2008

Blocks and Interactive Selection and Navigation

Once blocks and block components are linked to 3ds Max, you can begin

adjusting their materials and properties. In a drawing for a small apartment,

blocks are pretty easy to locate because the drawing is not very congested.

You can simply select a block or one of its components in the viewport and

alter it.

With complex drawings, finding the block or block instance you want can

pose a problem. For example, a common block you might add to a drawing

is a table. If you're designing a corporate headquarters that makes use of several

different types of tables, finding the one you want to change becomes more

difficult. There are several ways for you to find and select a block more precisely

in 3ds Max.

■ One way is by means of the block's name. When you link a drawing to

3ds Max, file linking creates a name such as Block: ConferenceTable. The first

part of the name identifies the object's type, Block. The second part of the

name indicates the block name, ConferenceTable. With this sort of naming

breakdown, you can easily find a block using the

Select From Scene dialog

on page 168 .

■ Another selection method uses the Layer or Color setting you made for

your block when you created it in AutoCAD Architecture. Because layer

and color data is also linked to 3ds Max, you can select entire groupings

of blocks using Select By Color or Select By Layer.

■ Finally, you can select blocks by the type of material that's applied to them.

Take care when selecting blocks this way because the material assigned to

the block may also be assigned to other objects in the scene.

Once you’ve selected a block or set of block instances, you can isolate them

from the remainder of the model to work on them more efficiently.

To select a block by color:

1 Choose Edit menu > Select By > Color.

2 Select a block in the scene.

All blocks that share that color are selected.

To select blocks by name:

1 Choose Edit menu > Select By > Name, or press the H key to open the

Select From Scene dialog on page 168 .

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