Setting Standard Snaps

Snapping to: endpoints, midpoints, edges

Standard snaps give you control in creating, moving, rotating, and scaling objects. You access the snap features in the program from buttons on the main toolbar.

You make most snap settings on Grid And Snap Settings, a modeless dialog with four panels. You can move this dialog to any convenient location on your screen and turn options on and off as you work. Panels are reset to defaults for each new session.

Snap settings are stored in the 3dsmax.ini file rather than in the .max file. This means that the state of the snap settings persists from session to session without your having to modify the maxstart.max file.

Grid and Snap Settings Dialog

The most commonly used grid and object snaps appear on the Grid and Snap Settings dialog. This is the general sequence for using these snaps:

Click to turn on the 3D Snap button on the main toolbar, then right-click this button to display the Grid And Snap Settings dialog. Standard snaps are the default. The list contains NURBS snap options, discussed in Snaps Settings.
By default, only Grid Points snap is active. Turn on other snap types to activate them. When you create or move objects, these snaps are now in effect, anywhere in 3D space and unaffected by the current transform coordinate system.
As you move the cursor, each snap type is marked by a distinctive icon shown on the Snap panel. The current icon indicates the type and position of the next snap.
Grid points and grid lines are secondary to the other snap types. For example, if both Grid Point and Vertex are active, the software snaps to a vertex in preference to an equally close grid point.
Turn snaps on and off as needed; the easiest way is by pressing the S key.

For more information on snaps, see 2D Snap, 2.5D Snap, 3D Snap and Snaps Settings.

Snap Override

Snap Override bypasses currently selected snaps. You use a keyboard-mouse combination to define a new snap for the next click. You can override on the fly, one snap at a time.

For example, while creating a spline between grid points, you might need to snap to a vertex or midpoint of an object. This is the general procedure:

As you use preset snaps to create or move an object, hold down SHIFT and right-click. This pops up a small Snap right-click menu, which you can use to override the current snap setting(s).
Note: You must actually begin the creation or transformation process before accessing the override menu. This typically means that you'll be holding down the left button as you SHIFT+right-click.
From the Standard option on this menu, choose the snap type you want to use. The cursor switches to this type.
Make the snap. After the snap, currently set snaps are back in effect.

The Snap Override menu also contains an Options submenu, with toggles for snapping within current transform constraints (default=on) and snapping to frozen objects (default=off). In addition, the menu lets you reuse the last override you used (listed by name), and gives you an option for None. None turns off snaps entirely on the next click.