9

Using the Asset Browser 17
Replacing Scene Objects
Use Replace (page 3–470) to replace objects in
your scene with objects in another scene that have
duplicate names. Replace is useful when you want
to set up and animate your scene with simplified
objects,andthenreplacethesimpleobjectswith
detailed objects before rendering.
The Replace dialog looks and functions the same
as Merge, except that it lists only objects that have
thesamenameasobjectsinyourcurrentscene.
Using E x ter na l R ef erences
Use XRef Objects (page 3–394) and XRef Scenes
(page 3–407) to use objects and scene setups
in your scene that are actually referenced from
externa l MAX files. These functions allow sharing
files with others in your workgroup , with options
for updating and protecting external files.
Using the A sset B rowser
Left: Dragging geometry into the scene
Right: Dragging a bitmap o nto the geometr y
The Asset Browser provides access from your
desktop to design content on the World Wide Web.
From within 3ds Max you can browse the Internet
for texture samples and product models. This
includesbitmaptextures(BMP,JPG,GIF,TIF,and
TGA) and geometry files (MAX , 3DS, and s o on).
You can drag these samples and models into
yoursceneforimmediatevisualizationand
presentation. You can snap geometry into
predefined locations, or dr ag and drop them
interactively in your scene.
You can also use the Asset Browser to browse
thumbnail displays of bitm ap textures and
geometry files on your hard disk or shared
network drives. Then you can either view them or
drag and drop them in t o your scene or into valid
map buttons or slots.
Note: The thumbnail display of a geometry file is a
bitmap representation of a view of the geometry.
Since the thumbnail display is not a vector-based
representation, you can’t rotate it or perform
zooms on it.
You can drag and drop most graphic images that
areembeddedinaWebpageintoyourscene.The
exceptionisimagesorregionsofaWebpagethat
are tagged as hyperlinks or other HTML controls
(such as when a bitmap is tagged as a button).
Impor tant: Downloaded content might be subject to
use restrictions or the license of the site owner. You are
responsible for obtaining all content license rights.
For complete details, see Asset Browser (page
3–504).
Star tup Files and Defaults
When you start 3ds Max, several auxiliary files
load, setting things like program defaults and
UI layout. You can even create a scene, named
maxstar t.m a x, that automatically loads when you
start or reset the program. In s ome cases, the
program updates files when you change sett ings
and when you quit the program.
Note: 3ds Max comes with several different
market-specific defaults (page 3–790). These set
different program defaults on startup, based on
thetypeoffilesyouexpecttoworkonmostoften.