Click F to Focus, as seen in other 3D apps

[SpencerBoom]

In Unity, Maya and other programs, if you hit select an object and hit the F key, the camera "focuses" on an object: It moves the camera so that the object is in the center of the frame - much like the zoom extents selected does in 3ds Max - and also places a sort of pivot point for the camera orbit at the center of the selected object. Unlike Max, it keeps that orbit point even after the object is deselected.

ZBrush does something similar, but it simply orbits around whatever point on the surface you click on. 

This is probably the number one thing I wish I could bring from other 3D programs into 3ds Max. It seems like standard practice for most 3D apps, and my workflow feels slightly hampered for not having it. 

Thanks!

[SpencerBoom]

Whoops, "if you hit select an object" should read "if you select an object".

[electrotoast_old]

Hi @SpencerBoom 3ds Max already currently this ability. If you expand the Orbit options in the lower right toolbar (see attached image), there's 3 orbiting options. Traditional center view orbit, selected object orbit, and sub-object selection orbit. Whichever one you have enabled is what will be set to when you hit Z (which you can also change to F through the Customize -> Customize User Interface dialog).

Hope this helps!

[SpencerBoom]

Hello @electrotoast_old, 

Thanks for the reply. I realize Max has the zoom-extents functionality, but as I said, in Maya, "unlike Max, it keeps that orbit point even after the object is deselected." The problem I find with the Max approach is that it depends upon an object being selected to work. Other approaches do not. 

Unfortunately I don't have Maya installed for comparison, but I use Unity quite a bit and I find it's focus feature to be similar to that of Maya's. So here's a screen capture video I did to show what Max's zoom extents feature is lacking compared to the focus feature I've found in Unity, as well as in Maya and other apps: 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/j6zrbb2tgbigzpv/focus_mode_comparison.mp4?dl=0

I'd really appreciate it if this idea got a fair shake. As a constant and long-time Max user, I've been left baffled at how this apparently industry-standard feature has never made it into this otherwise insanely powerful program. 

Thanks very much, 

Spencer

[electrotoast_old]

Hi Spencer,

Sorry for the long delay in following up. This functionality is already in 3ds Max. If you change the Orbit type as in the picture I posted to the top most orbit, it does exactly what you were requesting. It keeps the Orbit centered even after deselection (even on sub-object selection). Once you hit Z or in your case F, it keeps the orbit centered until you hit Z again to re-center it.

[SpencerBoom]

Hi electrotoast, thanks for getting back to me. 

I'm really not seeing the same functionality, especially on a sub-object level, not sure why. But once I deselect the subobjects especially, the focus is lost.

Forgetting I had made a screen capture back in August, I went and made another one: 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/zpvnosh4n05502d/focus_mode_comparison_2.mp4?dl=0

If I was to have that teapot in Maya, I'm pretty sure, even after deselecting the verts on the spout, the orbit would still pivot around an invisible point centered within the verts. In Max (that's 2018 there) it does not, as you can see there. 

[SpencerBoom]

However, one thing I did discover in trying to get the top-most orbit to work as you describe, is there's a new orbit type in 2018 that wasn't in 2014, my previous regular version. It's at the bottom, and is called "Orbit Point of Interest." That deposits a temporary point where the cursor is. Works pretty well, almost a hybrid of the Maya/Unity approach and the Zbrush approach. 

Interesting they added it, almost as if they recognized the obvious flaws in the original orbit tools. 🙂

I'll see how this new orbit tool works, but so far I remain convinced that the original orbit tools fall short of the industry standard as implemented in other 3D software, and that there's room for improvement there. Again, see the video in the previous post for what I mean. 

Thanks again!

[electrotoast_old]

That Orbit setting will only work properly if it hits a surface under the mouse. Take care you're hovering over the correct piece. That can be difficult in wireframe as you have to hover over visible edges.

After watching your second video I see the issue is more of a defect than missing functionality.

In the case you showed, if you de-select the verts, exit sub-object mode entirely, and even de-select the teapot it will maintain the focus of the last selection. Which would be the vertex selection of the spout. That seems to be an issue with keeping that focus when there's no sub-object selected.

It seems to be changing the focus if you're in sub-object mode with an empty selection. In virtually every other case, it stays focused on the last selection expect deselecting sub-objects.

[SpencerBoom]

@electrotoast_old

"In the case you showed, if you de-select the verts, exit sub-object mode entirely, and even de-select the teapot it will maintain the focus of the last selection. Which would be the vertex selection of the spout."

No, it won't. And it isn't. If I deselect the verts, deselect the teapot, it maintains focus on the object - the teapot's center - and not the vertex selection.

Preferably it would orbit around the center of the verts I selected, even after I've deselected them. Pretty sure that's how Maya does it. 

That would be preferable for me or anyone else who does a ton of work at the sub-object level, which I would think would be a lot of users. 

"It seems to be changing the focus if you're in sub-object mode with an empty selection. In virtually every other case, it stays focused on the last selection expect deselecting sub-objects."

Yeah, I think that's what I'm seeing. (But now you seem to be saying the opposite there of what you said above, unless I'm misreading?) That is the problem, or a main one. As I've said. And it makes it much harder than necessary to work on objects in the sub-object level in 3ds Max. 

And at the object level, there's the fact that in Max that focus gets thrown off alignment with the object when you zoom in and out, as I compared to the way it works in Unity, where the pivot remains placed where it should be. You can see that in the video with the example with the airplane in Unity. 

Anyway, except for that last point, it sounds like you're seeing what I'm seeing. And... Next steps? Send it up the flagpole, maybe? Maybe help improve 3ds Max?

Overall I think I've described the problem in detail and offered I believe a good, industry standard solution. 

I've been using 3ds Max almost daily since it was 3D Studio, a DOS program. Except for two years when I had to work in Maya. When I came back to Max, there was a lot I had missed, but I realized what a drag this little missing feature was for my workflow in Max. And have felt that acutely pretty much every day since.

Based on my experience I feel like I'm qualified to say: It really feels like a missing opportunity, this really could use improvement.

The last few years I've used Unity along side Max almost daily and realized Unity had it figured out as well as Maya, and going back to Max is going back to a program that isn't doing all it can to smooth out my workflow.

I'd be more than happy to discover I'd just been missing something obvious all this time, but I don't think that's the case. 

Just trying to help.