8

Restrictions on Editing AutoCAD Geometry 449
To reset the tra nsforms applied to a link ed AutoCAD
obj ect:
1.
Selectalinkedobjectinyourscene.
2. On the Command panel, click the Modify tab
to display the Modify panel.
The name of the linked object appears at t he
top of the Modify panel, and the modifiers
that have b e en added to the object (if a ny) are
shownonthemodifierstack.
3. At the bottom of the list of applied modifiers,
click either
Linked Geometry , VIZBlock ,or
Block/Style Paren t , whichever appears, if it is
not already highlighted.
A Linked Geometry rollout appears at the
bottom of the Modify panel.
4. Click the Reset Position button
The linked object reverts back to its orig inal
location, rotation, and scale in the linked
AutoCAD drawing.
Note: When Reset P osition is applied to a linked
object that has been animated (in other words,
has transform keys for different frames) only the
transform for frame 0 is reset.
See also
File Link Basics (page 3–426)
Inter face
Reset Position—Resets the selected object’s
transforms to those of the original AutoCAD
object when the drawing was last reloaded.
Restrictions on Editing AutoCAD
Geometr y
Many operations that are allowed on mesh, spline,
or shape objects in 3ds Max are not allowed on
linked AutoCAD geometry, and other operations
behave differently.
The following operations are not allowed on linked
geometry:
•Deletion
• Altering the parent-child hierarchy
• Collapsing the lin ked geometry into an editable
mesh or an editable spline
If you must perform any of these operations, you
must either do them in AutoCAD or else bind the
drawing data to 3ds Max, which breaks the link
back to AutoCAD.
Applying Modifiers to Linked AutoCAD
Geometr y
You can apply modifiers to linked AutoCAD
geometry and these modifiers wil l persist when
you reload the geometry. This can be a very
powerful way to intelligently manage your design
intent, but it can also lead to some unexpected
results, especially when using
topology-dependent
modifiers.
“Topology-dependent” simply means that the
modifier is rely ing on the par ticular arrangement
and number of faces and vertices that comprise the
mesh representation of the object. It is common,
for example, for the modifier to cause an action to
be perfor med on the
nth element it encounters,
say the “twelfth” face or the “fourth through the
twentieth” vertex. It is easy to perform edits on
the base object in A utoCAD that would cause the
definition of the
nth element to change, which
would result in the modifier yielding unexpected
results when the dr awing is reloaded in 3ds Max.