9

User Interface Problems and Recovery 893
As a rule of t humb, keep the sca le such that the
smallest detail is not less than one generic unit.
If this makes the scene too big to work with
comfortably and efficiently, you can create separate
scenes for models that include cameras for "close"
and "far" shots.
User Int er f a ce Pr obl ems a nd
Recovery
It can be f rustrating when you can’t find s omething
on the user interface, especially when you sa w it
a few minutes ago and now it’s gone missing. Of
course, you’ve been so engrossed in your modeling
that you forget what you might hav e done to cause
the button, element or dialog to disappear.
This section addresses several common
user-interface situations and how you can fix
them.
Problems and R esolutions
Large Fonts an d 3ds M a x
Whilesomeusersliketoconfiguretheirsystems
to use large fonts, t his setting is not recommended
w ith 3ds Max. The 3ds Max user interface was
designed to operate with your system set to small
fonts. Small fonts are the default setting for both
Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
If you have your system set to use large fonts, some
of the most common anomalies you can expect
while running 3ds Max are as follows:
• Buttons might be missing from the command
panels.
• Some text-entry fields may not allow you to
type in them.
• Garbled text appears in some dialogs.
• Text labels in dialogs and rollouts mig ht be cut
off or overlap other fields.
• Dia logs show cascading text fields and spinners.
To remedy these problems, set your system font
back to small fonts.
1. Exit 3ds Max.
2. Go to Start > Settings > Control Panel, and
click Display.
You c an also right-click anywhere in the open
desktop and choose Properties.
3. Open the Settings p anel and click the Advanced
button.
4. In the Display group of the General panel, click
thearrowtoopentheFontSizelistandchoose:
• Small Fonts, if ru nning Windows 2000
• Normal Size, if running Windows XP
5. Click OK to exit the Display Properties dialog.
You will most likely have to reboot the system
for these changes to take effect.
Lost Dialogs and Windows
3dsMaxhasmanydialogsorwindowsthatfloat
when you open them. This feature allows you
to drag them anywhere on your desktop . You
cangreatlyimproveyourdesignefficiencyby
positioning dialogs out of the way of the main
3ds Max interface, such as on a second monitor if
you have dual-monitor functionality.
However, there are times when a dialog gets lost.
Either you drag it someplace and inadvertently let
go of it, or some data is written incorrectly to an
initialization file and you end up with a lost di a l og.
There are a couple of ways to recover a lost dialog;
both entail working with the 3dsmax.ini fi le found
in the location indicated by the MaxData setting
on the Configure System Paths dialog (page 3–810).
Thorou gh M ethod
In this example, let’s say you’ve got a single monitor
that’s configured for 1280x1024 resolution and
you’ve lost your Rendering Progress dialog.