8

Using the Asset Browser 17
Replacing Scene Objects
Use Replace (page 3–476) to replace objects in
your scene with objects in another scene that have
duplicate names. Replace is useful when you want
to set up and animate your scene with simplified
objects,andthenreplacethesimpleobjectswith
detailed objects before rendering.
The Replace dialog looks and functions the same
as Merge, except that it lists only objects that have
thesamenameasobjectsinyourcurrentscene.
Using Ex t ern al R efer ences
Use XRef Objects (page 3–406) and XRef Scenes
(page 3–416)
to use objects and scene setups
in your scene that are actually referenced from
externa l MAX files. These functions allow sharing
files with others in your workgroup, with options
for updating and protecting external files.
Using the Asset B rowser
Left: Dragging geometr y into the scene
Right: Dragging a bitmap onto the geometry
The Asset Browser provides access from your
desktop to design content on the World Wide Web.
From within 3ds Max you can browse the Internet
for texture samples and product models. This
includesbitmaptextures(BMP,JPG,GIF,TIF,and
TGA), or geometry files (MA X , 3DS, and so on).
You can drag these samples and mo dels into
yoursceneforimmediatevisualizationand
presentation. You can snap geometry into
predefined locations, or drag and drop them
interactively in your scene.
You can also use the Asset Browser to browse
thumbnail displays of bitmap textures and
geometry files on your hard disk or shared
network dr ives. Then you can either v iew them or
drag and drop them into your scene or into valid
map buttons or slots.
Note: The thumbnail display of a geometry file is a
bitmap representation of a view of the geometry.
Since the thumbnail display is not a vector-based
representation, you can’t rotate it or perform
zooms on it.
You can drag and drop most g r aphic images that
areembeddedinaWebpageintoyourscene.The
exceptionisimagesorregionsofaWebpagethat
are tagged as hyperlinks or other HTML controls
(such as when a bitmap is tagged as a button).
Impor tant: Downloaded content might be subject to
use restrictions or the license of the site owner. You are
responsible for obtaining all content license rights.
For complete details, see Asset Browser (page
3–505)
.
Star tup Files and Defaults
When you start 3ds Max, several auxiliary files
load, setting thing s like program defaults and
UI layout. You can even create a scene, named
maxtart.max , that automatically loads when you
start or reset the program. In some cases, the
program updates fi les when you change settings
and when you quit the program.
Note: 3dsMaxshipswithseveraldifferent
market-specific defaults (page 3–834) . These set
different program defaults on startup, based on
thetypeoffilesyouexpecttoworkonmostoften.