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objects that you have not yet referenced externally. The XRef Merge dialog
appears, with a list of the available objects. Highlight the objects to reference
externally, and then click OK.
NOTE If new objects have a relationship in the source file with objects that are
already in a record in the master file, update the record after Add Objects to refresh
the relationship. For example, if a car is referenced in a master scene, and the car
is later constrained to a new path in the source scene, adding the path with Add
Objects will not put the master car on the path. To do that, update the record.
Delete XRef Entity Click to delete the highlighted XRef. An alert
prompts you to confirm the action. All highlighted entities are removed from
the scene. You can delete XRef objects, controllers, or materials.
NOTE Deleting XRef controllers is equivalent to merging them into the master
scene. The reason for this is that nodes must have a transform controller at all
times, in order to be positioned in the scene. Deleting XRef materials is equivalent
to merging them into the master scene. This action could could impact all objects
in the master scene that use an XRef material, and could have implications difficult
to be foreseen.
Merge In Scene Merges the current selection in the XRef Entities list
into the master scene (the current scene). Use this button to change XRef
objects, controllers, or materials into objects, controllers, or materials that are
native to the current scene. The connection between the external entity from
the source scene and your master scene is broken, and the object, controller,
or material that you merged is no longer updated when the source scene
changes.
3ds Max prompts you to confirm the merge.
Since a merged XRef object becomes part of the scene and is no longer an
XRef object, its name is removed from the list.
Merging an XRef object loads the full modifier stack of the original object,
while maintaining any additional stack items that were added while the object
was an XRef object. Thus, you can use Merge to update an original object that
has been altered as an external reference. If you do this, use Convert Selected
Object(s) to XRefs to save out the “improved” original into a file, which then
can be merged back into the original source.
6744 | Chapter 21 Managing Scenes and Projects