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Creating groups

The Group command enables you to create a group. To do so, simply select the desired objects and choose Group⇒Group. A simple Name Group dialog box opens and enables you to give the group a name. The newly created group displays a new bounding box that encompasses all the objects in the group.

Tip

You can easily identify groups in the Select from Scene dialog box by using the Groups display toggle. Groups appear in bold in the Name and Color rollout of the Command Panel. •

Ungrouping objects

The Ungroup command enables you to break up a group (kind of like a poor music album). To do so, simply select the desired group and choose Group⇒Ungroup. This menu command dissolves the group, and all the objects within the group revert to separate objects. The Ungroup command breaks up only the currently selected group. All nested groups within a group stay intact.

Caution

If you animate a group and then later use the ungroup command, then all the keys created for the whole group are lost when you ungroup. •

The easiest way to dissolve an entire group, including any nested groups, is with the Explode command. This command eliminates the group and the groups within the group and makes each object separate.

Opening and closing groups

The Open command enables you to access the objects within a group. Grouped objects move, scale, and rotate as a unit when transformed, but individual objects within a group can be transformed independently after you open a group with the Open command.

To move an individual object in a group, select the group and choose Group⇒Open. The white bounding box changes to a pink box. Then select an object within the group, and move it with the Select and Move button (keyboard shortcut, W). Choose Group⇒Close to reinstate the group.

Attaching and detaching objects

The Attach and Detach commands enable you to insert or remove objects from an opened group without dissolving the group. To attach objects to an existing group, you select an object, select the Attach menu command, and then click on the group to which you want to add the object. To detach an object from a group, you need to open the group and select the Detach menu command. Remember to close the group when finished.

Cross-Reference

Editable objects, like the Editable Poly, also can make use of an Attach feature, but attaching objects to an editable object permanently combines the objects together. You can learn more about the Editable Poly objects in Chapter 13, “Modeling with Polygons.” •

Cross-Reference

Another convenient way to make a set of objects portable is to combine them into a Container. Containers are discussed in Chapter 25, “Building Complex Scenes with Containers, XRefs, and the Schematic View.” •

Tutorial: Grouping a plane's parts together

Positioning objects relative to one another takes careful and precise work. After spending the time to place the wings, tail, and prop on a plane exactly where they need to be, transforming each object by itself can misalign all the parts. By grouping all the objects together, you can move all the objects at once.

For this tutorial, you can get some practice grouping all the parts of an airplane together. Follow these steps:

1. Open the T-28 Trojan plane.max file from the Chap 09 directory on the CD. This file includes a model created by Viewpoint Datalabs.

2. Click the Select by Name button on the main toolbar (or press the H key) to open the Select from Scene dialog box. In this dialog box, notice all the different plane parts. Click the Select All button to select all the separate objects, and click OK to close the dialog box.

3. With all the objects selected, choose Group⇒Group to open the Group dialog box. Give the group the name Plane, and click OK.

4. Click the Select and Move button (or press W), and click and drag the plane.

The entire group now moves together.

Figure 9.1 shows the plane grouped as one unit. Notice how only one set of brackets