Axial constraint and snapping interface

[Anonymous]

Ok, so I am drawing a spline with the "create line", and I want it to be on a single X-Z plane. I am drawing from ortho front view, and so my viewport is aligned in an X-Z plane.

I am snapping to something in my model space to determine the Y depth. Let's say I want my Y depth to be 10 units. I hold shift, after snapping the first starting point off of pre-existing model geometry known to be at Y depth 10 units, and I want to draw a vertical line down. I do so by holding shift to constrain the line to the vertical Z axis on screen. In front view ortho, all looks well. When I enter perpective, everything is fine, except that I have actually drawn the second point with every correct coordinate, except its Y is now 0- it has snapped to the X-Z plane who's Y depth is 0, instead of 10, and effectively I have a diagonal line instead of a vertical one. This is a very annoying functionality to me so far. Every point that I draw after that on that line will be in the same plane, but with a Y value of 0 now.

How do I set things so that when I am in that front view, I don't snap to the Y-origin 0 plane?  The axial and plane snaps don't seem to have an effect of this tendency.

If there is no direct work-around, can I temporarily reset my origin so that my new Y-0 is on the plane I want to work on?

Thanks in advance, and I think there will be many more questions as I transition to 2014 from a much earlier interface (Viz). I have of course searched the help materials, and no obvious direct answer to this issue jumped out to me.

[Steve_Curley]

Depends, at least in part, on how your Snaps are set.
2D - will only snap to existing objects (or sub-objects) which are at 0 i.e. on the construction plane, based on the current view. All objects are created on the construction plane i.e. at 0.
2.5D - will snap to objects not at 0 but will still create new objects on the construction plane.
3D - will snap to objects not at 0 and will create new objects at that snapped-to location.

Your best bet would probably be to create a Grid Helper, position and rotate it as necessary. Right-click with the grid selected and Activate it. Click the "Front" viewport label > Extended Viewports > Grid > Top. Then create your line - it will be created flat on that grid object.

[Anonymous]

It took me a couple minutes to figure out what helper grids were, but I think it is a pretty solid answer to the question. 

Those grids allow me to snap my 2D drawing splines to a plane other than the 0 construction plane, which is what the original issue was.

This link explains the concept to anyone who has the problem in the future:

http://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/3ds-max/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2015/ENU/3DSMax...