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448 Chapter 20: Managing Scenes and Projects
propagation of transforms are slightly different to
mirror the behavior of blocks in AutoCAD.
As with AutoCAD objects, linked AutoCAD
blocks,ofanytype,andexternallyreferenced
draw ings appear in 3ds Max as objects
hierarchically grouped below a VIZBlock to reflect
the s tructure of the block or xref in AutoCAD.
When non-nested blocks, of any type, are
linked to a scene, the naming for the incoming
block instances are based on the original block
definition in the form of
Block: block_name
where block_name is the actual name of the block
definition. For example, if you link a drawing
containing a series of blocks named
office chair ,
their name wi ll show as
Block: office chair in
3ds Max.
Nested blocks in AutoCAD will be analogously
nested in 3ds Max under nested VIZBlocks. The
grouping and naming follows the parent-child
structure of
xref drawing name:block name:nested
block name:entity
.
Note: Entities that lie on layer 0 of an AutoCAD
block definition will appear as
Layer:0 in 3ds Max,
even though they may appear to reside on a
different layer when they are inserted in AutoCAD.
With linked Architectural Desktop objects,
material assignments to linked AutoCAD blocks
can propagate automatically to all other instances
of those block components in the 3ds Max
scene, depending on how
Propagate Materials
To Instances (page 2–1276)
is set. Modifiers
applied to block components, however, propagate
automatically to all other block instances,
regardless of how the
Auto Material Propagation
toggle (p age 2–1276)
is set.
If you transform (move, rotate, or scale) the
top-level VIZBlock that contains a block
reference, all the components of that block will be
transformed together and no other VIZBlocks w ill
be aff ected. If, however, you transform a block
component ,includinganestedVIZBlock,that
transformation will automatically propagate to all
other instances of that block in the scene. This
mirrors the behavior of blocks in AutoCAD when
reference-editing a block definition.
See also
Blocks (page 3–464)
Resetting Tr ansforms on Link ed
AutoCAD Obj ects
Select a linked AutoCAD object. > Modify panel > Linked
Geometry rollout > Reset Position
Yo u c a n m o v e , r o t a t e , o r s c a l e l i n k e d A u t o C A D
objects in 3ds Max, and these transformations
wi ll remain intact even after the linked AutoCAD
drawing has been reloaded. But you can choose to
eliminate t he transforms on an object-by-object
basis using the Reset Position func tion, available
on the Modifier panel.
Note: The Reset Position functionality is only
available for linked files. It is
not available when
you Import a DWG file, or when you have bound a
linked file.
EverylinkedAutoCADobjectandcomponent
has a Reset Position function associated with
it. Clicking this button automatically resets all
transformations that hav e been applied to this
object or component in 3ds Max, so that the
component resumes the lo cation, rotation, and
scale it held in the linked AutoCAD drawing w hen
it was last reloaded.
Wa rn in g: Transforms applied to block components are
applied to all instances of that component in all other
linked block insertions in the 3ds Max scene. Resetting
the transformation of
any instance will reset all of them.