Feature availability 🛈
✔️ Personal ✔️ Suite
The Integration’s functionality has two main aspects: the workflows it offers when you work directly in the 3ds Max host app and the 3ds-Max-assets-related workflows available in the Connecter app with the help of dedicated instances Connecter runs in the background.
Workflows in 3ds Max
Merging assets from Connecter to your 3ds Max scenes
Smart merge-and-place workflows that streamline adding assets from Connecter into your 3ds Max scenes with options to merge multiple assets at once, quickly place multiple instances of the merged asset, instantly replace scene assets with the merged assets, and resolve external file issues on the fly. The smart merge functionality also provides additional workflows like:
- Merging assets as Xrefs.
- Automatically create and merge assets as proxies.
- Merging and applying materials directly on object selections in the scene.
Adding assets from 3ds Max to your library in Connecter
The Integration allows you to add new assets (3d scene or material libraries) to Connecter directly from your scene in 3ds Max. It works with the whole scene or any single or multi-selection, and in principle, it’s like using the “Save as” or “Save selected” commands. Still, the add-assets workflow offers additional functionality like:
- Automatically generating custom previews.
- Management of external files (MEF).
- Adding tags and description metadata.
- Automatically add multiple separate assets from multi-selections.
- Updating existing assets' content and metadata.
Manage External Files
The Manage External Files (could be referred to as “MEF” hereafter) tool allows you to handle all aspects of external file management. It’s available when merging and adding assets, allowing you to resolve any issues on the fly or at any time while working on a scene. Some of the main workflows are:
- Alerting and automatically searching and relinking missing external files.
- Setting new or stripping external files’ paths.
- Collecting and copying external files to selected folders.
Workflows in the Connecter App
Workflows in the Connecter app are offered through a dedicated 3ds Max host app instance. Those are:
Working with material libraries
In Connecter, you can see previews and names of all materials hosted in material library assets (*.mat). You can also rename or delete materials in a material library and copy or move materials from one asset to another.
NOTE: In Connecter, you can see and manage scenes (*.max) and material library (*.mat) assets’ external files. This functionality is not a functional part of the Integration and is available by default in the Connecter app.
Generating custom previews
You can create custom previews for your 3ds Max assets in Connecter. To generate the previews, Connecter launches a dedicated instance of 3ds Max in the background so it doesn't interrupt your work. Once the preview is rendered, Connecter automatically adds the saved preview image as a custom preview to the asset.