Scene Explorer

Scene Explorer provides a modeless dialog for viewing, sorting, filtering, and selecting objects in 3ds Max, as well as additional functionality for renaming, deleting, hiding, and freezing objects, creating and modifying object hierarchies, and editing object properties en masse.

Standard menu: Tools Menu > New Scene Explorer
Standard menu: Tools menu > Open Explorer: [name of most recently used explorer]
Standard menu: Tools menu > Saved Scene Explorers > Choose a saved scene explorer.
Enhanced menu: Scene menu > Manage Scene Content > New Scene Explorer
Enhanced menu: Scene menu > Manage Scene Content > Open Explorer: [Last Used]
Enhanced menu: Scene menu > Recent Scene Explorers submenu

The Scene Explorer interface consists of a menu bar, toolbars, and a table view of objects in the scene, with a row for each object and a column for each displayed object property. The default layout in 3ds Max displays only object names, while in 3ds Max Design it also shows colors and several other properties. You can customize the layout to show additional properties. You can save customized Scene Explorer setups, and use any custom setup as the default.

Important: Autodesk 3ds Max 2015 brings a number of significant revisions to Scene Explorer, such as the ability to dock the dialog and revamped context menus. Each workspace now includes a default, docked Scene Explorer called the workspace Scene Explorer (see following for details). Also, Scene Explorer can now switch between two different listing modes using the buttons on the Selection toolbar:

- Sets Scene Explorer to Sort By Layer, providing drag-and-drop functionality for editing layers. This replaces the Layer Manager feature, which has been retired. Additional features are covered in this section and in the Using Layers to Organize a Scene section.
- Sets Scene Explorer to Sort By Hierarchy, providing drag-and-drop functionality for editing hierarchies. Additional features are covered in this section.

Left: Scene Explorer set to Sort By Hierarchy

Right: Scene Explorer set to Sort By Layer

Workspace Scene Explorers

Each workspace in 3ds Max includes a different Scene Explorer, with the name "Scene Explorer - [name of workspace]", docked to the left of the viewports. For specific information about its operation, see Workspace Scene Explorer.

Workspace Scene Explorer (red outline) docked in 3ds Max interface

Multiple Scene Explorers

For many workflows, the single Scene Explorer included in each workspace will suffice. However, if you need to use additional explorers (for example, to list different types of scene elements), you can open a new Scene Explorer dialog with either of the New Scene Explorer commands listed at the start of this topic. Each subsequent invocation of this command opens a separate, additional Scene Explorer dialog. All Scene Explorers persist in the scene, even if closed.

With the standard menu system active, you can open the most recently used Scene Explorer with the Tools menu Open Explorer command, or any Scene Explorer with the Tools menu Saved Scene Explorers submenu. And with the enhanced menu system active, you can open existing Scene Explorers with the Scene menu Manage Scene Content Open Explorer command and the Recent Scene Explorers submenu.

Tip: In a new scene, the keyboard shortcut

+ O (letter O) creates a new Scene Explorer. But when one or more Scene Explorers exist in the scene, the same shortcut opens the most recently used Explorer.

All active Scene Explorers are saved and loaded with the scene. To save and load Scene Explorers separately, and delete and rename them, use Manage Scene Explorer.

Scene Explorer Features

Following are additional notable features of Scene Explorer:

Customize the dialog by setting any configuration of columns, hidden and displayed categories (via the left-hand toolbar), and so on.
Open as many separate instances of the dialog as you like, each with a different configuration.
Switch the listing mode and functionality between hierarchy and layer (see preceding).
Nest layers to any depth.
Selection is automatically synchronized between Scene Explorer and the scene: Select an object in the viewport and it automatically highlights in Scene Explorer, and vice-versa.
Dock the dialog right or left by dragging and dropping or by right-clicking the title bar and choosing the Dock location.
Toggle object and layer visibility by clicking the light bulb icon.

Note: The light bulb icon has no connection with scene lighting; it merely denotes whether an object or layer is visible (yellow) or not (gray).
You can now see group members in Scene Explorer (Sort By Hierarchy mode only) without having to open the group. As with hierarchies and layers, you expand and collapse each group by clicking the arrow next to its name.
Save and load different configurations. See Manage Scene Explorer.
Set any configuration as the default. See Manage Scene Explorer.
Scene Explorer setup is saved with your MAX scene file.
Create and edit object hierarchies and layer groups by dragging and dropping.
Sort on single or multiple columns.
Change object settings singly or en masse.
Powerful, sophisticated search and filtering features.

Scene Explorer Variants

Several specialized versions of Scene Explorer are available in different areas of 3ds Max. They provide column and toolbar setups appropriate for working in specific areas of 3ds Max. These include:

Several additional custom Scene Explorer setups are available from the Add Default Scene Explorer submenu on the View toolbar drop-down list. These include explorers designed for working with lights, objects with missing plug-ins, and more. Last, the Select From Scene command and its variants use a modal dialog dedicated to selecting from a text-based list; it has no editing functions.