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634 Chapter 8: Modifiers
Bi tmap Fit—
Displays a Selec t Bitmap dialog. The
gizmoisscaledtofittheaspectratioofthebitmap
you select.
Normal Align—Tur ns on Pick mode to let you select
a surface. The gizmo is aligned to the normal of
that surface.
V iew Align—Orients the gizmo in the same
direct ion as the view.
RegionFit—Tur ns on P ick mode to le t you dra g two
points.Thegizmoisscaledtofitthespecifiedarea.
Reset—Retur ns the gizmo to its defaults.
Acquire—Turns on Pick mode to let you choose
another object and acquire its Displace gizmo
settings.
Edit Mesh Modifier
Create or select an object > Modify panel > Modifier List
>Object–SpaceModifiers>EditMesh
Create or select an object > Modifiers menu > Mesh
Editing > Edit Mesh
The Edit Mesh modifier provides explicit ed iting
tools for different sub-object levels of the selected
object: vertex, edge, and face/polygon/element.
The Edit Mesh mo difier matches all the capabilities
of the base Editable Mesh object, except that
youcannotanimatesub-objectsinEditMesh.
See Editable Mesh (page 1–996) for a complete
parameter reference.
When possible, it’s far more efficient and reliable
toperformexplicitmodelingattheEditableMesh
level rather than store those edits within the Edit
Mesh modifier. The Edit Mesh modifier must copy
the geometry passed to it, and this storage can lead
to large file sizes. The Edit Mesh modifier also
establishes a topological dependency that can be
adversely affected if earlier operations change the
topology being sent to it.
There are, however, situations w here using the Edit
Mesh mo difier is the preferred metho d.
• You want to edit a paramet ric object as a mesh,
butwanttoretaintheabilitytomodifyits
creation parameters after the edit.
• You want to store your edits temporarily within
Edit Mesh until you are satisfied w ith the
results, before collapsing them permanently to
an editable mesh object.
• You need to make edits across several objects
atonce,butdonotwanttoconvertthemtoa
single editable mesh object.
• You have a modifier in the stack that must
remain parametric, and the mesh must be
edited after the modifier is applied.
Edit Normals Modifier
Select a mesh, patch, spline or NURBS object. > Modify
panel > M odifier List > Edit Normals
Select a mesh, patch, spline, or NURBS object. > Modifiers
menu > M esh Editing > Edit Normals
The Edit Normals modifier g ives you explicit and
procedural, interactive control over each of an
object ’s vertex norm als (page 3–980).Itismeantto
be used primar i ly with mesh objects destined for
output to game engines and other 3D rendering
engines that support specified normals. The
results are visible in the viewports and in rendered
images.
The orientation of a vertex normal affects how
neighboring surfaces reflect light. By default,
normals are set so that reflect ion of light in 3ds Max
followstherulesofreal-worldphysics:Theangle
of reflection equals the angle of incidence. But by
reorienting vertex normals, you can set the angle
of reflection to be anything you want. The Edit
Normals modifier lets you specify vertex normals’
directions, combine and separate them, change the
type, and copy and paste values among normals.