GMAX part transparency issue

[Tako_Kichi]

I just hit a problem in GMAX and I can't seem to find a way around it and it's driving me mad!

I started a new part that I intend to merge into my main model file later. I made a plane the size required and applied a material to it and then added the texture of the part I want to build.....no problem.

I then created a simple cube as a starting point to build the part from.

Next I went to make the part transparent so that I could see the guide plane behind it and WHAMO!!!!!!!!!!

No transparency, none, zero, zilch! :isadizzy:

No matter what I do the part refuses to turn transparent so that I can work with it. I have read the help file (no help actually) and searched all the usual modelling forums for tips but found nothing. The part is changing to the assigned colour for a transparent object it is just staying at 100% oppacity instead of being see-through.

Anyone seen this behaviour before and better yet got a solution to the problem 'cus it's making me tear my hair out after messing with it for several hours!

p.s. it used to work fine but now it doesn't, I'm not sure when it stopped working as I haven't needed a transparent part for a while now (not since the early days when I was rouging out the exterior shape).

p.p.s. I just tried applying a standard material to the part and then adjusting the opacity (something I have done in the past) and that won't work either. I seem to have lost all ability to make an object transparent.

:angryfir::angryfir:

 

[Milton Shupe]

Are you certain that the part has not been cloned and tehre is two part there instead of one?

Have you accidently checked to texture both sides?

Do you have Disable Textures turned on in the Customize Viewports settings?

 

[Tako_Kichi]

Are you certain that the part has not been cloned and tehre is two part there instead of one?

All I had was a basic cube that I was going to build my part from.

Have you accidently checked to texture both sides?

Nope that was fine.

Do you have Disable Textures turned on in the Customize Viewports settings?

Nope I checked that and I could see the texture I was using as a guide, I just couldn't see through the cube to work it into shape.

However........................






Thanks to Robert (N2056) I managed to get a work-around for my issue. If it happens to anyone else this is how we fixed it.

1. Open a new GMAX session, then select 'File/New' and select 'New All' in the options window.

2. Merge in all the parts from the problem file.

3. Save with a new file name.

Once I did this I got my transparency abilities back. I then did it to my main model file as that has been giving me transparency issues for a while too.

The only caveat we found was that the merge did not bring the 'Named Selection Sets' with it so I lost all the sets I had built up over the 2 years I have been working on the model! Thankfully all the animations, materials and parent/child relationships were intact.

The benefits outweigh that problem in my mind and it should only take me about an hour or so tomorrow to get all those sets back.

 

[Mathias]

The easiest way to make a part transparent so that you can see your backdrops through is it to highlight the part's properties dialog (right-click with the part selected and select "properties" from the quad menu) and to check the "see through" box in the display properties.
The good thing about this is that it really only affects the viewport display in Gmax and not any material settings.
It also causes a lot less overhead than a transparent material.

 

[Tako_Kichi]

That is exactly the way I was trying to do it Mathias and when that didn't work I tried applying a material and changing the opacity of that. Neither worked.

At least it's fixed now and I made my new part and sorted out my named selection sets before bedtime last night.

 

[Mathias]

Ah ok, but isn't that usually driver blues?
My 3dsmax dislikes adaptive anti aliasing for instance.
Graphics card settings would be the first thing to look at.

 

[Tako_Kichi]

It's all sorted and fixed now (see above). I am beginning to suspect something went corrupt in my main model file and merging all the parts into a new file brought in the parts but left the bug behind.