Many times when modeling, you may find yourself needing to select only part of a subobject polygon loop, or ring, between two given points.  Until the other day, I wasn't aware this was possible natively in 3dsMax.  Shame on me.

Selecting a full Loop or Ring, of course, is very simple: click any poly or edge, and then hold down Shift on the keyboard while you select the next edge or polygon along the loop or ring in the direction you intend to go, and Max will automatically select the entire loop or ring for you.  Very fast hand handy.  However, there are times when point to point selections are necessary.  I knew point to point selections were possible all along when editing UV's, but I didn't think we had that option when modeling, until recently.  In the Graphite Ribbon, under the Modify Selection panel (where all your Loop and Ring selection tools are) is a handy feature called "StepMode".  When in Polygon subobject mode, enable StepMode, select your first polygon, then hold CTRL, and select any polygon which resides on the same loop or ring as the first selection, and StepMode will fill in the polys between them, as a selection.  I find it most handy for polygon subobject selections, but it also has functions for edge and vertice (according to the manual).  It's a great tool which probably doesn't see much use, even in tutorials or professional circles, because it's placement in the Graphite ribbon is obscure to say the least.

Try it out, and I'm sure it will help improve your modeling workflow.

______________________________________

My Store
My Free Models
My Video Tutorials
My CG Animations
Instagram: @luxxeon3d
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/luxxeon