What this script do:

This script allow you to place (or place and align) objects on the surface of another object or on the grid under the cursor and snap to 3D Grid if grid snapping is enabled.

There are two scripts included in a single *.ms file:

Move to Surface - allow you to place selected objects near the cursor on another objects or on the grid.

Align To Surface - will place and align selected object to surface of another object or grid under the cursor. This one works only for a single object. If someone know how to do calculate stable rotation offset for multiple objects - please make a post in the comment section.

How to use it:

• Assign shortcut. Select any object point your cursor on another object or on the grid and press a shortcut you specified. The object will move or move and align to the posistion and surface you pointed.
• If snap to grid is enabled the object's pivot will be snapped to grid as well.
• If multiple objects selected the one that was selected last will be used as a main object.
• Align To Surface works only for a single object. If someone know how to do calculate stable rotation offset for multiple objects - please make a post in the comment section.

May have some bugs. Please report if you find any.

Tested on 3ds Max 2023 and 2024

Known issues:

On 3Ds Max 2024 once I've encountered a bug when 3ds max was returning an incorrect index of the active viewport, which led to the script not working properly. This is 3ds max issue - not the issue if my script. In order to fix that I had to create new scene and merge everything there. So if you will encounter some weird behavior - try to merge everything to a fresh scene.

Installation:

Drag/Drop the script on 3ds max viewport or run it via 'Scripting-> Run Script...'. Go to "Hotkey Editor", search for category called 'Custom', there will be 'Move to Surface' and 'Align to Surface' assing hotkeys to them.

Since it relying on mouse cursor position this scripts are supposed to be used only with hotkeys.

Video Demonstration: