like this by default. Well, it has not for me since I installed Max. That was not that long ago, as I just recently switch from Maya to Max.

I have attempted to run as administrator on both 32 and 64 bit versions. No change. I disabled all 3rd party software I could think of, no change. I have gone through every preference I could think of, no change… Anyone, please I am begging for help with this.

Still going insane. I have disabled every possible 3rd party software (went through the processes one by one...). I have attempted everything I can possibly think of. I actually have neck pains now. Anyone have this happen to them before?

Attempted to uninstall mouse software and use different mice. No effect.
Attempted to run in compatibility modes and disable all visual themes. No effect.

I have the same issue, it’s very annoying. I’ve always thought it was yet another design flaw of Max. I hope it’s not.

MLB

3D Studio DOS to 3ds Max 2010
Windows XP 64
NVidia Quadro FX 3700
Dual Quad Xeon, 6Gb Ram

I did some tests with the mouse/screen border problem:

- extruding a face of an editable poly with the mouse within the viewport after clicking the extrude button: amount is limited by screen border.
- extruding a face of an editable poly with the spinner in the extrude pop-up: not limited.
- extruding a spline with the extrude modifier spinner: not limited.

MLB

3D Studio DOS to 3ds Max 2010
Windows XP 64
NVidia Quadro FX 3700
Dual Quad Xeon, 6Gb Ram

Same, I tested what you tested. Spinners work, gizmo extruding does not. We also have massively different systems, very odd. I have looked all day on Google for an answer. Hopefully someone will be able to help us. At the moment, I went back to Maya, but I really need to get used to Max…

Just tried this in Max 7 - same results. If it’s a bug, it’s been around for a long time, it is much more likely to be a limitaion of the way the screen is handled in the viewports - even switching to the old Software viewport drivers does this, so at least it’s consistent.

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

I have seen people in training videos do this so I know it is possible. We are using different versions of Max, different versions of Windows and our hardware is way different… I have no idea what it could be.

/bump for the love of all that is holy, someone help with this…

@MLB

As much as I would love to say that Maya is flat out better, that would be a lie. The truth it, they are both powerful in their own ways. I can tell you right now, that with just the new tools I have learned in MAX, I know once I get comfortable with it I will be able to pump out assets much faster than I did with Maya.

So far though, I have to say that Maya is more fluid. This is basically because you really only have a few important tools at your disposal. You make most of your models using, insert edge loop, extrude, split polygon and the movement widget… You have to teach yourself trick on how to get stuff done, and think more visually. There are not modifiers, so if you wanted to bend geometry… that is not so simple. You do not rely on the tools as much as you do your imagination. However, I think MEL script is more powerful than MAX Script honestly… Plus I think Mayas hotkeys make more sense. In combination with how the viewports work, you can save a lot of time in Maya. For instance, you do not have to click on the viewports to active them, you can just mouse over them and hit the hotkey and it will work in that viewport. Tap spacebar is maximize viewport, so you can literally go from one to the next in a fraction of a second. Small things like this save you so much time over the course of a project.

As for stability, I have been using Maya since Maya 8 and it seems to have improved in every version. I just recently started to pick up MAX and I already see so many problems and bugs… From what I have read through searching Google, each version of MAX has a ton of bugs till the first service pack…

Basically, they are both excellent. I see most people use MAX for modeling and Maya for animation. I just really want to get fluent in MAX so that I can have both software packages on my resume… especially since I am making a push towards the game design industry.

I really wish Autodesk would start getting their teams to work together slightly. I do not want both of them to be the same, but it would be nice to make a push towards a universal control system in Cartesian coordinated space. Not to mention, universal hotkeys. They could make it an option that can be toggled…

If you have specific questions on Max vs Maya, just let me know and I will try to address them, you can PM me if needed.

Just an update… scale does work also. So it is JUST the other tools. Makes no sense.