8

Instanced Objects, Elements, Block s and St y les 463
Instanced Objects, Blocks,
and Styles
The primary st ructur al entities you will find in
amodelorprojectthatislinked/importedto
3ds Max from AutoCAD , Architectural Desktop or
Revit are
style-based objects (page 3–467) (in AD T
models), family elements (in Revit projects) or
blocks (page 3–464) (in both ADT and AutoCAD
files). Each sty le-based object, family element, or
block will most l ikely have many
instances (page
3–463)
in the 3ds Max scene.
•
Instances are multiple occurrences of objects
such as style-based objects or blocks that are
clone instances. When you link a model or
draw ing that contains instanced objects to
3ds Max, those objects remain instances of one
another.
•
Family Elements in a Revit projec t
represent different items of a building and are
separated into two general categories; Model
and Annotation. The Model category includes
such elements a s walls, doors, windows and
stairs while the Annotation category includes
dimensions, text notes and section tags. When
a DWG is exported from Revit and linked to
3dsMax,elementsappearintheModifierpanel
as
Block/Style Parents (page 3–1012) ,meaning
you’ve selected the element at its topmost
level, or as
Linked Geometry (page 3–1056) ,
meaning one of the element’s subcomponents.
•
Blocks arereusableobjectsmadeinAutoCAD
or Architectural D esktop. Blocks are made
ofoneormoreobjectsthatcanbeinserted
into a scene at different locations, scales and
orientations. Blocks can als o be an amalgam
of other blocks. A block that is made of
otherblocksisreferredtoasa
nested block .
Oncelinkedto3dsMax,blocksappearinthe
Modifier panel as VIZBlocks, meaning you’ve
selected the block at its topmost level, or as
Linked Geometry, meaning one of t he block’s
subcomponents.
Note: Ifyouuseoneofthe“nodehierarchy”
Derive By sett ings, you will see Block/Style
Parent objects in the Modifier panel and not
VIZBlocks.
• Architectural Desktop
style-based objects are
complex objects like Doors and Windows
whose components rely on style definitions
to cont rol how they appear in the scene. For
example, style definitions for a door set the
type of door, the door thickness, the materials
assigned to the various components, and so
forth. Altering the style definitions changes the
appearance of the object in the scene.
See also
Object Properties Dialog (page 1–111)
Instanced Objects
Modifiers and materials that are applied and
assigned to an instanced object propagate
throughout all instances of the object. For
example, if all the doors in a scene have glass panes
and you change the glass material of one door, all
thedoorsofthesamestylewilladoptthatmaterial.
Propagationofmaterialscanbecontrolledby
toggling
Propagate Materials To Instances (page
2–1276)
.
Once you link a model to 3ds Max, instanced
objects can be transformed (moved, rotated, or
scaled). If you don’t like the way an object is
transformed, you can use the Undo command
or
Reset Transform button (page 3–448) on the
Modify panel.