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656 Chapter 20: Managing Scenes and Projects
If you haven’t created any layers, 3ds Max places
objects you create on layer 0 by default. After you
create objects, you c an reassign them to different
layers, including those residing on layer 0.
Display Proper ties
In the Layer Properties dialog (page 3–662),you
can specify layer visibility individually for each
viewport.Ifyoudon’twanttodisplayacertain
layer, you can hide that layer. 3ds Max hides
the layer in the viewport, but not in any output
rendered image of the scene.
Note: For hidden geometr y to render, Render
HiddenGeometrymustbeturnedoninthe
Render Scene dialog > Common Parameters rollout
(page 3–27).
Yo u c a n s p e c i f y l a y e r s t o d i s p l a y o b j e c t s shaded
(page 3–731),inwiref rame mode (page 3–1034),
as a bounding box (page 3–919),oraswhateveris
set on the Viewport Properties menu (page 3–731).
Using this method, you can have different objects
displayed differently in the same scene.
Yo u c a n d i s p l a y l ay e r s i n See-Through mode.
See-Through mode temporarily displays selected
objects in translucent form so you can see through
them without applying special materials. You can
toggle See-Through mode for all objects per layer.
Note: You can control whether newly created
objects adopt the default layer settings on a
per-object basis by using Default To By Layer For
New Nodes in the General Preferences panel (page
3–815).
You can also Freeze, Hide, or Isolate the layer of a
selected object using the corresponding command
in the display quadrant of the quad menu.
Layer Names
You c an create and name a layer for each
conceptual grouping (such as walls or terrain)
and assign common properties to those layers. By
grouping objects into layers, you can control their
display and make changes quickly and efficiently.
When you name layers, you can use names of
variable length up to 255 characters. These names
can contain letters, digits, blank spaces, and the
special charac ters dollar sign ($), hyphen (-), and
underscore (_).
Note: Any layers from a linked A utoCAD file are
automatically imported to 3ds Max. 3ds Max
names the converted layers based on the layer
names from the AutoCAD drawing.
See also
Layer List (page 3–666)
Layer Manager (page 3–656)
Layer Proper ties Dialog (page 3–662)
Layer M anager
Maintoolbar>LayerManager
Layers toolbar > Layer Manager
Tools menu > Layer Manager
TheLayerManager,availablefromthemain
toolbar, is a modeless dialog where you can create
and delete layers. You can also view and edit the
settings for all of the layers in your scene, as well
as the objects associated with t hem. You can
specify the name, visibility, renderability, color ,
and objects’ and layers’ inclusion in the radiosity
solution from this dialog.
Objects are organized by layer in the dialog, in
an expandable list. By clicking ‘+’or‘-‘, you c an
expand or collapse (respect ively) the object list for
each layer. You can also sort the layers by clicking
any of the column heads.
Anotherusefultoolistheabilitytoopen
the Object Properties dialog or L ayer Properties