In this tutorial, I am going to show you how to clone and align an object to multiple objects within few minutes. Imagine you have an object that you want to align with 50 objects.
You could do it by cloning it 50 times and take some more time to align each of these nodes to the rest of the objects OR you can write a simple MaxScript code.
Well, either of these would be a waste of time as 3ds Max already has a tool that does exactly the same thing, however, most of the people don’t know about it. With the help of this tool you can clone, align and even link the selected object to the multiple objects. Let’s go and learn more about it.
Step 1
I have 10 Boxes and a Pyramid in the scene. Here, Pyramid is the source object or the object that we want to clone and align and Boxes are the destination objects.
Related Topic: Using Align tool, Complete guide.
Step 2
Go to Tools > Align and select Clone and Align… from the list to bring up the Clone and Align dialog.
Inside, Source and Destination Parameters rollout, we have two Pick buttons. Since, we have to pick multiple destinations objects, we will be using Pick List button.
Step 3
Let’s select the Pyramid and click on Pick List button. Select all the Boxes from the Pick Destination Objects floater.
Notice that our Pyramid has been cloned 10 times and aligned to the Boxes that we have picked. Turn on Link to Destination check box, if you want to create a linking / Parent-Child relationship between the Pyramids and the Boxes.
Inside Clone Parameters rollout you can choose from the available clone type – Copy, Instance and Reference.
Step 4
Inside Align Parameters rollout, you can manipulate the Position, Orientation and Scaleof the Pyramids. Clone and Align tool doesn’t offer options like Minimum, Maximum as the Align tool but we can move or rotate the source object using Offset values. Hit Apply button when you are done.
That’s it, I hope you have enjoyed this short tutorial. Stay tuned for more stuff. Thanks!
