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Access, which is applied when a container is closed; Only Edit in Place, which gives anyone that opens the container full rights to edit the container's contents; Only Add New Objects, which gives the user that opens the container the right to add new objects to the container, but not to edit any of the existing content; and Anything Unlocked, which gives the user that opens the container access to edit anything that is unlocked. Using the four toggle buttons at the bottom of the Rules rollout, you can select to lock all modifiers, materials, transforms, and objects. Clicking the Edit button opens the Track View where you can choose tracks to lock.

FIGURE 25.3

The Rules rollout lets you define precisely what in the container can be edited.

Using container proxies

As an alternative to unloading a container from memory, you can specify a proxy container to take the place of the current container with the Proxies rollout, shown in Figure 25.4. The drop-down list can hold multiple proxy containers, allowing you to quickly change between different resolutions. Click the Modify List button to add proxy containers to the list.

FIGURE 25.4

The Proxies rollout lets you substitute proxy containers for the current one.

Setting global container preferences

Within the Preference Settings dialog box is a panel for setting the global container preferences, shown in Figure 25.5. Using these settings you can define which rules are used when saving to the Max 2010 container format. You also can set how often containers are refreshed and whether to display the status of the scene containers.

FIGURE 25.5

The Containers panel of the Preference Settings dialog box holds the global container settings.

Referencing External Objects

No man is an island, and if Autodesk has its way, no Max user will be an island, either. XRefs (which stands for eXternal References) make it easy for creative teams to collaborate on a project without having to wait for another group member to finish his or her respective production task. External references are objects and scenes contained in separate Max files and made available for reference during a Max session. This arrangement enables several artists on a team to work on separate sections of a project without interfering with one another or altering each other's work.

Max includes two different types of XRefs: XRef scenes and XRef objects. You also can use XRef for materials, modifiers, and controllers.

Note

Although XRefs are helpful and maintained for backward compatibility, in many ways using containers is the preferred method for loading in external files. •

Using XRef scenes

An externally referenced scene is one that appears in the current Max session, but that is not accessible for editing or changing. The scene can be positioned and transformed when linked to a parent object and can be set to update automatically as changes are made to the source file.

As an example of how XRef scenes facilitate a project, let's say that a design team is in the midst of creating an environment for a project while the animator is animating a character model. The animator can access the in-production environment as an XRef scene in order to help him move the character correctly about the environment. The design team members are happy because the animator didn't modify any of their lights, terrain models, maps, and props. The animator is happy because he won't have to wait for the design team members to finish all their tweaking before he can get started. The end result is one large, happy production team (if they can meet their deadlines).

Choose Application Button⇒References⇒XRef Scenes to open the XRef Scenes dialog box, shown in Figure 25.6, which you use to load XRef scenes into a file.

FIGURE 25.6

The XRef Scenes dialog box lets you specify which scenes to load as external references.

XRef scene options

In the XRef Scenes dialog box are several options for controlling the appearance of the scene objects, how often the scene is updated, and to which object the scene is bound. This