XRef Entities Toolbar

Use these tools to manage individually XRef'd entities.

Add Objects

Click to add further entities to the highlighted XRef record. This button is available only when the highlighted XRef record contains objects that you have not yet referenced externally. The XRef Merge dialog appears, with a list of the available objects. Highlight the objects to reference externally, and then click OK.

Note: If new objects have a relationship in the source file with objects that are already in a record in the main file, update the record after Add Objects to refresh the relationship. For example, if a car is referenced in a main scene, and the car is later constrained to a new path in the source scene, adding the path with Add Objects will not put the main car on the path. To do that, update the record.

Delete XRef Entity

Click to delete the highlighted XRef. An alert prompts you to confirm the action. All highlighted entities are removed from the scene. You can delete XRef objects, controllers, or materials.

Note: Deleting XRef controllers is equivalent to merging them into the main scene. The reason for this is that nodes must have a transform controller at all times, in order to be positioned in the scene. Deleting XRef materials is equivalent to merging them into the main scene. This action could impact all objects in the main scene that use an XRef material, and could have implications difficult to be foreseen.

Merge In Scene

Merges the current selection in the XRef Entities list into the main scene (the current scene). Use this button to change XRef objects, controllers, or materials into objects, controllers, or materials that are native to the current scene. The connection between the external entity from the source scene and your main scene is broken, and the object, controller, or material that you merged is no longer updated when the source scene changes.

3ds Max prompts you to confirm the merge.

Since a merged XRef object becomes part of the scene and is no longer an XRef object, its name is removed from the list.

Merging an XRef object loads the full modifier stack of the original object, while maintaining any additional stack items that were added while the object was an XRef object. Thus, you can use Merge to update an original object that has been altered as an external reference. If you do this, use Convert Selected Object(s) to XRefs to save out the “improved” original into a file, which then can be merged back into the original source.

Note: It is also possible to merge into the main scene nested XRef entities. Once they are merged, all externally referenced nesting levels are removed and the scene entity from the lowest level source scene is merged into the main scene. In case of XRef objects, modifiers applied in a nested source file are all merged and present in the main scene.

List Objects

When on, shows the XRef objects for the current XRef record in the XRef Entities list.

List Materials

When on, shows the XRef materials for the current XRef record in the XRef Entities list.

List Controllers

When on, shows the XRef controllers for the current XRef record in the XRef Entities list.

Note: You can enable any combination of the List buttons to show certain types of entities and hide others.

Select

Selects in the scene the XRef entities currently highlighted in the XRef Entities list. To add highlighted entities to the selection, hold Ctrl while clicking Select. To remove highlighted entities from the selection, hold Alt while clicking Select.

Select by Name

Opens a Select Objects dialog that lists all objects and highlights the XRef objects selected in the XRef Entities list, as well as any objects selected in the scene. If an XRef controller or XRef material is highlighted in the XRef Entities list, the Select Objects dialog highlights the object to which the XRef controller or material belongs to.

Highlight Selected Object's XRef Records

When XRef objects are selected in the scene, the XRef record to which they belong is highlighted in the XRef Record list and the XRef objects and their XRef entities are highlighted in the XRef Entities list.