Questons about scale & draw distance
 

I just started using MAYA recently and was wondering if anyone could give advice on how to "appropriately" scale a polygon object (such as tall buildings).

Also.... I have been making very large polygon objects and have problems viewing the entire object at one time. I'm familiar with how to move around in MAYA but was wondering if it had to do with a camera setting? or a default draw distance etc etc.

Thanxs for any help you can give

I don't mess with the scale much. but I do know its set for 1 grid unit = 1 cm. it can be changed in your prefrances I belive.. much more info about it in the help files..

You can change the Near and Far Clip plane for the camera.

or you could group all objects into a group and scale the group down then ungroup which would prevent things from disappearing, but you lose your deminsions if you're making everything fit to the scale of the grid of course.

I think the problem with the view will be better worked out after the scale is figered out to there likeing.. Will be able to much better understand the view problem after that.

btw. just wandering I thought the near and fare clip plains worked only in renders ??

The near and far pane clipping works all the time.

I've lost more than a few models (temporarily of course) by moving them beyond camera range.

I 've started sticking really big numbers in my clipping values to avoid it.

Anyone know how this might affect performance? I haven't noticed any difference, which leads me to wonder why the default values are set so low...

I always try to scale with the attribute editor, and keep everything to round numbers when possible (1,2,3,4 :p). If I must really make small thigns then I always try to make it in a scale of 2 to 1 (like 500, 250, 125 and sometimes 63) This works for me, don't know about you guys though, but it keeps my scene clear.. :)