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Converting separate object into Instanced objects??

8 REPLIES 8
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Message 1 of 9
Kinetic99
9635 Views, 8 Replies

Converting separate object into Instanced objects??

Hello,

I have a object that was cloned about 50 times.
Only after I set them up in the scene did I realize there was a missing face on the object!

Is there a way to select all the objects that were cloned and convert them to "instanced objects" so that , if I add the missing face to one of the objects, it will apply an missing face to all 50 objects and thereby making everything correct?

After that, I would like to convert them back to "separate cloned objects" again?

Is it possible?? hope so:)
thanks. P
Win7 Pro 64bit
I7 3680 6 core 12MB cache w Corsair H80 liquid cooling
ASUS P9X79
32 GB DDR3
NVidia Quadro 5000
3TB WD
8 REPLIES 8
Message 2 of 9
Anonymous
in reply to: Kinetic99

It can be done. I think I've seen a script around somewhere that does it, but it's fairly easy to do manually through the track view. I just did it this week with a bunch of car meshes that I needed to be instances that had been put in as copies) :

select your object you want propogated as an instance
in Track View copy its object track,
select all the object's object tracks that you want to change to become this instance,
paste (as instance) !

Use the 'filtering by name' feature in trackview to make this easier
coupled with show only selected objects
ie i type in obj and it just lists all the object tracks

(copied from a post over on scriptspot)


link to script page (and above post): http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/instance-replace

SJ
Message 3 of 9
Kinetic99
in reply to: Kinetic99

excellent...it works.

and to make separate again, I will use the "Make unique"...

thanks P
Win7 Pro 64bit
I7 3680 6 core 12MB cache w Corsair H80 liquid cooling
ASUS P9X79
32 GB DDR3
NVidia Quadro 5000
3TB WD
Message 4 of 9
Anonymous
in reply to: Kinetic99

Glad to hear it helped.

Any particular reason you need them to all be clones instead of instances? Unless each one is differing in geometry it's a lot more memory efficient (and file size efficient) to have them as instances.

SJ
Message 5 of 9
Kinetic99
in reply to: Kinetic99

true!
Especially when I will deal with dozens and dozens of the same object in one scene.
I guess it is more of a habit to create clones, or in the event I need to change the geometry of one object and not all objects.
I will use instances now though.
thanks P
Win7 Pro 64bit
I7 3680 6 core 12MB cache w Corsair H80 liquid cooling
ASUS P9X79
32 GB DDR3
NVidia Quadro 5000
3TB WD
Message 6 of 9
soulburn
in reply to: Kinetic99

You could also try the objectReplacer script here...

http://www.neilblevins.com/soulburnscripts/soulburnscripts.htm

It works faster, but isn't as foolproof as the trackview method.

- Neil
Message 7 of 9
Anonymous
in reply to: Kinetic99

Paleo, if you are creating a lot of copies of an object, another good strategy is to create a "master" object which will not be rendered...hide it at render time or uncheck its "renderable" property. Then create all the copies as Reference clones, and if you need to alter any of them you can add modifiers like say Edit Mesh which will not change any of the other copies or the original.( Often the Spacing Tool or Scatter work great with this technique.) Then if you ever need to radically change one of the copies, just make it unique.
Message 8 of 9
jon
Enthusiast
in reply to: Kinetic99

This is a one-liner in maxscript.

If your 'master ' object is named 'foo' you'select everything to be instanced and type:

for obj in selection do instancereplace obj $foo
Message 9 of 9
wshumaker
in reply to: Kinetic99

Good one, Jon; that goes in the library. Thnx.

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