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100 Chapter 3: Selecting Objects
as indiv iduals. You c an tr ansform them, apply
modifiers, and access their modifier stacks.
• Close (page 1–109): Restores the assembly when
you’re finished working with the individual
objects.
Using Ma k e Unique with Assemblies
When you clone assemblies using instancing,
and then mak e the clones unique, it’s important
to consider how this affects parameter wiring.
Consider the following typical usage case:
1. Drag an assembly, such as a light fixture, into
the scene.
2. Clone the assembly several times us ing the
Instance option and p osit ion the instances in
the scene.
3. To make the scene look more realistic, g iv ing
theappearanceofrandomnesstotheobjectsin
thescene,makesomeoftheassemblyinstances
unique and adjust the ir parameters to differ
from the rest of the instances.
When you clone-instance an assembly, all objects
in the assembly, along with all the parameter wires,
are instanced. So if you change a wired luminaire
parameter, all instanced assemblies are affected.
When the mod ifier stack displays an assembly
head that is an instance or reference, the Make
Unique (page 3–770) button is active. By clicking
it, the assembly head object is m ade unique
w ith respect to its instances and all t he assembly
members are also made unique.
The p arameter wiring between the unique
assembly head and its members is de-coupled from
the other instances of the assembly. Changing t he
parametersoftheuniqueassemblyheadobject
affectsonlytheparametersofitsownmembers,
not the members of the other insta nces of the
assembly.
When multiple assembly instances are selected, the
Make Unique command works the same as when
multiple instances of an object are selected. You’re
asked whether you want to m ake the selected
assemblies unique one with respect to each other.
• If you answer Yes, 3ds Max makes the
assemblies unique one with respect to another
and parameter wires are reconnected inside
each unique assembly. That is, the parameters
of each unique assembly head drives only the
parameters of its own members, not that of the
members in any other assembly instances.
• If you answer No, then the selected assemblies
aremadeuniqueonlywithrespecttotheother
assembly instances. The parameters of unique
assembly heads driv e only the parameters of
their members, not the members of the other
assembly instances.
Note: If you chose to instance the controllers
when you instanced the assembly, the Modify
panel > Make Unique command does not make
the controllers unique. You can make them
unique by doing the following: Open Track
View, select the Transform track for object
whose controller you want to make unique, and
click the Make Unique button in the Track View
toolbar .
Dissolving Assemblies
You can permanently d issolve assemblies by either
disassembling or exploding them. Both commands
dissolve assemblies, but to different levels.
• Disassemble (page 1–110):Goesoneleveldeep
in the assembly hierarchy. It separates the
currentassemblyintoitscomponentobjects(or
assemblies/groups), and deletes the assembly
head object.
• Explode (page 1–110): Similar to Disassemble,
but dissolves all nested assemblies and groups
as well, leav ing independent objects.