Shortcut keys
3DS Max has many many shortcut keys. Here is an incomplete list of the common ones that you will find useful.
| key |
What it does |
| w |
turn on move (translation) manipulator |
| e |
turns on rotation manipulator |
| r |
turns on scale manipulator |
| x |
turns big colourful manipulators on and off |
camera change (applied to current viewport)
| key |
What it does |
| p |
changes to perspective camera |
| t |
changes to an orthographic top camera |
| b |
changes to an orthographic bottom camera |
| l |
changes to an orthographic left camera |
| f |
changes to an orthographic front camera |
| z |
zoom to current selection or extents |
| key |
what it does |
| F3 |
toggles display of faces (solid vs mesh only view) |
| F4 |
toggles display of edges |
| F2 |
toggles face highlighting |
| alt-w |
toggles between multiple view ports and maximized current viewport |
| g |
toggles grid |
Editable Poly Selection
| key |
what it does |
| 1 |
Vertex selection |
| 2 |
Edge selection |
| 3 |
Border selection |
| 4 |
Poly selection |
| 5 |
Element selection |
| 6 |
Exit subobject selection |
Miscellaneous
| key |
what it does |
| h |
brings up list of objects on the scene |