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428 Chapter 20: Managing Scenes and Projects
materials. For example, a brick wall in Revit may
have mortar lines procedurally draw n on it in red,
but if the object is an ACIS solid, the m ortar lines,
which are procedural hatches, are lost in 3ds Max.
When an ACIS object’s materials display as
M ulti/Sub-Object materials in the Material Editor,
each material name appears in the Material/Map
Browser, for example, Default wall or Basic Wa ll:
Generic – 12” Masonr y.
Poly mesh
Polymesh DWGs link as polymesh geometry in
3ds Max. Un like ACIS s olids, you can mo dify and
edit any polymesh object’s face.
Polymesh Objects and Materials
When you link a polymesh DWG file, each
polymesh face is considered as a separate entity,
w ith one material permitted per entity, which
allo ws it to contain multiple materials
You can apply a bitmap material to the different
faces of polymesh geometry, unlike ACIS solids,
where you would need to use a Multi/Sub-Object
material to create the same effect. For example,
you can select the outside face of wa ll and apply
a brick bitmap material and also apply a diffuse
materialontheinsidewalltosimulatewhitepaint.
When you link a polymesh DWG fi le, every
material used in the scene appears in the Material
Editor as a separate material where you can edit it.
When a polymesh object’s materials are shown in
the Material Editor, each mate rial name appears in
the Material/Map Browser, for example, Default
wallorBasicWall:Generic–12”Masonry.
File Link S ettings Dialog
File menu > File Link Manager > Files tab > Turn on Show
Reload Options. > Click Reload.
Utilities panel > Utilities rollout > More button > File Link
Manager > Files tab > Turn on Show Reload Options. >
Click Reload.
TheFileLinkSettingsdialoggivesyoucontrol
over the detailed aspec ts of how geometry is
translated from DWG or DXF files and interpreted
in3dsMax.Italsoallowsyoutocontrolwhether
only a portion of the 3ds Max objects will be
affected by subsequent reloading. The File Link
Settings dialog is displayed when Show Reload
Options is turned on in the File Link Manager
dialog,orwheneditingafilelinkPreset.
TheFileLinkSettingsdialogletsyou:
• View and exclude layers in a linked file.
• Control how geometr y is converted.
• Define how linked objects are conver ted to
3ds Max objects, referred to as VIZBlocks.
TheselectionsyoumakeintheFileLinkSettings
dialog can affect the amount of memory used by
3ds Max to hold the linked data. Use the Select
Layers To Include option to reduce the amount of
information added to your scene.
In some cases, it mig ht be more efficient to create
multiple links to the same file, making different
file link settings for e ach file.
See also
File Link Tips (page 3–419)