Need Some 3DS Animating Help

[Ryan Dognaux]

I'm having some very frusterating problems with 3DS Max right now, and I'm sure there's some incredibley easy solution to this, so maybe you people can help me . I imported this file from Inventor into Max

http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/rdognaux@...src=ph&.view=t

Once I got it into Max, I cannot rotate while the Animate button is clicked on... for some reason it just wants to rotate each individual part on the Z axis, when I really want to rotate the entire thing together as 1 part. Basically, I want to know how to make it one complete part in Max. Thanks - Ryan

[Raven_Writer]

I get an error trying to access the site....says about logging in and contacting you (I got a YaHoo account, but am to lazy to log in right now)

[MBiddy]

Well, I know of 3 ways to make a bunch of parts link together.

The first is to use the "Select and Link" command in the toolbar, 3rd from the left next to the Undo/Redo arrows. To use it you drag from Child object to Parent object. When the Parent object moves, the Child object moves with it, but if the Child object moves, the Parent will not move. So if there is a sphere and a cube, and I click on the cube and drag to the sphere, the sphere will become the Parent and the cube will be the Child.

Use the Boolean command in the Create-Compound Objects menu (click the arrow next to Standard Primatives to bring down the list). Here you select an object to become Operand A and you can modify it with another shape, Operand B. If you use Union and the shapes ARE NOT TOUCHING they will just become two separate shapes of the same object. If the objects touch THEY WILL FUSE AT THE POINTS OF CONTACT. Useful in many situations but not if you want them to remain separate.

You can also use the Attach/Detach commands for Editable Poly/Mesh. If you have an object that is an Edit Poly/Mesh, if you select it and click Element selection, you will see some buttons that are Attach and Detach. Click Attach, then click the other shapes you want to add. All shapes will remain separate entities selectible with the Element selection type. Detach, of course, detaches elements into separate shapes.

Hope that helps. Also with rotating, make sure you're clicking the right direction arrow when you want to rotate. The same colored direction arrow rotates different directions in different views.

[Ryan Dognaux]

Sorry about that error message, I was just trying something new, here's what it is - A Lego RCX I made from scratch -

[Tyler Olds]

here are a few ways.

1. Group them together (tab panel - group - group)

2. (this is a much longer way but then you can move each part individually) under you tab panel where the modify tab is, you will see a tab called hierarchy (it looks one of those tree diagrams) click that tab, then click on effect pivot only, this will allow you to move the point which a part rotates.

3. collapse them, click on utilities ( tab panel where modify is located), then collapse (there are different options for collapsing) unfortunately if you want them to be different colors you will need to do that using an edit mesh and selecting polygon and then putting colors on that way (the collapse to multiple objects doesn't work)

[Raven_Writer]

Originally posted by AnimeRaul234
Sorry about that error message, I was just trying something new, here's what it is - A Lego RCX I made from scratch -

I like the picture...good job

[Ryan Dognaux]

Thanks it took a while, and I kinda had to hurry on the wheels, but all in all I think it turned out alright.

Thanks for the help, I'll try that tonight, hopefully It'll solve my problems