The Exclude/Include dialog determines which objects are not illuminated by a selected light, which objects are considered in a Matte render element, or which objects are excluded from reflections generated by the Quicksilver hardware renderer.
Although light exclusion does not occur in nature, this feature is useful when you need exact control over the lighting in your scene. Sometimes, for example, you'll want to add lights specifically to illuminate a single object but not its surroundings, or you'll want a light to cast shadows from one object but not from another.
To exclude objects from a light:
The Exclude/Include dialog is displayed.
Objects in the right-hand list will be excluded. To remove an object from this list, highlight its name and click the arrow pointing to the left. To remove all objects from this list, click Clear.
Now when you shade or render the scene, the light will have no effect on the objects you chose.
The object still appears lit in shaded viewports. Exclusion takes effect only when you render the scene.
To include objects that were excluded:
3ds Max opens the Exclude/Include dialog
To include all excluded objects at once:
3ds Max opens the Exclude/Include dialog.
The Exclude/Include dialog contains the following controls:
The Exclude/Include dialog treats a group as an object. You can exclude or include all objects in a group by selecting the group's name in the Scene Objects list. If a group is nested within another group, it isn't visible in the Scene Objects list. To exclude a nested group or individual objects within the group, you have to ungroup them before you use this dialog.
Use the << button to remove highlighted objects from the Include/Exclude list.
These choices apply only to lights, not to matte render elements or Quicksilver renderer reflections.