...the heck did I press and where has it been all my life?

[quinnredshift]

So...okay... I have a dual-monitor setup, and I guess I thought I was in the browser on the other monitor but I was really in MAX (or something like that), so when I started typing, I guess I activated or de-activated honey bunches of options in MAX.

Ewps.

Thing is...something I activated is really helping, and I'm hoping someone can tell me whatinheck I did so that I don't accidentally lose it!

Basically, what's happening is that tugging verts around in EditPoly is making them snap (without the snap gizmo or snap even being activated) to the angles of the other edges. I move the vertex and its movement gets a little herky-jerky (which took me a bit to figure out, and I was getting frustrated); when I realized that what it seemed to be doing was helping me clean up my topology, I was like, as the thread title says, "Where has this been all my life???"

Sloppy topology has been the bane of my existence when using MAX; the best way I'd yet found to clean up and smooth out a line of edges was to chamfer them and hope MAX would adjust it for you as the new edges try to conform to the geometry you're editing; it only works out sometimes.

So whatever I activated has been a huge help...I just wish I knew what it is.

[RGhost77 · Accepted solution]

Looks like it was Edge Constraint?
https://help.autodesk.com/view/3DSMAX/2025/ENU/?guid=GUID-8DA624B4-32AB-473A-B5B4-77B8934DAE1B

[quinnredshift]

Oh, is that what that does!

I swear, the MAX Help files are in a foreign language that only looks like English.

I can't tell you how many times the functionality I wanted was right there, but Autodesk decided to call it something I never would have, and what they did call it was unclear at first glance.

"Constrains sub-object transformations to edge boundaries," sounded like gibberish to me, mostly because of the utilitarian grammar.

"Constrains the transformations of sub-objects to the boundaries of nearby edges" would have made sense to my autistic ass. But every time I read that section over the years, I was all, "Wait, do they mean just the boundaries of edges or is 'edge boundaries' a technical term that I need defined (cuz it kinda sounds like one)?" Language articles like 'the' help comprehension tremendously.

And I know this may sound just like me being picky, but it's a genuine accessibility issue; my brain is actually not built to handle ambiguity. Neurodivergence has its occasional benefits, but sometimes it really sucks.

And the MAX manual seems to be built for engineers rather than artists.

[quinnredshift]

Dang. Looks like I spoke too soon.

I turned that on and--omigawd!--I couldn't control it at all!

It was kinna like when you try to do a 3D snap in the Perspective window, but forgot you're in 2.5 instead of 3, so it snaps clear over there, instead of where you thought it was going. That's what it was like using the angle constraint.

Whatever I did, it's got nothing to do with that. I'm absolutely stumped.

[quinnredshift]

Oh, I see! It's an aspect of using the Working Point Pivot!

Apparently, setting a Working Pivot generates, like, 24 soft snap points based on your selection.

That's good to know; Working Pivot has changed my workflow and helped me keep my topology neat instead of zig-zaggy.

So cool. 🙂