Figure 2-1: New Scene Dialog Box
Max starts with a new scene. You can start a new scene from the menu selection “File>New” or press the (Ctrl+N) keyboard shortcut.
On executing the new command, a new scene dialog box appears. The options available for a new scene are:
Keep Objects and Hierarchy
This keeps the objects and the hierarchical links between them, but removes any animation keys.
Keep Objects
This keeps the objects in the scene, but removes any links between them and any animation keys.
New All (Default)
This clears the contents of the current scene. When creating a new scene, you can keep the current objects or select New All.
Figure 2-1: New Scene Dialog Box
Before a file is saved, the word “Untitled” appears in the title bar; after you save this file, the name of the file appears in the title bar.
If the scene hasn’t been saved yet, then a “Save File As” dialog box appears. You can also make this dialog box appear using the File> Save As command.
After a file has been saved, using the File>Save command saves the file
without opening the File dialog box.
Figure 2-2: Save File As Dialog Box
The buttons in “Save File As” dialog box are the standard Windows file dialog box buttons used to go to the last folder visited, go up one directory, create a new folder, or to view a pop-up menu of file view options.
Clicking the button with a plus sign to the right of the Save button automatically appends a number onto the end of the current filename and saves the file. For example, if you select the hero.max file and click the plus button, a file named hero01.max is saved.
You can also save only selected objects by choosing “File>Save Selected” menu command. This saves the current selected objects to a separate scene file.
A Save Copy As menu command is also available that lets you save the current scene to a different name without changing its current name.
Max can open files with the .max or .chr extension. It can also open VIZ render files with the .drf extension.
Selecting a file and clicking on the plus button opens a copy of the selected file with a new version number appended to its name.
If Max cannot locate resources used within a scene (such as maps) when you open a Max file, then the “Missing External Files” dialog box appears, enabling you to Continue without the file or to Browse for the missing files.
If you click the Browse button, the Configure External File Paths dialog box opens, where you can add a path to the missing files.
Figure 2-3: Missing External Files Dialog Box
The most recently opened scenes are listed in the File>Open Recent submenu. Selecting these scenes from the list opens the scene file.
Merging Objects
If you want to reuse the objects or meshes from other scenes, you can use the Merge menu command.
You can choose File>Merge menu command to load objects from another scene into the current scene. Using this menu command opens a file dialog box that is exactly like the Save As dialog box, but after you select a scene and click the Open button, the Merge dialog box, appears. This dialog box displays all the objects found in the selected scene file. It also has options for sorting the objects and filtering certain types of objects. Selecting an object and clicking the OK button loads the object into the current scene.
The Merge dialog box lists all the objects from a merging scene.
Figure 2-4: Merge Dialog Box
This is especially useful if you need to send the project to be accessed on another computer and you don’t want to miss any ancillary files.
The default archive format is .zip. The Archive System lets you specify which archive program Max uses to archive your files. Maxzip is the default, but you can change it to whichever program you want to use.
Saving an archive as a .zip file compiles all external files, such as bitmaps, into a single compressed file. The File Type drop-down list of the File Archive dialog box also includes an option to create a List of Files. When you select this file type, a text file is created that lists all relevant files and their paths.
The import dialog box looks like a typical Windows file dialog box. It has different import settings pertaining to different formats.
Another common import dialog box offers options to merge the imported objects with the current scene or to completely replace the current scene.
For many formats, you can also convert units on the imported file. For example, importing a 3D Studio file opens a simple dialog box. When you select the Convert Units option, Max assumes that the 3DS file is based in inches and converts it to the currently defined units.
Figure 2-5: 3DS Import Dialog Box
If any of the object names in the imported scene match those in the current scene, an Import Name Conflict dialog box opens, allowing you to rename the imported objects, or you can Skip or Cancel the import.
Max can import many different formats including the following
Xref Scenes
An Xref, meaning 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.
Choose File>XRef Scenes to open the XRef Scenes dialog box, which you use to load XRef scenes into a file.
XRef scenes allow a team working on a project to have access to each other’s work without the risk of changing the files. A modeler can create a setting, a second modeler might create a character. The animator can externally reference the setting as a scene and animate the character in the setting without being able to make changes to the setting.
Figure 2-7: XRef Objects Dialog Box
XRef objects are slightly different from XRef scenes. XRef objects appear in a scene and can be transformed and animated, but the original object’s structure and Modifier Stack cannot be changed.
The left side of the XRef Objects dialog box is divided into two sections. The top section displays the externally referenced files, and the lower section displays the objects selected from that file. You need to select a file so that you can see its objects.
An innovative way to use this feature would be to create a library of objects that you could load on the fly as needed. For example, if you had a furniture library, you could load several different styles until you got just the look you wanted.
You can also use XRef objects to load low-resolution proxies of complex models in order to lighten the system load during a Max session. This method increases the viewport refresh rate.
Figure 2-8: Summary Info Dialog Box
Figure 2-9: File Properties Dialog Box
The Contents panel holds information about the scene, such as the total number of objects and much more. Much of this information is also found in the Summary Info dialog.
You can also view the File Properties dialog box information while working
in Windows Explorer, by right-clicking on the file and selecting Properties.
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