9

Using Assemb lies 99
foralightsourceinanassembly,thechangewill
be reflected in a ll the instanced light s ources. For
example, in the early design stages, you might
use shadow maps, but later you might want to
switch to advanced ray-trace shadows for greater
accuracy in rendering. Using instancing makes it
easier to change such settings globally.
General Features of Assemblies
Once you assemble objects, you can treat them as
a single object in your scene. You can click any
object in the assembly to select the entire assembly.
When you create an assembly, all of its member
objects are rigidly linked to an invisible Luminaire
helper object. The assembly uses the pivot point
and the local transfo rm coordinate system of this
helper object.
You can nest assemblies. That is, assemblies can
contain other assemblies (or groups), up to any
level.
The head object parameters appear in the Modify
panel when the assembly is selected. You can
use the 3ds Max Wire Parameters (page 2–411)
funct ionality to connect these parameters to those
of light objects in the assembly. For a step-by-step
procedure, see To w i re a h e a d o b j ect to a lig ht
source (page 1–108).
Luminaire types
Left: Fixed
Middle: Orientable
Right: Multiple lights
Transfor ming and Modifying an
Assembly
You can transform or modify an assembly as if
it were a single object, and you can animate the
transforms.
Unlikeagroup,whenyouapplyamodifiertothe
assembly, only the luminaire receives the modifier.
Thus, deforming modifiers such a s Bend don’t
have any effect on assemblies.
When you apply a transform to the assembly, it
applies to the assembly as a whole. Mor e precisely,
3dsMaxappliestransformstothedummyobject
that represents the assembly. To modify member
objects, you must first open the assembly, select the
objects, and then apply modifiers. Such modifiers
do not appear in the modifier st ack when t he
assembly is closed.
You can transform and animate individual objects
w ithin an assembly indep endently from the
assembly itself. However, when you transform the
assembly itself, the transform affects all assembled
objects equally. The assembly transform is
uniformly added to objects that have independent
motions. An analogy is a cage of birds, each flying
around on its ow n, while the cage itself is being
moved. In the case of assemblies, the "cage" (the
dummyobject)expandstosurroundallobjectsin
the assembly, wherever the objects’ independent
transforms take them.
Accessing Objects in an Assembly
Yo u c a n open and close assemblies to access the
individual objects contained in them without
dissolving the assembly. These commands
maintain the integrity of the assembly.
• Open (page 1–109):Temporarilyopensthe
assembly so that you can access its member
objects. While an assembly is open, you can
treat the objects (or nested assemblies/groups)