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408 Chapter 20: Managing Scenes and Projects
the current file only by using the Bind To Parent
function in the XRef Scenes window.
You can snap to externally referenced scene
entities. You can use Snap, AutoGrid, and Clone
and Align to position loca l objects in context, as
wellastopickobjectsasthetargetlocationforthe
clones. If you need to move, rotate or sca le the
referenced scene, you can bind it to a local object.
Transforming the object the externally referenced
scenewasboundtotransformsallobjectsinthe
externally referenced scene. You can also use
externally referenced objects in the scene as the
reference coordinate system (page 1–443).When
you save changes to the externally referenced
file (such as objects added, edited, or deleted),
updating the X Ref Scene in herits those changes
locally.
Importing the whole v illage mode l into the building model
as an XRef
Radiosity solution data cannot be part of an XRef if
objects have duplicate names. To solve this, change
the duplicate nam es. Also, to reference radiosity
data externally, the Save Scene Information In
MAXFileswitchmustbeonintheRadiosity panel
(page 3–836) of the Preferences dialog. (It is on
by default.)
Beawarethatrendereffectsarenotcarriedinto
the master scene by XRef scenes. To use the render
effects (such as g low or flare) f rom the XRef file,
merge them in using the Merge buttons found in
the Environment And Effects dialog.
Note: Atmospheric effects assigned to objects in
thesourcefilearecarriedintothemasterfilewhen
thesourcefileisusedasanXRefscene.
Choosing XRef Scene displays the XRef Scenes
dialog (page 3–411).
Overlays
Overlays allo w multiple scene references without
the risk of creating circular dependencies. The
scene XRef marked as overlay is loaded only into
the master scene that references it, and is not
visible in other scenes that might XRef the master
file that uses the overlay. Consider t wo scen es that
reference each other:
Ordinarily, 3ds Max would recognize this as a
circular dependency, and disallow it. However,
you can set up such a combination of XRefs by
following these steps:
1. Inscene2,XRefscene1andusethetoggleto
flag it as an overlay.
2. Save scene 2 .
3. Open scene 1, and XRef scene 2.
Scene 2 is externally referenced into scene 1,
without pulling scene 1 in as a nested external
reference.
The previous example is not particularly practical.
Butsupposeyouwanttomaskoffpartofyour