miauu's Work Plane

miauu's Work Plane

Win64, English

miauu
The miauu's Work Plane is a script for Autodesk® 3ds Max® which creates a work plane(construction plane) that automatically adjusts to match the two major axes most closely aligned to the screen axis.

General Usage Instructions

The miauu's Work Plane can be activated and deactivated. To activate it select "Align Work Plane to selection" from Work Plane menu or press the hotkey that is assigned to this command. Using the hotkey has its advantages - you can align the work plane to any visible polygon in the scene.
 
How miauu's Work Plane works:
 
When SNAP is turned ON Align Work Plane to Selection works as follows:
- If Vertex and/or Endpoint snap is ON, the miauu's Work Plane will use the highlighted vert normal to define the Z axis of the work plane. Center of miauu's Work Plane will match the highlighted vert position.
 
- If Edge/Segment, Face and Midpoint snap is ON, the miauu's Work Plane will use the highlighted position on the scene to set the center of the work plane. The work plane WILL NOT be aligned to the highlighted edge, face or midpoint.
 
- If Face Center snap is on miauu's Work Plane will be aligned to the highlighted face. The normal of that face will define the Z axis of the coordinate system. Center of miauu's Work Plane will match with the center of the highlighted face. When SNAP is turned OFF Align Work Plane to Selection works as follows
    No object(objects) is selected:
•    If mouse cursor is not over geometry (object that can be converted to mesh) object miauu's Work Plane will go to its default mode - the work plane will automatically adjust to the screen rotation. Thanks to Bryan Cavett for providing me the code that does the magic.
•    If mouse cursor is over any polygon in the geometry object the miauu's Work Plane will uses that polygon as the basis for the Work Plane orientation and will be aligned to it(XRef scenes are supported). There will be some lag on scenes with thousands of objects.
 
    Two or more objects are selected:
•    the Work Plane will use the center point of the first three objects to define the XY plane
 
    One object is selected:
      In vertex sub-object level:
•    If 1 vert is selected the miauu's Work Plane will use that vert normal to define the Z axis of the work plane. Center of the work plane will match the vert position.
•    If 2 or 3 verts/knots are selected the miauu's Work Plane will use these verts to define the XY plane. Center of the work plane will match the middle point between selected verts.The Y axis will match the direction between selected verts.
 
      In edge sub-object level:
•    If 1 edge/segment is selected miauu's Work Plane will be aligned to selected edge. The center of the work plane will match the edge center. The Z axis will match the normal of the edge, Y axis will match the direction of the edge.
•    If 2 edges/segments are selected miauu's Work Plane will be aligned to selected edges. Center of the work plane will match with the midpoint of the two centers of the edges. The Z axis will match the normal of the plane that selected edges forms, the Y axis will match the direction between the centers of the selected edges.
 
      In polygon/element sub-object mode:
•    If 1 polygon is selected miauu's Work Plane will be aligned to the selected polygon. The normal of that polygon will define the Z axis of the work plane. Center of the work plane will match with the center of the selected polygon. The Y axis will match the direction of the longest edge of the selected face.
•    If 2 or more faces are selected miauu's Work Plane will be aligned to the selected polygons and the center of the work plane will match with the midpoint of the centers of all selected polygons.
 
      In top sub-object level:
•    Work Plane will be aligned the same way as the local pivot of the selected object.

Commands

Installation/Uninstallation

The installer that ran when you downloaded this app/plug-in from Autodesk App Store will start installing the app/plug-in. OR, simply double-click the downloaded installer to install the app/plugin.

You may need to restart the Autodesk product to activate the app/plug-in.

To uninstall this plug-in, exit the Autodesk product if you are currently running it, simply rerun the installer, and select the "Uninstall" button. OR, click Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features (Windows 7/8.1/10/11) and uninstall as you would any other application from your system.

Additional Information

Known Issues

In 3ds Max 2013+ Alt+click does not work as expected in Autodesk® Maya® mode (mouse behavior and keyboard shortcuts behave as they do in Maya.) In Maya mode, Alt+drag orbits a viewport (Perspective views only). 

Note: While "Step Build" is active, vertex ticks are always visible for the selected object. If you don't see them at levels other than Vertex, make sure the object's display properties are set to By Object.

Contact

Company Name: miauu
Support Contact: miau_u@yahoo.com

Author/Company Information

miauu

Support Information

If you do encounter issues then please contact me by email:  miau_u@yahoo.com

Version History

Version Number Version Description

1.31.0

Latest Release.

1.29.0

Latest Release.

1.22.0

Latest Release.
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