Quite simply, is there a way to change the orientation of the top viewport?

As an example, creating an arc spline in the top viewport results in 0° being on the right hand side, or the 3 o’clock position. Could the whole top viewport be orientated so that 0° was at the 12 o’clock position?

I appreciate you probably wouldn’t have the need to do this for the other viewports but the top viewport is a little special in this regard, like being able to turn a map so that ‘up’ points North.

This isn’t really a big deal, it would just be handy to be able to do it sometimes.

Regards.

Max 8 to 2010.
PC: 3GHz Laptop, 2Gb RAM. (8 day winder!)
OS: XP Pro 32 (SP3)
GFX: I think it has some, somewhere.

I don’t think so - if there is I’ve never come across it - the 3 default Ortho Views are “locked” to the main axes. If you rotate the view,they change to a User (Orthographic) view i.e. thay are just a “special case” Ortho view.

Try this as a work-around.

Switch the Top VP to Perspective, Create a Camera (Ctrl+C), Rotate the Camera appropriately (in a different VP), go back to the Top VP and change it to a User View.

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

Thanks Steve, I appreciate your time.

I had a feeling that may be the answer, I guess I’ll have to soldier on with 0° being 90° CW for a while longer, unless where 0° is can be changed rather than the whole viewport?

Whatever, I’ll take it as read that its a no-go, thanks for the work-around too.

Regards.

Max 8 to 2010.
PC: 3GHz Laptop, 2Gb RAM. (8 day winder!)
OS: XP Pro 32 (SP3)
GFX: I think it has some, somewhere.

Maybe, though again it’s a bit of a fudge to do it.

Create a Grid Helper and rotate it in such a way that it is oriented how you want it. Make the grid active Right-Click > Activate Grid. Switch one of the Viewports to Extended Viewports > Grid > Top. Create your Arc - it will be created flat on the Grid and therefore have the same orientation.

You can’t really alter the defaults as everything is relative to the 3 main axes which cannot, obviously, be altered (but you can cheat a bit).

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

Yeah, that kinda works pretty well, excellent, many thanks Steve.

Regards.

Max 8 to 2010.
PC: 3GHz Laptop, 2Gb RAM. (8 day winder!)
OS: XP Pro 32 (SP3)
GFX: I think it has some, somewhere.

You can use the viewcube to rotate the viewport with the arrows in the upper right corner.

3ds Max 2009 SP1, 2010 SP1
Maya 2012
Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
Dual Intel Xeon E5520, 6 GB Ram
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 OC

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Oh yes......so you can!

I never use the thing normally so I never even gave it a thought, I guess in this case it may just prove useful.

Many thanks Krueger, excellent!

Regards.

Max 8 to 2010.
PC: 3GHz Laptop, 2Gb RAM. (8 day winder!)
OS: XP Pro 32 (SP3)
GFX: I think it has some, somewhere.

That is the first thing I thought of but when I tested it, it bumped me out of top view and into ortho rotated to “look” like a top view. Those of you with a 3D mouse know why this is not a solution.

3ds Max 9 thru 2013
Windows 7 Enterprise 64-bit OS SP1
Dual Intel® Xeon® 6 core X5650 @ 2.67GHz CPU 36GB RAM
NVIDIA Quadro 4000
450GB HDD (x3) and 2TB HDD

3ds Max 2012 Certified Professional Models to Motion