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Author Topic: Using forest library breaks link to the library scene, anyway to update objects?  (Read 1404 times)

Screenscene vfx

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Heya Folks!

I've just run through the Libraries tutorial and it works really nicely. I was curious if using libraries meant that your render scene was somehow xref-ing or linking the objects in your forest system back to the max file that they came from but it doesn't seem to be the case. It's handy in one way that if your library gets damaged, your max file is still intact but say for example I make incremental improvements to materials or objects in a library as work on a scene is progressing, is there a really handy way to update all of the library objects? It seems like if I delete library objects and reimport them from a modified max file with the same name, forest won't update any of the objects in the scene. Likewise if I try to make a new forest object in the same scene, when I use my updated library objects, it'll continue to use the old objects as they already exist within the max file.

So here's our test case:

I have a library file that has three animated characters in it, and I max a forest library from this max file. (forest_library.max)
I make a scene file using forest to scatter the people around the scene. (forest_render.max)
I go back to my library max scene and make some material changes to the three models and save the file with the same name. (forest_library.max)

I want to update the models that are scattered in my forest_render.max scene file - is there a convenient way to update all of the objects I have in this render scene with those in my updated forest_library.max?

Cheers!

John

Paul Roberts

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Hi John,

Thanks for the question. Actually the Forest library gives you the option of importing the objects into the scene file, in which case there is no link back to the original file, or creating a XRef to the library files. You can choose this from the library browser as shown below.



If you choose to XRef then updates to the library files should be reflected in your scene (after a refresh). For the built in libraries this option is disabled so that we can change the source files without disturbing user's scenes, but for your own libraries it should be available.

If you have merge the objects then you will need to reimport the library object or preset into the scene, effectively replacing it,  in order for the changes to take effect. To do this, go to the forest object in the forest_render.max file and open the Library browser. Select the preset or objects from the items grid (theres no need to edit the library itself) and click import selected to replace those already in the scene. For materials, make sure you have Replace from library selected otherwise the existing materials will be retained.

I hope that helps, please let me know if anything needs clarifying.

Many thanks,

Paul
Paul Roberts
iToo Software

Screenscene vfx

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Less talking, more reading from me so :)