Chapter 2 - Viewports & Cameras in 3D Studio MAX | FREE tutorial , lesson & video training | Beginner | Advanced page 2
Chapter 2 - Viewports and Cameras in 3D Studio MAX ( 3ds max ) (Viewport & Camera tutorial, lessons)
Author - Saju Asokan
Last Updated: Aug 02 2008
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Lets now think about another 3D Studio MAX ( 3ds max ) scene which is filled with several models. Suppose many of the objects are not visible inside the boundary of the current viewport. In such situations, we have the Zoom Extends tool at our aid. In order to see how it works, lets increase the number of teapots present in the scene. Lets perform Cloning.
First click on the Teapot to select it in 3D Studio MAX ( 3ds max ). Now Press down the "Shift" key on your keyboard and hold it. Now again click on the Teapot model in the scene. A dialog box appears as shown on the right side. Increase the number of copies to 4. Make sure all the settings are as shown in the picture. Now click OK.
Wondering that nothing happened? Dont worry. Four more teapots have been created through cloning. But they are overlapped one over the other. Simply click on the Teapot in the perspective view and using the Move tool, move it away from the current location. There are three more teapots overlapped. Click the overlapped teapots one by one and move them out to different locations. The scene at this stage of this tutorial should now look something like this in 3D Studio MAX ( 3ds max )
Now to perform Zoom Extends, click on the Zoom Extends tool from the Viewport tools. Make sure that the perspective view is active when you do this. Suddenly the whole viewport zooms in 3D Studio MAX ( 3ds max ) to accomodate the whole scene within it. It is a very handy tool when your scene has lots of elements and you want to see all of them in the current viewport. There is another variation of the Zoom Extends tool. It is Zoom Extends Selected. Every tool having an arrow at it's bottom right contains variations of the tool within it. Zoom extends has the arrow at it's bottom right. . The arrow is highlighted in the figure given, using blue color for you to recognize. Now click on the Zoom Extends tool button, but don't release the mouse. The variations of the tool appears above the tool. The Zoom Extends Selected tool has a white coloured box. Without releasing the click, move the mouse over the Zoom Extends Selected tool and release the mouse button. Now the Zoom Extends Selected tool replaces the Zoom Extends tool's place in the viewport tools group. Once you released the mouse over the Zoom Extends Selected tool in 3D Studio MAX ( 3ds max ), the object that was selected in the viewport should have got zoomed in and covered the major portion of the viewport. Try using both Zoom Extends and Zoom Extends Selected after selecting each teapot in the scene in 3D Studio MAX ( 3ds max ), before moving further in this tutorial / lesson.
Note: All the tools having the arrow at it's bottom right has variations hidden within. You can select the variation by following the same procedure you performed above in 3D Studio MAX ( 3ds max ).
The Zoom Extends tool we used now zoomed the view of only the currently active viewport. Suppose we want to perform Zoom Extends on all the viewports simultaneously in 3D Studio MAX ( 3ds max ). I shall introduce you to the Zoom Extends All tool for this purpose in this tutorial. Click on the Zoom Extends All tool . All the viewports gets zoomed to show all the objects in the scene. Similarly we have Zoom Extends All Selected tool which is a variation. Click and hold mouse over the Zoom Extends All tool to bring up the variation. While holding the mouse button down, move the mouse over the Zoom Extends All Selectedtool. Then release the mouse button, to select that tool. All viewports changes to accomodate the selected object in the scene.
Important: Save the work as "Level2-4teapots.max" by choosing File > Save As from the menu
These are the most common viewport zoom operations. Please make sure that you understand the difference between each variation that has been described in this tutorial. Refer back to the tutorial if you feel the slightest confusion regarding the zoom tools. Now that you have mastered all the Zoom operation, proceed to the next page of the tutorial / lesson to learn a few more viewport operations.
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, move it away from the current location. There are three more teapots overlapped. Click the overlapped teapots one by one and move them out to different locations. The scene at this stage of this tutorial should now look something like this in 3D Studio MAX ( 3ds max )
from the Viewport tools. Make sure that the perspective view is active when you do this. Suddenly the whole viewport zooms in 3D Studio MAX ( 3ds max ) to accomodate the whole scene within it. It is a very handy tool when your scene has lots of elements and you want to see all of them in the current viewport. There is another variation of the Zoom Extends tool. It is Zoom Extends Selected. Every tool having an arrow at it's bottom right contains variations of the tool within it. Zoom extends has the arrow at it's bottom right. 
. The arrow is highlighted in the figure given, using blue color for you to recognize. Now click on the Zoom Extends tool button, but don't release the mouse. The variations of the tool appears above the tool. The Zoom Extends Selected tool has a white coloured box. Without releasing the click, move the mouse over the Zoom Extends Selected tool 
and release the mouse button. Now the Zoom Extends Selected tool replaces the Zoom Extends tool's place in the viewport tools group. Once you released the mouse over the Zoom Extends Selected tool in 3D Studio MAX ( 3ds max ), the object that was selected in the viewport should have got zoomed in and covered the major portion of the viewport. Try using both Zoom Extends and Zoom Extends Selected after selecting each teapot in the scene in 3D Studio MAX ( 3ds max ), before moving further in this tutorial / lesson.
. All the viewports gets zoomed to show all the objects in the scene. Similarly we have Zoom Extends All Selected tool which is a variation. Click and hold mouse over the Zoom Extends All tool to bring up the variation. While holding the mouse button down, move the mouse over the Zoom Extends All Selected 
tool. Then release the mouse button, to select that tool. All viewports changes to accomodate the selected object in the scene.
