In the Menu Bar, click Edit > Preferences, then on the left side of the dialog box, select Import > Alias.

Import Options

This section determines which surfaces, meshes, curves, and polylines are imported.

Surfaces

Specifies which surfaces are imported. Select one of the following:

• Import none - No surfaces are imported.

• Import visible - Only the visible surfaces are imported.

• Import all - All surfaces, regardless of whether they are visible or not, are imported.

Meshes

Specifies which meshes are imported. Select one of the following:

• Import none - No meshes are imported.

• Import visible - Only the visible meshes are imported.

• Import all - All meshes, regardless of whether they are visible or not, are imported.

Curves and Polygon Lines

Specifies which curves and polylines are imported. Select one of the following:

• Import none - No curves and polylines are imported.

• Import visible - Only the visible curves and polylines are imported.

• Import all - All curves and polylines, regardless of whether they are visible or not, are imported.

Tesselation

This section determines what gets tessellated.

Tessellation Quality

Sets the level of tessellation applied, with Course being the lowest tessellation and least memory intensive to High or Custom (depending on the settings) being the highest quality and most intensive.

Chord Deviation

Sets tessellation for chord deviation.

Normal Tolerance

Sets tessellation for the normal tolerance.

Max Chord Length

Sets tessellation for the maximum chord length.

Enable Stitching

Sets the default behavior for the tessellation of stitching.

Stitching Tolerance

Sets tessellation for stitching tolerance.

Advanced Options

This section determines which advanced options, like source date, normals, and unshared nodes are enabled during import.

Keep Source Data

Sets the default behavior for keeping source data. When disabled, the source data is removed during import.

Unify Surface Normals

Sets the default behavior for the unifying of surface normal direction. When enabled, all surface normals are unified to face the same direction (out or in) during import. When disabled, surface normals are not changed during import.

Merge Geometries

Sets the default behavior for the merging of geometries. When enabled, all geometries are merged together during import.

Create Groups for Layers

Sets the default behavior for the creation of groups for layers. When enabled, layer groups are created during import.

Remove Empty Groups

Sets the default behavior for the removal of empty groups. When enabled, if any empty groups exist in your file, they will be removed during import.

Unshare Nodes

Sets the default behavior for the unsharing of nodes. When enabled, nodes that are shared are no longer shared. When disabled, there is no change to shared nodes during import.

Flush Transformation

Stores the transformation data within objects themselves rather than in higher-level group nodes. In other words, if you have a hierarchy of transformation parent nodes of a geometry node, all of them are baked into one single matrix within the geometry; the original information is lost. You would want to avoid this, for example, for animating wheels on a moving car.

File Specific Options

This section determines which file-specific options are enabled during import.

Import Cameras

Sets the default behavior for the import of cameras. When enabled, cameras are imported into the scene. When disabled, the cameras are removed from your file after import.

Import Lights

Sets the default behavior for the import of lights. When enabled, lights are imported into the scene. When disabled, the lights are removed from your file after import.

Import Variants

Sets the default behavior for the import of variants. When enabled, variants are imported into the scene. When disabled, the variants are removed from your file after import.

Import Template Geometries

Sets the default behavior for the import of template geometries. When enabled, template geometries are imported into the scene. When disabled, the template geometries are removed from your file after import.

Import Layer Folders

Sets the default behavior for the import of Alias layer folders. When enabled, any Alias layer folder from an older version of VRED is converted into a VRED group and layers within the folder into a subgroup as they are imported into VRED 2021.3. This changes the scene hierarchy. To disallow this behavior and keep the scene hierarchy unchanged, toggle this option off.

Import Empty Layers

Sets the default behavior for the import of empty layers. When enabled, empty layers are import into VRED.