Page 691 - Kitab3DsMax

Chapter 24: Building Complex Scenes with Containers and XRefs

Note
Although XRefs are helpful and maintained for backward compatibility, in many ways containers are the preferred
method for loading in external files. n

Using XRef scenes
An externally referenced scene is one that appears in the current Max session, but that is not accessible for
editing or changing. The scene can be positioned and transformed when linked to a parent object and can
be set to update automatically as changes are made to the source file.
As an example of how XRef scenes facilitate a project, let’s say that a design team is in the midst of creating
an environment for a project while the animator is animating a character model. The animator can access
the in-production environment as an XRef scene in order to help him move the character correctly about
the environment. The design team members are happy because the animator didn’t modify any of their
lights, terrain models, maps, and props. The animator is happy because he won’t have to wait for the design
team members to finish all their tweaking before he can get started. The end result is one large, happy pro-
duction team (if they can meet their deadlines).
Choose Application Button ➪ References ➪ XRef Scenes to open the XRef Scenes dialog box, shown in
Figure 24.6, which you use to load XRef scenes into a file.

FIGURE 24.6
The XRef Scenes dialog box lets you specify which scenes to load as external references.

643

6/30/10 4:28 PM
34_617779-ch24.indd 643
34_617779-ch24.indd 643 6/30/10 4:28 PM