Max 2016 sp2 Xref's unchecked visible does not render as previous versions did

[jneilon]

In the Xref dialog box if the visible checkbox is disabled you cannot render the geometry. Previously you were able to render xref's with this unchecked. Is this the new way of handling xref's? 

It is very probablamtic when working with large scenes. Can we get a new checkbox to keep hidden until render or bring back the old way of handling xref's?   

[spacefrog_]

They most probably fixed some bugs with the visible and boxed checkboxes not being respected after a scene reload. My POV is that as hidden/invisible objects do not render in Max in general, this new behaviour sounds more consistent to how the rest of Max behaves. Can't you just check the box mode flag if performance is an issue ?

BTW: i just tested this scenario on Max 2016 SP1 and it'S the same, so this is not a new thing with SP2

But your suggestion of a "rendertime only" checkbox sounds really usefull

UPDATE:

i just tested the "render hidden geometry" in the common render options ( in sscanline and mental ray ) and both render the hidden xrefs if the visible option is unchecked. So this is indeed more consistent with the rest

[jneilon]

Yes, box still works fine but having the ability to have the xref invisible is still useful as it was in previous max versions.
If this is now a feature that is consistent with Max's interface that is fine but getting rid of one feature for another to be consistent is short sighted.

Render hidden does the trick but it would be nice to have the ability as before to render xrefs and have objects hidden.

[daniel]

This is not consistent, because it's one of the display options and in the past it worked as intended. If you don't want to render XRef Scenes you have the Enabled option. This should get fixed or get an additional renderable option. We work with rather large scenes and this was part of our workflow in the past. Changing this without the possibly to get the old behaviour in some way is just typically Autodesk. Display as Box is no real option, because a XRef Scene with thousands of objects shows as thousands of boxes not just one. Render hidden is no trick, because it renders all hidden objects and sometimes you really want to have something hidden 🙂

[jneilon]

Completely agree Daniel. I hope this will be fixed soon. After 2-3 months working with Max 2016 I could use the old feature for large scenes. The whole Xref dialog box could use some features if they want to change anything ( load xref's default as off so you can exclude lights and cameras without loading, Batch load Xref's, material overlay's on xref's, exclude layers etc..)

[lightcube]

My two cents it that the new implementation makes more sense logically.

There are some other options to look at to get your presonal desired effect. There is a Renderable option for Layers. You could use Spacefrog's advice above and for hidden objects that you do not want to render, organize them into a layer that has Renderable off. You'll likely have to update the render control of those objects to By Layer (which you can do by selecting them all and right-clicking and choosing Object Properties and click the By Object button to switch). Of course for XRef scenes, you'll have to do that in the source files.

Probably the best/most convenient solution for what you are wanting is for a new XRef Scene option for Renderable. This would keep the new consistency and add extra control. Time for User Voice if you want that 🙂

[daniel]

Logically or not as posted in another thread regarding the same topic, even the help file clearly states...

Display Options group

These options let you specify how the selected XRefs are displayed in viewports. These options have no effect on the rendered scene.

Visible

Turn on or off to display or hide the selected XRefs. This affects the visibility of the XRef in the viewports only (not in renderings). Note, also, that this behavior is different from the “Enabled” checkbox. Turning off Visible does not remove the XRef from memory.

Box

Turn this on to display the selected XRefs as bounding boxes. Turn off to display the full geometry.

So this is more or less a bug 🙂 Shouldn't be any user voice needed, but I get the point that a separate renderable option would make more sense.

[jneilon]

I think the only issue is we lost a feature that made working with large scenes easier. Displaying as a box is not a solution for extremely large scenes (Large cities, complex revit models etc). Basically too many lines that obscure the viewport.

If I had votes left I would make a new request for a old feature.

I freed up some old votes: http://3dsmaxfeedback.autodesk.com/forums/80695-general-feature-requests/suggestions/13201671-bring-...

Please vote for this to be fixed.