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524 Chapter 20: Managing Scenes and Projects
photos, and any design data in MAX or STL form.
In this way, you are assured instant access to the
latest design content, free from leading vendors
around the world, without leaving your desktop.
For Web Conten t Providers
Any Web page that uses standard HTML source
code can easily be enhanced s o that 3ds Max
users can access it for content. Making bitmap
textures (.BMP, .JPG, .GIF, .TIF, etc.) available
for downloading requires no special HTML
coding, but there are g uidelines you should follow
for optimum utility to 3ds Max users. Making
geometry files (.
max )availableto3dsMaxuser
requires some simple modifications to your HTML
source code.
See also
i-drop Indicator (page 3–524)
i-drop Indi ca tor
In order to support the World Wide Web as a
primary source of product information, Autodesk
has introduced the i-drop™ Indicator. This enables
manufacturers and design professionals to publish
and acquire design data using standard Web pages.
The i-drop Indicator is used to transfer content
from the World Wide Web by means of a
drag-and-drop operation. The content can be any
type of file (such as a geometry or a raster file) that
thecontentproducerhasmadeavailableandthat
the application will accept.
For example, imagine that you are a lighting
designer and require a specific fixture to embed
w ithin your 3ds Max scene. Now imagine that a
lighting company such as ERCO has a Web site
containing a library of their fixtures online. You
can browse this library, then drag and drop the
appropriate fixture into your scene. You don’t need
todownloadthefileandtheninsertit.Nowyou
candraganyMAXfilefromani-drop-enabled
web site and drop its geometry directly into your
Autodesk product.
In addition to geometry, you can drag and drop
photometric data, cost information, materials, and
so on.
An i-drop object in a Web page is an open gateway
between the content provider’s server and the
Autodesk software user’s desktop. Web pages that
containi-dropobjectscanbedesignedtolook
and behave exactly like standard Web pages in a
standard Web browser. You simply drag the i-drop
object from the provider’s Web page and drop it
onto a desktop or into an application.
The desktop or application is the i-drop target.
The i-drop target requests the data in one or more
specific clipboard formats and receives the content.
This is called being " i-drop aware." i-drop can also
deliver data in any of the system default clipboard
formats. What the application gets depends on
what clipboard format it requires. For example, if
the user drags to the desktop, the desktop ta kes a
file. If the user drags to a text editor, the text editor
takes textual data. What the desktop or application
takesisindependentofi-drop.
For more information, see h
ttp://
idrop.autodesk.com.
Geometr y File Formats
The Import (page 3–490) and Export (page 3–491)
commands on the File menu (page 3–721) let
you share 3D geometry with other 3D modeling
programs. The software can import and export
avarietyoffileformats.
3ds Max can also open
DRF Files (page 3–528) ,
which are created in VIZ Render, a rendering