Area to Render

The Area To Render list on the Rendered Frame Window lets you specify the portion of the scene that will be rendered.

• Rendered Frame Window > Area to Render drop-down list

Area To Render lets you render only a portion of the scene.

Procedures

To render only selected objects:

1. Open the Rendered Frame Window.
2. From the Area To Render drop-down list in the top-left corner of the window, choose Selected.
3. Activate the viewport to render.
4. Select the objects to render.
5. Render the scene.

   3ds Max displays a progress dialog that shows the progress of rendering and the rendering parameter settings. To stop rendering, click Cancel in this dialog, or press .

To render a region:

1. Activate the viewport to render, or choose it from the Viewport drop-down list on the Rendered Frame Window.
2. On the Rendered Frame Window, click (Edit Region).

   This automatically sets the Area To Render option to Region, and displays the region window in the Rendered Frame Window and the active viewport. The window has editing handles and a close box (X).

3. To move the region window, drag inside it. To adjust its size, drag the handles.

   To preserve the window's aspect ratio, press and hold before you drag a handle.

4. Render the scene.

   3ds Max renders the region only. In Production mode, the Rendered Frame Window is cleared before rendering, but in Iterative mode, the area of the window outside the region remains intact.

To render a blowup:

1. Open the Rendered Frame Window and choose the viewport to render.
2. Choose Blowup from the Area To Render list.

   (Edit Region) button appears on the Rendered Frame Window, to the right of the Area To Render list, and the Blowup region window is displayed in the active viewport. This window is different from the one used for Region and Crop.

   The Blowup region window does not appear in the Rendered Frame Window because the region extents might exceed the window area, depending on the rendering history.

3. To move the window, drag inside it. To adjust the window size, drag its handles.

   The window is constrained to the aspect ratio of the current output size.

4. Render the scene.

   3ds Max displays a progress dialog that shows the progress of rendering and the rendering parameter settings. To stop rendering, click Cancel in this dialog, or press .

Interface

The following choices are available on the Area To Render drop-down list.

Note: The Box Selected, Region Selected, and Crop Selected options previously available before 3ds Max 2009 are no longer necessary and have been removed. To achieve the equivalents, combine an Area To Render option with the Auto Region Selected option on the Rendered Frame Window.

View

(The default.) Renders the active viewport.

Selected

Renders the currently selected object or objects only. Rendering a selection with the scanline renderer leaves the remainder of the Rendered Frame Window intact. However, mental ray renders the background first, thus effectively clearing the rest of the frame.

Tip: Rendering Selected renders the selection in isolation, without any contribution from the rest of the scene, such as shadows, reflections, etc. When rendering with mental ray, you can render a selection with full contribution from the other scene contents by using the Subset Pixels option instead.

Tip: To remove any existing image from the window when rendering with the scanline renderer, use the Clear button before rendering.

Region

Renders a rectangular region within the active viewport. Using this option leaves the remainder of the Rendered Frame Window intact except when rendering an animation, in which case it clears the window first. Use the Region option when you need to test-render a part of the scene.

When you choose Region from the Area To Render list, the Edit Region control activates. This causes an editable version of the region to appear in both the Rendered Frame Window and the active viewport. To move the region or change its size, drag either region box or its handles, respectively. If you turn off Edit Region, the region remains visible in the Rendered Frame Window, but is no longer editable. Alternatively, to set the region to the current selection automatically, turn on Auto Region Selected.

Tip: To remove any existing image from the window, use the Clear button before rendering.

Note: Region rendering is meant to create a draft rendering of a selected area of a view. As such, Region rendering uses only an Area filter for antialiasing, regardless of which antialiasing is chosen in the Render Setup dialog.

Crop

Lets you specify the size of the output image using the same region box that appears for the Region option.

After you choose Crop from the Area To Render list, turn on Edit Region to cause a rectangular render region to appear in the active viewport. To move the region or change its size, drag the region box or its handles, respectively. Alternatively, to set the region to the current selection automatically, turn on Auto Region Selected.

Blowup

Renders a region within the active viewport and enlarges it to fill the output display.

After you choose Blowup from the Area To Render list, turn on Edit Region to cause a rectangular render region to appear in the active viewport. To move the region or change its size, drag the region box or its handles, respectively. Alternatively, to set the blowup region to the current selection automatically, turn on Auto Region Selected.