Okay, guys.  I've been a 3dsmax user for many years. I've had jobs and worked in studios, freelance, with the software, and specialize in texturing and modelling.  In the past year or so, I've grown concerned about the future of my software. Autodesk seems to have love affair only with Maya, and neglects it's other software aside from Autocad and Maya.  THey recently let Softimage XSI go, and while they claim 3dsmax is still high on their priority, I don't believe them.  So I began to learn Blender as a backup.

That said, it's been a very steep transition, and the way Blender works, compared to most other packages, is very unintuitive.  I guess if it were the first package I ever learned, it would be easier to get used to, but coming from a package with more conventional workflow, Blender has proven difficult to get used to.  I have found the latest versions a lot better though.  Especially 2.73 with pie menus.  The pie menus addon, and visual icons have really helped me find a lot of features much easier, and helped with the learning curve.

There's still a lot of things I'm used to in 3dsmax that don't translate easily to Blender.  One of the most frustrating things is I can not find how to select sub-elements of a multi-part object.  For example, I have a model I did in Max, and imported it into Blender scene.  The model is a single object, but has many parts to it.  I want to select certain parts in edit mode, but the only sub-element levels Blender has are vertex, edge, and face.  There's no "element" selection in edit mode.  So what is a fast, easy way to select certain parts of an object, instead of selecting by polygon or faces?  If I wanna select all polygons on just the pillow on a bed,  but the bed is all one object?  In 3dsmax, there's an "Element" mode, which allows me to select all the polygons associated with sub-components of a model all at once.  How do we do this in Blender?

I'll have more questions, I'm sure... thanks to anyone who knows.

Bonjour, mon ami!  I am familiar with your question.  You may be sad to know there is not a one click answer to your problem, but there is a way to do what you ask.  First, enter the edit mode, and go to select a face on the part of object you wish to select all faces.  Second, once you have one face in selection, you can press the L hotkey.  This will then select all faces automatic of just that part of the object connected to the first face you picked.  This is, in end, same as your wish of the feature in 3dsmax, but with one click in addition, which may not please you, but should not slow you down.

Have fun learning the Blender!  You will find it to be more than capable of doing everything you do at work in 3dsmax.  It may take more than the click of button you are used, to but possibility is in software.

Hey, thank you for the quick response, Zandar!  I just tried it, and it works perfectly!  That's exactly what I wanted.  Yes, it's a hotkey click extra, but the time involved in that is so minimal, you really wouldn't count it.  Considering the same feature in 3dsmax would require you to click a hotkey to enter "element" mode anyway, it balances out in terms of clicks.  That's great to know, because it's a feature I use almost every modelling session.

Ok, while I have your ears, let me ask another one!  Is there no way to rotate the perspective view while in the box-select tool, or must you position, select B, position again, selct B again, etc.?  If you're doing a lot of precision selections with the box-select tool, this can translate into a lot of hotkey pressing.  Seems it would be more convenient to engage the box-select tool, and keep it active, while rotating the view.  I'm thinking I'm missing something here?

Oui, that is the action of the tool, maxxxmodelz.  I was in complaint of this limit in early versions of the software also.  The late versions automatically exit the box-select tool after you make selection, which I find better than before.  Early versions forced you to use hotkey again to exit, so you were in constant hotkey toggling to move the view and make more select.

I would like to rotate view and not have to activate tool again, but the late improvement is better, and faster, than in early versions, so I can not complain more.  You will soon find this a fast method, but not as fast as you wish I think.

Hello maxxxmodelz

Welcome to our forum. I agree with all zandar has already shared in time you will find that many of the differences coming from 3Ds Max to blender you will over come and find many work arounds that after repeating a few times will become like second nature. There are many resources tutorials and information available for someone transitioning from 3Ds Max, Maya and many other to Blender and I am proud to say our group here has some really knowledgeable Blender users who will always be more than happy to help out if they can.

Good Luck

Hey, thanks for the cordial welcome, Lobo!  Glad to be here.  I've been in and out of the 3dsmax forum here for almost a decade now, and hope to make some new connections here with Blender.  The reason I decided to post my questions here, honestly, is because I've not been too happy with the Blender community elsewhere.  Once some folks found out I was a 3dsmax user, and asking questions, and making sometimes critical comparisons between the software (in an effort to LEARN), I was greeted by very hostile Blender fanboys (and girls) who were not helpful, and quite angry, that I wasn't in the highest praise of excellence over their beloved Blender.  Hey, no software is perfect.  I've often criticized 3dsmax for certain things over the years, as well as Poser and other applications.  I believe in honest critique, and not just fawning praises.

Anyway, this has been the most helpful Blender forum I've been to yet.  Believe it or not.  I think more people interested in learning Blender should ask questions here, if they want kind and concise responses.  Anyway, thanks again.

I'll be back with more questions.  So far, I definitely have found Blender absolutely capable of doing all the modelling needs I have.  My ONLY complaint, coming from 3dsmax, is that you can almost tell that features have been added on by people not connected with each other.  I don't know how to explain it, but there seems to be a difference with software created by a tightly knit team working together over the years, compared to individuals contributing randomly to open source code.  Not complaining, mind you, but I feel this could be why it's harder to learn for me.

I will say this on the positive side:  Blender's extrusion modelling techniques are very fast, and easy.  You can almost feel like you're sketching extrusions from a model at the speed of drawing by hand!  That, I find very good.  It falls a little flat though when it comes to doing insets or bevels.  I really do not like the way Blender does bevelling, or rotations, in edit mode.  The rotation tool, in particular, is very frustrating when you use from the R hotkey.  I don't like the rotation from view perspective thing it has going on.  Very hard to control that sometimes.

Anyway, I'm sure i'll have more questions!  Thanks to all!

I have learned more about Blender as a whole from this forum over any other as well our group here has some really knowledgeable members and the most helpful that I have come to respect and trust what they suggest. I know some other forums that yes do have their Blender loyalist who either don't know how to offer help or consider themselves to Elitist to share. I know we have several threads here and some in archive that are searchable with wealth of information on how to do this or that and am sure they will offer you answers to questions you might have and always please do post any question some one usually chimes in faster than you might believe. I know I need to fix the sticky thread that for some reason keeps disappearing that has a many useful tutorial and informational links about Blender.

quick tip

you do not need to select a face, vert or edge before using the linked hotkey (L). it can be used to select the linked surfaces beneath the cursor as long as nothing else is selected or to multi select when the CTRL+L is used

http://cgcookie.com/blender/cgc-courses/blender-basics-introduction-for-beginners/

i would suggest that as a primer for all new users because it touches on the basics that can be expanded on later

as far as specifics with the 2.5 and later versions im a bit lost because i still use 2.49b and refuse to leave it nut alot of the basics are the same in all versions

im trying to understand teh rotate in box mode question but for all areas the rotations are controlled by one of teh key combos

ALT+Shift, ALT+CTRL, and Shift+CTRL

its a bit odd for people from a studio background but not all that far from when i used pixar

Unbroken-fighter, I'm trying to rotate the scene view with middle mouse button (which rotates the scene in perspective view) after activating the box-select.  There's no hotkey combination which I've found that does that without disengaging the box select mode first, and forcing you to re-engage the tool.  Each time you re-engage the tool, you are locked into the view you chose beforehand, and have to rotate your view and then engage it again to make more selections.  In Max, there's no need to enter a select mode. You simply pick a marquee selection type (rectangular, circular, free selection, or lasso selection), and then start selecting vertices, edges, or faces, without a hotkey, as you rotate around the scene.  I was hoping for that kind of freedom with the box-select tool in Blender.  I've worked with Maya, and it's about the same as 3dsmax.  I'm sure XSI was that way too.  Even Carrara used a similar selection system.

The rotation gizmo behavior in the R hotkey in Blender is a bit frustrating.  It seems to depend on the perspective view angle as to the direction the gizmo "rubber band" pulls the rotation of the object?  Holding down the CTRL hotkey, I believe, restricts it to an axis, but it seems hard to control on my system.  So I use the rotate transform manipulator instead.

Just out of curiosity, which Pixar software did you work with?  Marionette used to be their modelling software, and Presto is their proprietary animation app.  I didn't think these were commercially available?

Thanks for the tips!

BTW, I'm really enjoying the extrude function in Blender.  So fast and easy.  I just wish the bevel had more control!  I find myself moving around that rubber band gizmo in bevel mode until I find a bevel size I want.  It doesn't seem to work the same every time, and I almost always need to adjust the parameters of the tool afterward to get the bevel size I need, which is very time consuming.  Blender did such a great job with their extrusion tool, but the bevel seems to be an afterthought by comparison unfortunately.

For example, I select a face which I want to bevel.  I click CTRL B to engage the bevel gizmo.  That "rubber band" dotted line shows up, and I have to move all over the screen to find where the bevel starts. Then I find it, but have little control over the depth of the bevel, and find myself going over to the parameter panel to adjust the amount, segments, and profile anyway.  I really wish bevel was a tool like Extrude, which worked very fast, but with good control.  In Max, the bevel tool is exactly like extrude, except once you commit an extrusion, the tool allows you to create a bevel as a second step to the process in the viewport.

The extrude in Blender is so good, I find myself using it to create bevels too, by simply engaging the scale tool after the extrusion, and scaling the face smaller or larger.  This, at least, provides good control, and I don't have to interrupt my workflow by moving my eyes to the left, and scrolling throught the bevel parameters.

If I'm doing this wrong, or not using the tool properly, please let me know.  However, I thought this is how it worked in the docs.

for the bevel mod the closer you start to the origin point the faster it bevels and the farther away you are the more precise it is

i model at 100times studio size just because i like massive details and im used to multi-million poly meshes which tend to crash daz and poser

as far as pixar that was almost 8 years ago and it was a proprietary version for a studio

as far as the rotate tools if you use R it locks to an axis R+Y, R+X, R+Z  locks it to those axis but using the MMB+ALT+CTRL  will give better control

as i said im used to the older versions so the newer addons are a mystery to me

In Max, there's no need to enter a select mode. You simply pick a marquee selection type (rectangular, circular, free selection, or lasso selection), and then start selecting vertices, edges, or faces, without a hotkey, as you rotate around the scene.

Whilst I'm inordinately fond of Blender, I'm quite aware of its limitations. And there's a fair-few. They are getting around to fixing/improving them, so stick around: it's getting better -- incredibly so! -- with each release. Have you tried the loop-select thing yet? [ALT] [LEFT-CLICK] - well, that's how I have mine set up... I could never get my head around that "right-click to select" nonsense where the rest of the world selects with left-click - and you can select an entire edge-loop. And incremental-add... you have an edge-loop selected, then press [CTRL] [+] ( that's the + on the numeric keypad) and it will add edge-loops for you.

ETA: this works for vertex mode, edge-mode or face mode... and btw, you can toggle between those modes with [CTRL] [TAB]....

 bevel only works well WHEN scale is set to 1 , in obj mode hit ctrl+A set scale , after setting bevel hit F6 to bring up options (change size number of cuts ) this appears somewhere on T~panel but since we got tabs I have that turned off mostly [love my shortcuts lol ]

insert "i" key again works best when scale is 1 again hit F6 for options has quite a few

rotations can be a pain but lock to an axis hit x,y or z after rotate (shift x,y,z  allows rotate in 2 axis) 

know what you mean about made by dif peeps ;-)  but with all blender has to offer sims rigid bodies etc etc its an awful lot of fun  rofl

welcome to blenderverse have a sweetie  

Working in Blender myself as we speak - I pretty much always tweak simmable cloth (for Poser) in Blender, if for nothing else, than to reduce the gargantuan boob-allowance modelled into tops. Poser's figures tend to have Barbie-proportions, which lends not much credibility to Poser art, unfortunately. I use proportional edit a lot as well as the sculpt/smooth tool. Occasionally I'll even import a scene from Poser to render in Blender because of the vastly superior material spectrum (Cycles blows Firefly out of the water, totally) although this involves a serious amount of work for a scene.

Yummy! Alsorts... my favourites, Hedd!!!

 lol I wondered if allsorts had emigrated ;-)   how you doing hun ?? alls well I hope

Whilst I'm inordinately fond of Blender, I'm quite aware of its limitations. And there's a fair-few. They are getting around to fixing/improving them, so stick around: it's getting better -- incredibly so! -- with each release. Have you tried the loop-select thing yet? [ALT] [LEFT-CLICK] - well, that's how I have mine set up... I could never get my head around that "right-click to select" nonsense where the rest of the world selects with left-click - and you can select an entire edge-loop. And incremental-add... you have an edge-loop selected, then press [CTRL] [+] ( that's the + on the numeric keypad) and it will add edge-loops for you.

ETA: this works for vertex mode, edge-mode or face mode... and btw, you can toggle between those modes with [CTRL] [TAB]....

Cool!  Yes, I'm VERY impressed with the way Blender selects edge loops.  It's very convenient and fast!  Probably the fastest edge loop selections I've ever had in any software, so that's a huge plus for me, because I do a lot of edge-extrude modelling, as opposed to box modelling, or other techniques.  The way you can switch from selecting full loops, to partial loops, and rings in both edge and face mode, is absolutely the best such feature I've used in any package, including 3dsmax, Maya and Modo!  They did a brilliant job working out the hotkey combo for accessing edge and face loops in Blender.

As for the left-click bullcrap, I agree with you.  It's total nonsense, and I don't know why they developed it like that!  It serves only to confuse newcomers immediately, and causes less interest in the software.  I have personally not changed the left/right click default option while learning the software though, because most of the tutorials I follow use the default settings, and it's hard enough to remember what I'm doing, without having to remember to reverse the button configuration.

 bevel only works well WHEN scale is set to 1 , in obj mode hit ctrl+A set scale , after setting bevel hit F6 to bring up options (change size number of cuts ) this appears somewhere on T~panel but since we got tabs I have that turned off mostly [love my shortcuts lol ] insert "i" key again works best when scale is 1 again hit F6 for options has quite a few

rotations can be a pain but lock to an axis hit x,y or z after rotate (shift x,y,z  allows rotate in 2 axis) 

know what you mean about made by dif peeps ;-)  but with all blender has to offer sims rigid bodies etc etc its an awful lot of fun  rofl

This is invaluable information!  Thank you!  Oh, Blender sure is a lot of fun. I have to say, I'm very impressed with the latest version of Blender using the Pie Menus.  I addressed that earlier in the thread, but I can't say enough about how much it has improved the usability.  Before the pie menus and visual icons in 2.73, you had to memorize a TON of hotkeys, and while most advanced users of any software should learn and use hotkeys in their workflow, earlier versions of Blender almost seemed useless without them.  Most of the functions were not available any other way, and that was frustrating as a new user too.  Beginners need visual help to learn the tools.  If you didn't know all of the hotkeys, you were likely to think Blender couldn't perform a certain function!  I've learned some good ones that I didn't know before, just from this thread alone.

Oh, I just wanted to mention... I think it was UnbrokenFighter who mentioned it... about selecting sub-objects with the L hotkey.  It does indeed seem to work without selecting a polygon or vertex, but for some reason, not all the time.  I have an object here that I put the cursor over the element I wish to select, and click L, but nothing happens?  Then I select a face on that element, and press L, and it selects it as expected.  Hmmm.  I wonder if it's a bug, or just the nature of this particular object?  It has a ton of small, sub-elements in it.

 err yeah sometimes L wont work (I've had that ) sometimes select a dif vert works,  oddly deselecting then selecting same vert will work .....sometimes :-(

could be a bug but after 3 X wifes I aint qualified to say rofl  

Maxmodels, I am so happy to know you are finding the power of Blender.  I once worked in 3dsmax for greater than a year at small studio in Paris, so I have familiar with the software too.  Once leaving, I never thought I would find a good choice to replace the software I learned.  Blender became my next choice, and very happy to say I found it!  As I hope you will also.

3dsmax will have some features you will not find in Blender yet.  I used to like the patch modelling feature, and feature to use Nurbs sometimes, and convert to polygons.   I remeber the loft feature as very powerful. The one in Blender is a lot simple.  One thing that will help is to turn on all the addons that come with Blender in Preferences.  This will open hidden features that are not turned on when you start up.

I find that Blender is more fun to use, as many extra power is there for free, like fluids.  3dsmax you have to use addon for fluid simulation.  You will see the balance of power in features such as this, which in other software is plugin or addon.  Enjoy!

Thanks again, Zandar.  Yes, I'm finding many things about Blender I didn't expect to find.  I have most of the addons in Preferences turned on already, and I've added a few of my own I found online.

Nice to hear input from a former Max user.  I'm not prepared to give up using 3dsmax, I'm just interested in learning Blender as a backup, in case AD decide to discontinue the software, which has been their M.O. recently.

Yeah, I noticed there is a Loft tool in Blender's Loop Tools.  It's a nice touch of "home" for me, but is definitely not the full featured tool I have in Max.  That's ok, because I rarelly needed it anyway.  I don't do much spline or curve based modelling.  Blender has Nurbs.  I know I saw them in there.  Don't know if the modelling tools for Nurbs are as good as in Max, but Max is not a good Nurbs modeller anyway!  Now the Patch modelling, I might miss a little more.  I often used Patch topology as easy way to get nice smooth curved surfaces, then converted them over to polys in the end.

Max can do some degree of fluid effects with it's Particle Flow, but they are not true fluid simulations, so I'll be eager to experiement with that feature in Blender to be sure.  For now, however, I'm only interested in the modelling tools.  I really want to be able to model in Blender as "fluidly" as I had done in Max.  I have a long way to go.

I was reading a post over at Blender Artist about selecting with the L key. Not only can you select non welded geometry but also geometry grouped by marking UV seams.

Also a tip on beveling: you can roll the mouse scroll wheel to add more edges to the bevel.  Welcome to Blender family :)

I was reading a post over at Blender Artist about selecting with the L key. Not only can you select non welded geometry but also geometry grouped by marking UV seams.

Also a tip on beveling: you can roll the mouse scroll wheel to add more edges to the bevel.  Welcome to Blender family :)

Thanks!  About the L key, I think it depends on how the model is created too.  Because as we discussed above briefly, it doesn't always work right if you have nothing selected under your cursor.  However, if I select a vertex or poly face, then it does what I wanted.  Strange, but I guess that's the way it goes sometimes. I found out about the scolling thing with Bevel, but thank you for mentioning it as well.  However, i really, really don't like the way bevel works in Blender.  The bevelling tool in Blender is an edge edit operation, not a face edit.  In 3dsmax, Bevel is a face-specific operation, and the equivalent feature to Blender's bevel is actually called "Chamfer" in 3dsmax.  So, the Max version of the Bevel operation is actually a combination of extrude and scale, performed on a particular face(s) selection.  Chamfering, on the other hand, is an action performed only on edges, as Bevel is in Blender.

In the 2015 release have a feature called "quad chamfer", which will create only quads at each vertex intersection, and then you have the option to push or pull the selected edges as a secondary operation, for making things like seams or piping in clothing or cushions.  I'm not sure how to do this yet in Blender, with the bevel tool.  See the example of what I mean here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tC6Q0-B7XA8

Scratch that.  I see it now in the left side panel when I'm in the bevel tool.  It's under "profile"  this would allow you to push or pull the newly created edges of the bevel.  Ok, I'm starting to get the hang of it now, but I'm still having a hard time adjusting to the way this works.  I wish when you do a bevel in face mode, that the operation was more like the method in Max, where you extrude first, then scale that face to create a bevelled polygon.  In this case, it only works as an edge "chamfer".  So I think now that most of the extrusion modelling techniques I've grown accustomed to before, will require a few more steps in Blender.  Unless there's a tool I'm not aware of, I'll have to use extrude first (which is an awesome tool in Blender), then switch immediately to the S hotkey to scale that face.

Check out the way the "bevel face" tool works in 3dsmax.  It's basically doing in one step what would require two hokeys in Blender.  Is there anything I'm missing which would do the same action in Blender, using only one step?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqQe2jrD1qU

This is kind of a big deal for me, because I do a lot of hard surface modelling this way.  I find it very easy and fast.  While using two hotkeys to perform the same simple action in Blender is not a deal breaker by any means, it will definitely slow me down a little during a modelling session if I have a lot of these type of operations to perform.  Not complaining, so much as I am trying to adjust my workflow here.

Here's a quick example of where I am finding the most difficulty adjusting my modelling workflow to Blender, due to the apparent difference in the way Bevelling works here.  This is one reason 3dsmax uses two different kinds of operations for "bevelling" edges, and faces.

Let's say I'm hard surface modelling an object using extrusion techniques from a simple primitive.  Very fast, easy techniques I would think.  In 3dsmax, I would use the Bevel Face tool to make some extrusions from a selected face or two, then, if I desire, scale that face smaller or larger all within the same motion, with just a mouse click.  When I'm done, I just click again off the object, or select a new face with the tool still enabled, and keep going.  Simple and fast, without even the need to touch the keyboard.

In Blender, I use the Extrude Region tool to make my extrusions on a selected face or faces, which I find very fluid and fast.  Even moreso than 3dsmax.  However, to create the "face bevel", or scale that same polygon or group of polygons, I need to enable the S scale tool (an extra hotkey click over my previous 3dsmax workflow, but not a big deal).  I can handle that.  UNTIL....

I come across a situation where I want to bevel (extrude) the faces on opposite sides of a non-symmetrical model.  In this case, I need to use the Extrude Individual tool in Blender, right?  BUT... now when I go to scale those opposing faces, the S hotkey is no longer working right, and instead of scaling locally, it's scaling them inwards or pushing them OUT (using the Global coordinates).  See attached image.

Previously, in the 3dsmax workflow, this was not an issue.  The Bevel Face tool could be set to work from "local normal", and I just continued on without needing the keyboard to enable any hotkeys, or change coordinates.  It did the job as expected.  However, now it seems I may need to change coordinates to "local"?  Ok, I tried that, but even that didn't work.  I changed to local coordinates in the scene and in the bevel tool itself, and still the S hotkey is not scaling the two selected faces correctly.  At the very least, this is going to be a big time hog, if it's even a problem that can be fixed without selecting each face one at a time?  If someone can resolve this issue where my workflow is at least just down to ONE hotkey click, that will make me semi-happy. LOL.

 don't think I can get you to one key but theres stuff you can do a little diff

for that item your doing I would cut in half and use a the mirror mod

or you can change the pivot point from median to individual origins  (or others )

that will change to way some tools perform  

I've tried all possible coordinate settings I can think of!  I changed the scene coordinates to "normal", "local", "view", and even "world" again.  I also tried changing the coordinates in the scale tool, in the left panel that pops up after enabling the S hotkey to all of the provided coordinate orientations in the dropdown menu it provided.  I even tried enabling the "proportional" editing option.  Even after all that, every time I hit the S hotkey, the scale gizmo does the same thing,.. pushes or pulls the faces toward or away from each other while scaling!  Why?  There MUST be a way to do this, or else I'm going to have to reconsider my entire workflow whenever I model certain objects in Blender. gulp.

 don't think I can get you to one key but theres stuff you can do a little diff

for that item your doing I would cut in half and use a the mirror mod

or you can change the pivot point from median to individual origins  (or others )

that will change to way some tools perform  

Heddheld, that's cool enough for a symmetrical object, like the one in that example (although slightly more work), but I'm worried about objects that I don't want symmetrical, or aren't symmetrical all over, and only perhaps in that one particular location I'm working on.  Then cutting and mirror won't help.  What's the trick of changing the individual origins?  I thought that was already what I did by using the "Extrude Individual" tool.  Is there a similar tool for scaling "individual"?

Heddheld, that's cool enough for a symmetrical object, like the one in that example (although slightly more work), but I'm worried about objects that I don't want symmetrical, or aren't symmetrical all over, and only perhaps in that one particular location I'm working on.  Then cutting and mirror won't help.  What's the trick of changing the individual origins?  I thought that was already what I did by using the "Extrude Individual" tool.  Is there a similar tool for scaling "individual"?

Maxxmodels, in the case of which you need opposing scaling in two axis, and mirror can not be used, I would only then suggest to you instead of S hotkey, use the scale manipulator, located in button at the bottom of screen.  Use this to scale along the axis you wish for both selected faces at one time.  Scale along Y, and X, or Z and Y for the example. This will, of course, be much slower and more clicks than you wish, but at last it is possible to accomplish.  Yes, the bevelling in 3dsmax is a much different feature, and 3dsmax uses a chamfer name instead for edges.  That is one difference that you will need only to get used to, or must need to consider before you begin to model, so it is sure not to defeat your progress.

If you watch tutorials in Blender, you will see how Blender artists step aside these problems without slowing down, by using strategy in how they begin their project.  I know in 3dsmax this is not necessary, but each software has differences.  Still, the speed of final progress is up to good plan, and thinking ahead usually.  Moving to new software sometimes will require you to do that.  Once I changed some habits, I found very simple how easy to get from one shape to another, but using only a different road.

OH!  I leave before without presenting other solution!

I am so sorry to all.  Again to maxxxmodels, I say this.  If all the motions with using the extrude, then scaling the polygon with scale manipulator on the axis you wish does not suit your modelling styles, there is one other.  There is a small feature in Blender for a long time named Inset.  In Blender, the Inset feature is not the same trick as it does in 3dsmax.  In Blender, Inset is almost same as Bevel in 3dsmax.

To solve your problem in example above, you do not chose the Extrude Individual feature, non.  In that event, you will wish to use the Inset.  Select both polygons, and click on inset.  Then you will be required to adjust the settings in the panel which will appear in the Tool Shelf.  Inset will scale the faces as you wish, along normals, and also give you option for height.  This option for height is the extrude.  Same as the Bevel in 3dsmax, but many more button clicks.  You can not control the feature, as I am aware, with only mouse clicks.

So, the hotkey is i.  You can reduce clicks by hotkey i, then use theextrude individual to extrude faces as you desire.  Inset first, then pull out with extrude individual.  This, in end, is exactly like Bevel in 3dsmax, only several more click functions.

Heddheld is right about the pivot point.Changing the Pivot point to individual will effect how the tools work. If you scale with 2 separate faces selected (set to median Pivot) it will scale those faces from a point between them. If you set it to individual pivot it will scale them according to each elements local position. So pivot is something you may have to change depending on what you are trying to do. Oh random info Alt-S will move an element along its normal direction.  Hope this helped

Wow, thank you all for the quick and very in depth replies!  Cybermonk, I think you are right.  That is going to be the only way to do it, unfortunately, because it will take a lot more time in some cases, and workflows.

Zandar, I particularly appreciate your effort in helping here, but as luck would have it, that technique of inset/extrude individual is NOT the same as the bevel command in 3dsmax.  Here's why:

I create a simple cube.  In normal everyday cases, If I were simply doing this exercise for real, I'd do the mirror technique suggested earlier.  But for the sake of argument, and proof of concept, I'll just use this as an example of a possible situation.  Here is the cube in Blender, using Inset followed immediately by extrude individual.  It "almost" works, but is not the same.

And here is the same kind of cube, with same faces selected, but with Bevel operation in 3dsmax.  Notice all it is doing is extruding individually, but then instantly scaling those faces appropriately along their local NORMALS, without switching tools or using hotkeys, just a mouse click.

The 3dsmax Bevel result is what I want.  In the same uninterrupted workflow.  Unfortunately, it's not possible on objects which are not mirrored in Blender, without manipulating the pivot, as Cybermonk mentions.

Also about the extrude individual. If the faces are not touching(with individual pivot) it will extrude separately. If you have several faces touching and you'll have to extrude individual let blender know you want them separated. See in the pic it is set to individual pivot. It considers the adjoining faces 1 element and extrudes them along an average normal direction.

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Cybermonk, thank you for bringing that up.  THAT is where a 3dsmax user, like myself, will have a hard time adjusting to certain modelling limitations in Blender.  While all the basic functions are there, and some are very very well implimented, some important things are very different.

In 3dsmax, every Extrude or Bevel command you can perform on the polygon or face level can be done in 3 distinct MODES.  You can extrude or bevel faces in Group, Local Normals, or By Polygon.  It seems Blender's "Extrude Individual" is actually the same as "By Polygon" in Max, which makes sense.  However, the "Local Normals" or "Group" modes are together as one function in Blender, and they don't always work as one function, it seems.  So in order to get the same results as I do in 3dsmax, there are going to be conditions where a little (or a LOT, depending on the model) more work will need to be involved.  Here's what I mean by the modes:

Before doing a Bevel, I can set the "mode" I wish for the bevel to work.  Once done, I can perform the action in just one go on any number of faces, anywhere on the mesh again and again in one session, and it works as expected.  I think I'm faced here with a limitation which may affect the fluidity of the modelling session, and I'll have to get used to that if and when I am forced to use Blender as my primary modeller.  Unless these limitations are addressed in later versions, adjusting pivots and coordinates every time I want to do a particular type of Bevel will become laborious, I think?  It's already a little bit frustrating.

Hey, Maxxxmodelz!  Welcome to Blender forum!

Very interesting thread you have here.  I personally never used 3dsmax, although I have actually followed some 3dsmax modeling tutorials, in Blender!  It was a little confusing at first, but I eventually got the hang of the differences in the tutorials, and now I'm actually able to follow a lot of great 3dsmax tutorials using Blender with no problems!  Sometimes I even get ahead of the teachers!

Like some of the others here were saying, not everything you have in 3dsmax will be available in the same way in Blender, as you already noticed, but you can definitely model anything in Blender that you can in 3dsmax.  Sometimes even faster and easier.  It just depends on how well you know Blender.  If you knew it as well as 3dsmax, I'm sure you'd love it, and be able to complete any model just as easily.

I don't know how to solve your problem with doing those kinds of bevels.  Sorry, but I can't help you there.  I would model those shapes using different tools in blender maybe, or just go about it a little differently than you might like.  Who knows.

I can, however, give you some advice regarding your issue with the box select, and not being able to rotate the view when you are trying to select things.  Check out this tutorial:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-DynRIN5MY

This will give you all the information you need to know about making selections very quickly in Blender!  The reason you can not rotate your view when you are in box select is because the logic to using box select is to make selections from the view you are in!  That's what it's used for, and why it's there to begin with.  Otherwise, some of the other tools to select things are more useful, and more powerful.  If you must move around your view while making selections on your object, then why not use the Circle tool instead?  I know you might be thinking you have to click the C hotkey to activate, then click again when done, and you still can't rotate your view in between, but you actually can!  Check out the tips in that video to find out how!

I'll look around for solutions to this bevel problem, but so far, I've seen tutorials for every kind of modeling issue known to man in Blender, and not once has this held back anyone from quickly generating their objects.  At least not that I saw.  Maybe certain kinds of modeling is much faster in 3dsmax, but don't give up on Blender!  It can be very efficient at modeling too!

 have to point that vid tut is for blender sensei !! its got some differences with blender standard

@OP in the example you posted for bevel~extrude  you could of got same result by translating the inner poly after insert

once you get used to the different way you need to work in blender you'll love it !!! doubt you was FAST when you started with max, speed comes with practise, trying diff ways to get where you want to be and now an then delete the lot an start again 'cos if I started here instead of there doh!!

you already have a good idea of how it all works in max and I'd bet within a year you'll be doing blender tuts for ME ;-) 

The closest you can get in Blender to Maxs bevel, as per your example, is to select your extrude pivot point mode - hotkey ctrl+.(period key) for individual origins; press "E" for extrude then press your mouse key and hold it while you tap the "S" key; then mouse click to exit.

YAY@!  I finally figured it out a workaround to doing similar 3dsmax bevels in Blender, thanks to the suggestions from everyone here!

keppel and Cybermonk's thoughts about pivots and to hold down the mouse key while tapping on S worked!  The trick is to set the Pivot centers to "individual origins", as was surmised earlier, and then I can select opposing faces without symmetry, use the E key to extrude, and holding down the mouse button, tap the S key to scale.  The results are exactly what I was looking for...

And the GOOD news is that the workflow to this technique is only mildly more time consuming than the bevel tool in 3dsmax, so that's totally acceptable.  Phew!  Finally.  This will help my workflow immensely for things like spacecraft, and other hard surface modelling tasks.

I still think the bevel and inset tools in Blender can use a little more thought and improvement.  Inset, in particular, feels like a tool which was more or less an after-thought in the Blender arsenal.  It's supposed to be a tool intended to work together with face extrude and bevelling, but here in Blender, it almost seems lost in the mix.  Considering that even "low-end" modelling software like Hexagon did a great job with their dynamic extrusion tool. Inset, extrude, and bevel are all part of the same tool in Hexagon, and can all be engaged seamlessly, just by using the mouse buttons.  This kind of synergy really helps speed up the modelling process.  I think Blender Foundation has a different logic when it comes to the modelling process than the industry standards, and from what I have read, feel they more or less have "cut the fat" out of their tools.  However, in the case of those 3 very important modelling tools, I don't see the progressive thinking.

I'd like to really thank ALL of you for helping me here so far, and for being so knowledgable, and gracious in sharing that knowledge with an "outsider", so to speak.  lol

 you have extra faces on the tapered rod (see pic)

[maybe tapped E twice?? ] they will cause problems sooner or later

easy fix is in vertex mode select all and remove doubles  ... watch the header it tells you how many it removed

I'm so impressed with all the information here!  This turned into one of the better threads in the forum since I've been a member here.  A showcase of knowledge.

I wouldn't even have noticed those extra points, heddheld!  Great eyes.  That kind of thing could really screw up a mesh later down the road, so now I know if I see that kind of thing in a mesh, I need to stop... drop,... and roll! hahaha  Good thing to keep a eye on, because it can happen so easily by accident.  Especailly those of us with arthritic fingers, like me.  Sometimes the keyboard shortcuts take a toll on my fingers, and I accidentally press a button twice without realising it.  Don't get old, kids!

Yep, I must have double-extruded on the faces by accident, causing some internal faces to occur, which were not intended.  That's just my inexperience in using the E tool in Blender really, not a reflection of any software malfunction.  Blender's Extrude is fast.  Maybe too fast.  As soon as you engage the E hotkey, and move the mouse, the extrusion begins on the selected faces.  Yes, that's an efficient tool, but can lead to some mistakes if you are just beginning to use it.  In 3dsmax, the process is much the same, except the extrusion only occurs when you press down on the left mouse.  This is the rare case where I have found Blender to be less clicks for an operation than Max, but also harder to control.  It's funny the differences in workflow I'm finding between these two great applications.

I also used Maya for nearly a year.  It was a software I never owned or used personally, but many studios were using it, and I needed a job.  So I quickly learned to model in Maya, and the transition to it was sooo much easier from 3dsmax than Blender is proving to be.  Maya's modelling tools functioned about the same as 3dsmax, but they were aweful buggy.  Crashes and screen freeze happened on the regular whenever I was poly modelling something heavy, and Maya's symmetry feature in regard to poly modelling was the worst of all in terms of stability.  Don't know if the latest version improved on that any, but it was so frustrating.  At least so far, I'm finding Blender very stable.  It seems to almost never crash to desktop.  I have had to restart it once or twice, because the tools stopped working though.  I had a good run in latest versions of 3dsmax, where I didn't experience any crashes for weeks, so I'm liking the fact that Blender has good stability.  Maya, at least on Windows, was the worst!

I'm noticing where "Blender" got it's name.  It appears to be a combination of Maya, 3dsmax, and XSI in the way it's tools and UI function.  I think it leans toward XSI, but some things, like it's modifiers and Loop Tools, were definitely inspired by 3dsmax.  The Loop Tools are almost exactly the same, minus a few detail features.  I'm using those probably the most so far of any of Blender's tools, outside of Extrude.

NEXT QUESTION:

Ok guys, here's one which has had me scratching my head since I began learning Blender.  It has to do with modifiers.  3dsmax might be the king of modifiers, and the way it works there is simple. You can apply modifiers to an entire object, element, or even just selected faces on any object.  Simply go into polygon mode, select a few faces, and apply any modifier, and that modifier will work on just those selected faces or edge, or vertices.  In Blender, however, I'm finding it not quite as simple as that.  Modifiers need to be defined by vertex groups, or edge weights, etc.  For example, I wish to use the displacement modifier on only the faces I have selected, and not the overall entire object.  What would I need to do first in order to make that happen, because i have some faces selected, but simply applying the modifier causes the deformation to happen to the entire object.  This has me stumped.

In Blender the modifiers have modifiers. lol You can assign the area you want affected to a vertex group and use that to control the effect. Or you can assign the whole thing to a vertex group.... set the weight paint of the vertex group to zero.... now go into weight paint and paint on the area you want affected. You can get pretty subtle with the transition like this.

Here's something similar using the Hair/Particle system and weight painting to grow trees on a sphere.

Cybermonk, thank you!  That's kind of the procedure I thought, but I was kind of hoping I was wrong, and there was an easier way.  Not that there is anything inherantly wrong with that procedure, as it's very accurate and does make sense.  However, there are more times when I just want to define some faces and apply a deformation or effect quickly.  This is a very accurate way to apply the modifiers, but I feel like it should be an option more than a requirement.  3dsmax has a selection option called "soft selection", which is basically very much like painting weights in Blender, as a way to get more specific placement of modifiers or whatever.  This is just one of those workflow differences I have to wrap my head around.  It makes sense, but seems like it should be optional.  At any rate, I won't complain further, I'll just get used to it.  Thanks again for confirming this for me.

One thing I'm happy about is that the particle system in Blender is SOO much easier than the Pflow system in 3dsmax, and I can appreciate that.  This is how all particle systems should behave.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. :) Yeah Blender definately has its downside as well as it's upside. If it keeps improving at the rate it has been we should have plenty to look forward to though.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. :) Yeah Blender definately has its downside as well as it's upside. If it keeps improving at the rate it has been we should have plenty to look forward to though.

I usually skip a few upgrades until there's something I really can't do without.  I do that with almost every app I own.  I upgraded to 3dsmax 2015, only because #1: I had the money at the time, and #2: I figured this may be the last upgrade I make for the product.  After seeing Autodesk axe XSI early last year, I had a bad feeling they may do the same eventually to 3dsmax, even though they CLAIM they are dedicated to it.  If you look at the 2015 release of Maya, and all the TONS of new features they gave it, and then look at the very weak upgrade they gave to 3dsmax, it really makes you wonder which application Autodesk are dedicated to after all.  So here I am learing Blender.  One thing I will say, is that after I learn this package, my wallet will surely weigh a lot more than it has over the past years. Plus, at least I still have the 3dsmax knowledge for my resume, if and when I ever come across any job opportunities again.  Are there any studios in the US which have Blender in their piplines?  Would be nice to know, especially after spending all this time and effort in learning it.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. :) Yeah Blender definately has its downside as well as it's upside. If it keeps improving at the rate it has been we should have plenty to look forward to though.

I usually skip a few upgrades until there's something I really can't do without.  I do that with almost every app I own.  I upgraded to 3dsmax 2015, only because #1: I had the money at the time, and #2: I figured this may be the last upgrade I make for the product.  After seeing Autodesk axe XSI early last year, I had a bad feeling they may do the same eventually to 3dsmax, even though they CLAIM they are dedicated to it.  If you look at the 2015 release of Maya, and all the TONS of new features they gave it, and then look at the very weak upgrade they gave to 3dsmax, it really makes you wonder which application Autodesk are dedicated to after all.  So here I am learing Blender.  One thing I will say, is that after I learn this package, my wallet will surely weigh a lot more than it has over the past years. Plus, at least I still have the 3dsmax knowledge for my resume, if and when I ever come across any job opportunities again.  Are there any studios in the US which have Blender in their piplines?  Would be nice to know, especially after spending all this time and effort in learning it.

Hi maxxmodelz

One site you might want to check often besides Blender.org is Blender Nation it has a wealth of information and updated very regularly has a very good tutorial section and current news about Blender and the Blender community http://www.blendernation.com/ another site I would also recommend is the Blender Artist forum community http://blenderartists.org/forum/index.php I am a registered member there with the same username i use here but will give you a heads up sometimes some of the members there do act like elitist and not always friendly to noobies but there is information boards on Jobs wealth of tutorials and much more. I have learned and used both sites as jumping points to finding information and learning Blender. Granted I will say with pride that I think our Blender community here at Renderosity is the best and friendliest.

Thanks, Lobo.  I'll try Blender Nation, but I'm already a member of Blender Artists, under different alias.  Don't ask me why I joined with a different username.  I thought it was kinda silly to make posts about learning Blender, and coming from a 3dsmax background with the username "maxxxmodelz".  LOL.  Most of the users there HATE 3dsmax it seems, and simply mentioning the software evokes some high emotion of distaste.  Don't quite know why, but if I were to have started this very thread over there, I'm quite sure I wouldn't have been nearly as informed and welcomed.

This has been, by far, the most welcoming, open-minded, Blender forum I've seen yet.  By far.  Most of the guys here seem to know their stuff, but moreso are very open minded about comparing the features with other software, and suggesting workarounds which actually WORK, without the typical "3dsmax and Maya sucks" attitudes I've come across in most other blender forums.

Thanks, Lobo.  I'll try Blender Nation, but I'm already a member of Blender Artists, under different alias.  Don't ask me why I joined with a different username.  I thought it was kinda silly to make posts about learning Blender, and coming from a 3dsmax background with the username "maxxxmodelz".  LOL.  Most of the users there HATE 3dsmax it seems, and simply mentioning the software evokes some high emotion of distaste.  Don't quite know why, but if I were to have started this very thread over there, I'm quite sure I wouldn't have been nearly as informed and welcomed.

This has been, by far, the most welcoming, open-minded, Blender forum I've seen yet.  By far.  Most of the guys here seem to know their stuff, but moreso are very open minded about comparing the features with other software, and suggesting workarounds which actually WORK, without the typical "3dsmax and Maya sucks" attitudes I've come across in most other blender forums.

When I first went to Blender Artist the only modeling knowledge I had was with Hexagon and Silo neither of which are like Max but did find that there are some very hard core Blender users there who as I mentioned before can act a bit elitist but their is still allot of info that you can find there as well as additional add on's that can come in handy that you might not find anywhere else. I have taken the approach that if I can find a gem of info even there it is worth the grief but I am one who enjoy searching out info and answers to questions so that I can further my own knowledge base now just have to kick my self in gear and start finishing some models and hopefully sharing them.

I usually browse all of the forums mentioned above, but even as a Blender devotee, I haven't had the guts to post there yet.  This is actually one of the first Blender forums I've been active in, and have learned the most from what I've read here.  I have been recommending it to the fellow Blender users I know.