Page 228 - Kitab3DsMax

Part II: Working with Objects

Viewing object information
For a single object, the General panel of the Object Properties dialog box lists details about the object in the
Object Information section. These details include the object’s name; color; extent distances from the origin
along the X-, Y-, and Z-axes; number of vertices and faces; the object’s parent; the object’s Material Name;
the number of children attached to the object; the object’s group name if it’s part of a group; and the layer
on which the object can be found. All this information (except for its name and color) is for display only
and cannot be changed.

Note
The two fields under the Vertices and Faces are used only when the properties for a Shape are being displayed.
These fields show the number of Shape Vertices and Shape Curves. n
If the properties for multiple objects are to be displayed, the Object Properties dialog box places the text
“Multiple Selected” in the Name field. The properties that are in common between all these objects are dis-
played. With multiple objects selected, you can set their display and rendering properties all at once.
The Object Properties dialog box can be displayed for all geometric objects and shapes, as well as for lights,
cameras, helpers, and Space Warps. Not all properties are available for all objects.

Cross-Ref
The Hide and Freeze options included in the Interactivity section are covered later in this chapter in the “Hiding
and Freezing Objects” section. n

Setting display properties
Display properties don’t affect how an object is rendered, only how it is displayed in the viewports. In this
section, along with the Rendering Control and Motion Blur sections, are three By Object/By Layer toggle
buttons. If the By Object button is displayed, then options can be set for the selected object, but if the By
Layer option is enabled, then all options become disabled and the object gets its display properties from the
layer settings found in the Layer Manager.

Note
You also can find and set the same Display Properties that are listed in the Object Properties dialog box in the
Display Properties rollout of the Display panel in the Command Panel and in the Display Floater. n

The See-Through option causes shaded objects to appear transparent. This option is similar to the Visibility
setting in the Rendering Control section, except that it doesn’t affect the rendered image. It is only for dis-
playing objects in the viewports. This option really doesn’t help in wireframe viewports. Figure 6.10 shows
the lion toy model with spheres behind it with and without this option selected.
Many of these display properties can speed up or slow down the viewport refresh rates. For example,
Display as Box increases the viewport update rate dramatically for complex scenes, but at the expense of
any detail. This setting can be useful to see how the objects generally fit in comparison to one another. This
option also can be accessed from the Viewport Configuration dialog box or from the Viewport name right-
click pop-up menu, but the Object Properties dialog box lets you set this option for a single object instead
of for the entire viewport.

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