I am sure many of you rely on ‘Autogrid’ daily, but after a few recent events, I was amazed to see how many users arent aware of this toggle, yet they people look at it everyday. So I wanted to make sure this fantastic little tool, made its way onto the list of 100 quicktips.
The ‘Autogrid’ option will look at the objects within your scene and lock the gizmo and temporary grid (or dynamic UCS, if your from a CAD background) onto the surface of the objects within your scene. This then allows you to quickly apply geometry which doesn’t intersect (dependant on the new objects pivot point), and that is in the correct orientation from the original objects faces.
It’s easy, so give it a try, following the below steps:
1.Create an object in your scene. Our old friend the teapot is always a good choice.
2. Now choose the primitive object you wish to create, and then immediately turn on the ‘Autogrid’ option, highlighted below. You should toggle it on before you create it in the viewport.
3. Notice how your cursor will ‘roll’ based on the geometry and face you hover over in the viewport. The crude image below should indicate what I mean. (Thanks Photoshop)
4. From here, quickly add multiple objects in your scene, and then contemplate how much time you’ve saved. congratulate yourself with a nice cup of English breakfast tea on a job well done.
This workflow is excellent for adding all those small details, such as nuts and bolts to a scene that give it its believeability.
Happy Max’ing
