Q:- Rotate around mouse cursor?

[Anonymous]

Hi there....

I was wondering if there is a way to rotate a face / edge / group of vertexes in polly edit mode using the mouse pointer as the pivot point of the rotation?

Same thing for scale / squash would be very cool as well..


Is there a way to do this in max?

[Steve_Curley]

Sort of.

Select the sub-objects you want to rotate and Lock the selection (spacebar).
Select Rotate, View, Use Selection Centre or Use Transform Coordinate Centre (but NOT Use Pivot Point Centre).
Select the type of sub-object you want to use as the centre for the rotation on the Snaps dialog - it helps to have the Snaps toolbar visible for this.
Select the axis you want to rotate around (on the gizmo or the Axis Constraints Toolbar).
Turn snaps on, when the cursor snaps to the appropriate sub-object you want to rotate around, click and drag on that sub-object.

You can't actually use any arbitrary point (AFAIK) but the above is the next best thing.

[Anonymous]

OMG.... thank you... that works perfectly.. you are a total legend!!!!

Would you happen to know a way to maxscript this in some way to avoid all those steps?


Videos of it in action!!
HiRez Video Download (XviD)- Download
Streamed Version - Video Stream

[Steve_Curley]

It may seem like a lot of steps, but if you look closely at them, most would be required even for rotating whole objects. Setting the Coordinate system and the Pivot Point for example. You have to do that anyway. The only oddball one is locking the selection - it's not strictly necessary, but you try the above without it and you'll see why I included it 😉
Once you incorporate it into your workflow it's not really that different to many other things in Max where you have to "set it up" before you "do it". It just seems like it having them listed one by one.

There may be a way through Maxscript, but I'm still quite new to MXS myself, so I'm not the best person to answer that. Maybe post over in the MaxScript forum - some real helpful folks hang out in there.