8

M ana ging Scenes a nd Pr oj ect s
These topics are concerned with managing scenes,
projects, and the files that make them up.
Working with AutoCAD and Architectur al
Desktop
3ds Max contains many features designed to
streamline the design visualization workflow. See
Working with Drawing Files (page 3–425) .The
File Link Manager (page 3–431) allows you to
create a live link to a DWG file. You can then apply
materialsandanimationsin3dsMax,butstill
update your geometry if any changes are made to
the or i ginal file.
File-Ha ndling Commands
The principal commands for handling files (page
3–398)
are found on the default File menu (page
3–721)
, as in most Windows applications.
File-Handling Utilities
Several utilities help you manage files:
•The
Asset Browser (page 3–505) provides
another way to find and preview files and use
them i n 3ds Max scenes
•The
Bitmap / Photometric Path Editor utility
(page 3–511)
lets you view bitmap paths or
remove them from the scene file.
•The
File Finder (page 3–511) is another
resource for finding 3ds Max scenes.
•The
Resource Collector (page 3–513) copies or
moves a scene’s bitmaps into a single directory.
•The
Fix Ambient utility (page 3–513) resolves
lighting issues with older versions of scene files.
•The
Bitmap Pager Statistics dialog (page 3–515)
provides informat ion that helps you resolve
issues w ith scenes that require large amounts of
memory for texture maps.
G e om e t ry File Fo rmat s
You can import a variety of geometry file formats
(page 3–524)
into a scene.
ImageFileFormats
Yo u c a n u s e image file formats (page 3–657)
in a variety of ways: as textures for materials,
as backgrounds to viewports, as background
environments, as Image Inpu t events in Video
Post, and as images projected from a light.
M ana ging S cenes a nd Pr ojects