General Preferences Settings

These controls provide a scene unit calculator to help you determine the unit scale for your project. The resolution of measurement diminishes as the distance to the origin of space increases, so you need to consider space granularity when you choose a scale for your project. If you're modeling an island, for example, this calculator can help you determine the smallest object you should model on the island. In other words, don't use a unit scale of millimeters if you plan on modeling an island that's many miles across.

When you use the slider or the text field to enter a distance from the origin, the Resulting Accuracy changes to show what the roundoff error will be at that distance.

These controls don't change the unit settings in . They don't reflect the extents of the current scene, either.

Origin Slider—Move the slider for interactive feedback of distance and accuracy. Right-click the scale to reset the slider to 0. Dragging the slider displays the last slider position as a small square on the scale markings.

The slider covers distances from 0 to the maximum distance that's accurate to one scene unit.

Distance from Origin—Enter the maximum distance you want to use in your project to determine the maximum accuracy, which is displayed in the Accuracy field. Values consider current settings for system scale and unit.

Note: When you type a distance, you must press ENTER to update the Resulting Accuracy field. Pressing TAB simply moves focus to Resulting Accuracy, without doing the calculation.

Resulting Accuracy—Enter the minimum resolution you will use to determine the maximum size or distance that is most practical. Values consider current settings for system scale and unit.

For example, if units are in feet and decimal inches in Customize menu > Units Setup, and you type (1', 1 foot) in the Accuracy field, a value of 22369620'0.0" is displayed in the Distance From Origin field. If you move an object that's one foot across, at this distance away from the origin of space, a roundoff error will occur, and the shape of the object will be compromised.

Levels—Sets the number of operations you can undo. You can see the operation that will be undone by looking at Undo on the Edit menu.

Constant—Sets one coordinate system for Move, Rotate, and Scale on the Main toolbar. The coordinate system displayed in the coordinate dropdown list on the Main toolbar is used.

Normally, each transform switches to the coordinate system used the last time the transform was active.

Load Plug-Ins When Used—When turned on, loads plug-ins on demand, when they are needed.

Enable—Allows you to drag materials to a Sub-Object selection of faces in an editable mesh. Default=on.

See also Drag and Drop Sub-Object Material Assignment.

Auto Window/Crossing by Direction—When this is enabled, the direction that you drag a selection area determines whether it is a window or crossing selection. This works for any selection area (rectangle, circle, fence, or lasso).

You can select which direction causes a window selection and which causes a crossing selection in the Scene Selection group. When you drag a window selection, the selection region is displayed with a solid line, however when you drag a crossing selection, the selection region is displayed with dashed lines.

Right-> Left => Crossing—When you drag a selection region from right-to-left, it is a crossing selection. Conversely, when you drag left-to-right, it is a window selection.

Left-> Right => Crossing—When you drag a selection region from left-to-right, it is a crossing selection. Conversely, when you drag right-to-left, it is a window selection.

Enable Viewport Tooltips—Displays a tooltip when the cursor pauses over a non-selected object in the viewports if you are not in sub-object mode. Tooltips show the names of objects.

AutoPlay Preview File—Starts the Media Player automatically at the end of a Make Preview.

Display Cross Hair Cursor—Displays the mouse cursor as a full viewport cross hair, vertical and horizontal lines extending the full extent of the active viewport.

Each movement of the mouse is redrawn, so the cross hair is relatively slow. If you want to create a keyboard shortcut, find Cross Hair Cursor toggle in Customize menu > Customize User Interface > Keyboard panel and specify the keys to use for the shortcut. If you want to change the color of the cross hair cursor, Customize menu > Customize User Interface > Colors panel > Viewports > Cross Hair Cursor and use the color selector to change the cursor color.

Display Topology Dependence Warning—Turns of the topology dependence warning. A warning is displayed if an object has modifiers and sub-object selections, and you choose to edit a modifier or the base object at the bottom of the modifier stack, which can adversely affect the object’s topology. You can also turn off the warning in the warning dialog. Default=on.

Display Stack Collapse Warning—Turns off the stack collapse warning. A warning is displayed if an object has modifiers and sub-object selections, and you choose to delete a modifier, which can adversely affect the object's topology. You can also turn off the warning in the warning dialog. Default=on.

Save UI Configuration on Exit—Restores panels and toolbars to the positions they were in the last time you used the software. Turn this off to restore panels to the state they were in prior to turning on this option.

Use Large Toolbar Buttons—Toggles between large and small toolbar buttons.

Fixed Width Text Button—Specifies the maximum width of text buttons.

A dialog notifies you to close and restart 3ds max.

Horizontal Text in Vertical Toolbar—Ensures text buttons are displayed horizontally.

If you create a custom toolbar positioned vertically, and you're using text rather than image buttons, you can choose to display either horizontal or vertical text with this option.

Fixed Width Text Button—Specifies the maximum width of text buttons.

You must turn on the Horizontal Text in Vertical Toolbar option, turn this option on, and then set a maximum display size for the text button in pixels. For custom vertical toolbars with text buttons, this option will limit the size of the text display.

Flyout Time—Sets the pause, in milliseconds, between the mouse click and the flyout popping up from the button. Increase this setting only if you need an extra-long delay. Don't decrease the setting much or you may not be able to execute button commands before the flyout takes over.

Color Selector—Choose the default color selector, or a third-party plug-in color selector in the list. The color selector you choose here is used throughout 3ds max whenever you specify a color.

Precision—Sets the number of decimal places displayed in a spinner's edit field. Range=0 to 10 (where 0 is no decimal places).

Snap—Sets the click increment and decrement values for all of the spinners in 3ds max.

Use Snap—Toggles spinner snap on and off.

Wrap Cursor Near Spinner—Limits cursor wrapping to an area close to the spinner when you drag to adjust spinner value.

Rollup Threshold—Determines how many pixels of a rollout should be scrollable in the command panel before the rollout is shifted into a separate command panel column.

This option is only applicable when there are multiple columns displayed in the command panel.

Default to By Layer for New Nodes—When turned on, all new objects will have their rendering, motion blur, and display properties set to ByLayer.

Use Legacy R4 Vertex Normals—3ds max 5 uses a new, more accurate method for computing vertex normals from smoothing groups, which improves the way geometry displays in viewports and in rendered output. To use the method from previous versions of the software, for compatibility, turn on this check box.