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Note

The Shrink commands work only when Layout⇒Toggle Shrink (Ctrl+S) is enabled. With this command, you can turn on and turn off the visibility of shrunken nodes. •

FIGURE 25.13

Shrunken nodes appear as simple dots in the Schematic View.

To delete a node, select the node and click the Delete Objects button on the Schematic View toolbar or press the Delete key. If several nodes are selected, they are all deleted. This deletes the object in the viewports also.

Renaming objects

In the Schematic View window, you can rename objects quickly and conveniently. To rename an object, click a selected node and click again to highlight the text. When the text is highlighted, you can type the new name for the object. This works only for nodes that have a name, which includes materials.

Tutorial: Rearranging the solar system

To practice moving nodes around, you'll order the solar system model. When Max places nodes in the Schematic View, it really doesn't follow any specific order, but you can move them as needed by hand.

To rearrange the solar system nodes, follow these steps:

1. Open the Ordered solar system.max file from the Chap 25 directory on the CD.

This file includes several named spheres representing the solar system.

2. Select Graph Editors⇒New Schematic View to open the Schematic View window.

All planets are displayed as blue nodes under the Sun object.

3. Select Options⇒Reference Mode (if it is not already selected) to position all the nodes horizontally. Click the Select tool on the main toolbar, or press the S key.

4. Make sure the Options⇒Always Arrange option is disabled. Then click and drag the Mercury node to the left, and place it in front of the Venus node.

5. Select the Options⇒Move Children (Alt+C) menu command, and drag and drop the Saturn node between the Jupiter and Uranus nodes.

With the Move Children option enabled, the Saturn rings node moves with its parent.

6. Drag and drop the Pluto node beyond the Neptune node.

7. Select all the planet nodes, and choose Layout⇒Align⇒Top to align all the nodes together.

Note

Although astronomers no longer classify Pluto as a planet, I doubt that this book is required reading for astronomers. I think we can get away with calling Pluto a planet. •

Figure 25.14 shows the rearranged hierarchy with all the planets lined up in order.

FIGURE 25.14

After rearranging nodes to the correct order, the planets are easy to locate.

Working with Hierarchies

Another key benefit of the Schematic View is to see the relationships between different objects. With the Schematic View open, you can quickly tell which objects are children and which are parents. You also can see which objects have modifiers and which have materials applied. You can get a wealth of knowledge from the Schematic View.

Using the Display floater

With all relationships enabled, the Schematic View becomes a mess. Luckily, you can control which Relationships and which Entities are displayed using the Display floater, shown in Figure 25.15.

FIGURE 25.15

The Display floater can turn nodes and lines on and off in the Schematic View.

The top section of the Display floater shows or hides relationships between nodes, which are displayed as lines. The relationships that you can control include Constraints, Controllers, Parameter Wires, Light Inclusion, and Modifiers. If you hold the mouse over these relationship lines, the details of the relationship are shown in the tooltip that appears.

Tip

For some relationships, you can double-click the relationship line to open a dialog box where you can edit the relationship. For example, double-clicking a Parameter Wire relationship line opens the Parameter Wiringdialog box. •

The lower section of the Display floater lets you show or hide entities that are displayed as nodes, including Base Objects, Modifier Stack, Materials, and Controllers. The P, R, and S buttons let you turn on Positional, Rotational, and Scale controllers. When a node has a relationship with