Not sure if this is something i overlooked in max since i started using it years ago but i often wished for something like this.
Basically it would behave like a volume select which would look through a list of given object and would switch their attribute
properties as it gets within a certain radius.
-- per example i have 100 lights in the scene i need to animate on sequentially, i would just create a gizmo, input the lights list and say turn light on when the gizmo is within a given radius of the light, then just animate the gizmo going over the lights i want on.
what would be even better would be to control stack elements individually or even be able to trigger animation sequences based on proximity. i know it is all doable with tp per example but if it was built-in max it would make the animation process a lot faster... at least for me.