9

Assigning Colors to Objects 159
To end the creati on process:
While the object type button remains active, you
cancontinuecreatingobjectsofthesametype
until you do one of the following:
• Select an object other than the one you created
most recent ly.
•Transformanobject.
• Change to another command panel.
• Use commands other than viewport navigation
or the time slider.
After you end the creation process, changing
parametersontheCreatepanelwillhavenoeffect
on the object; you must go to the Modify panel
to adjust the object’s par ameters. See Using the
Modify Panel (page 1–499).
Assigning Colors to Objects
3ds Max is a truecolor (page 3–1027) program.
When you pick a color in the program, you are
specifying 24 bits of color data, which provide a
range of over 16 m illion colors.
Object wireframe colors are used primarily as an
organizational tool. Object naming strategies,
named selection sets, and object wireframe color
strategies provide a rich set of tools for organizing
even the most complex scenes.
Yo u c a n u s e t w o d i a l o g s t o s p e c i f y c o l o r s :
•TheObject Color dialog (page 1–159) contains
twopresetpalettesofcolorsthatyouusetoset
an object’s wireframe color. This is a lso the
surface color you see in a rendered viewport.
The two color palettes are Default palette and
AutoCAD ACI palette.
•TheColor Selector (page 1–161) is a generic
dialog that you use to define any color in the
24-bit color range. For the purpose of defining
colors to assign to objects, it is available only
through the Default palette.
Note:
The Layers functionality lets you organize your
scene and can also be used for assigning object
colors. For more information, see Layer Manager
(page 3–656).
Object Color Dialog
Click the color swatch by the object’s name in any
command panel.
The Object Color dialog contains two preset
palettes of colors that you use to set an object’s
wireframecolor.Thisisalsothesurfacecoloryou
see in a shaded viewport.
Using R a ndom Color Ass ignment
Bydefault,3dsMaxassignscolorsrandomlyas
objects are created. The colors are chosen from the
current palette in the Object Color dialog. If you
turn on Customize > Preferences > General p anel
(page 3–815) >DefaulttoByLayerforNewNodes,
new objects are assigned the color set by the layer.
For individual objects, you can click the By
Layer/By Object button on the Object Color dialog
tochangethemethodusedtosettheobjectcolor.
Defining Custom Colors
When using the 3ds Max palette, the Object
Color dialog contains a palette of 16 custom color
swatches. You can define any color for each of the
16 color swatches by select ing a swatch from the
Custom Colors group, then clicking Add Custom
Colors.