Connecter Preferences in 3ds Max

Feature availability 🛈
✔️ Personal ✔️ Suite 🧩 Supported 3ds Max Versions

All integration settings are hosted in a single “Connecter | Preferences” interface accessible by choosing the “Open Connecter Preferences” option in the integration’s viewport contextual menu, or by going to Connecter > Connecter Preferences.

Merge and Place Settings

This section hosts various settings related to the assets merging workflows.

IMPORTANT: Pay attention to these settings, which will automatically apply whenever you merge an asset from Connecter in your 3ds Max scene.

Auto-Ignore (Skip) Objects by Type

By default, when you merge an asset from Connecter, the integration adds all of its content to the scene. You can, however, select to ignore and skip certain categories like shapes, cameras, etc.

NOTE: Groups in 3ds Max are a type of “helper” object, so keep this in mind when selecting the “Helpers” option, as this will prevent merging any groups from the assets you add to your scene.

To automatically ignore an object category when merging assets:

Select the “Auto-ignore (skip) objects by type” option.
Select the desired type.
Click the Save and Close button to apply the change.

Auto-Ignore (Skip) Hidden Objects

This option tells the integration not to merge any hidden objects from the assets you add from Connecter into your scene. Deselect it if you want to have hidden objects merged as well.

Choose What to Merge If More Than One Object

Select this option to choose which objects to merge when the asset you’re adding contains multiple objects. This may be useful when you keep multiple asset versions within the same file. If you select this option, the next time you add an asset containing more than one object from Connecter, a dialog will appear asking you to select the objects you want to merge from the list.

Show Warning If

This section lists options you can use if you want to be warned in certain cases when adding assets to your scene before the actual merging takes place. If you select any desired option, you’ll get an info dialog like the one below, which notifies you that the asset contains more than one object. Clicking the “No” button cancels the merge process.

File contains:
- More than one object: Warns if the merged asset contains multiple objects.
- Shapes: Warns if the merged asset contains shapes.
- Lights: Warns if the merged asset contains lights.
- Cameras: Warns if the merged asset contains cameras.
- Helper objects: Warns if the merged asset contains helper objects.
- Space wraps: Warns if the merged asset contains space wraps.
- Proxies: Warns if the merged asset contains proxies.
File units are different than the current: Warns if the merged asset’s units don’t match the scene units.

If Object Names Are Duplicated

When you merge assets into the scene, the integration must handle the case of having multiple objects with the same names. This option sets the rule for handling duplicate name objects when merging assets.

Auto-rename merged objects (selected by default): Automatically renames the objects with duplicate names following the 3ds Max standard naming rules.
Delete existing scene objects with the same name: If the merged asset contains an object with the same name as an object in the scene, the integration will delete the scene object and then merge the object from the asset while keeping its name.
Ignore name conflicts, merge anyway: Since you can have multiple same-name objects in the scene, you can choose this option to keep existing scene objects and merged objects with the same names.
Don’t merge objects with duplicate names: Select this option if you want to have all objects in the merged asset skipped and not merged if there are duplicate name conflicts with objects in the scene.
Show duplicates resolution dialog to choose: Opens the 3ds Max’s standard duplicate object name dialog where you can choose how to handle the conflict manually.

If Object Material Names Are Duplicated

When you merge assets into the scene, the integration must handle multiple materials with the same names. This option sets the rule for handling duplicate name materials when merging assets.

Prompt user when duplicate materials are found (selected by default): Opens the 3ds Max’s standard duplicate material name dialog, where you can choose how to handle the conflict manually.

Merge using the incoming materials: The merged asset materials replace the same-name scene materials.
Merge using the scene materials: The merged asset materials are ignored, and the same-name scene materials get applied to the merged objects.
Merge and rename duplicated incoming materials: Automatically renames the materials with duplicate names following the 3ds Max standard naming rules.

Proxy Settings

These settings apply to the “Merge as Proxy” workflows.

Auto-Find External Files Settings

Refer to the “Manage External Files” section for more details.

3ds Max: Asset Tracking

Click the button to open the 3ds Max’s Asset Tracker tool if it fails to open from File > References > Asset tracking or when using the Shift+T shortcut. This issue is unrelated to the integration, but we added this option to help users struggling to find another solution.

Refer to Autodesk’s official support resource addressing this topic.

Global Settings

Files Numbering

When you add or update assets as well as in other integration workflows, it may be the case when a new asset name is the same as an asset already existing in the same destination folder. This same name conflict may involve generated custom previews, external files, and other files the integration creates or renames.

When this happens, the integration automatically applies the naming rules in Connecter settings to name the assets and avoid duplicate name conflicts. These naming rules are also used when multiple assets with the same name get created and must be numbered.

Number of digits: Defines how many digits (1 – default, 2, or 3) are added after the asset name. For example, when “3” is selected, the assets get numbered using a “001, 002, 003, ...” pattern.
Separated by: Defines the separator character (“_” – default, “-”, or “( )”) between the asset name and the numbering string.
Place numbers: Defines if the numbering string gets added “at the end” of the asset name (default) or “at the beginning”. Adding the numbering at the beginning makes the assets use a “01_asset name, 02_asset name, …” pattern.

NOTE: Any changes to the settings get automatically saved (e.g., there’s no Save or Apply button).

Misc

Don’t show align tooltip: When this option is checked, the align tooltip doesn’t appear.
Don’t show merge and place tooltip: When this option is checked, the merge and place tooltip doesn’t appear.
Don’t show progress dialog: When this option is checked, the dialog displaying the time each action takes is not shown.
Flip axis of Gaussian Splats: When this option is checked, the axis of Gaussian Splats when merging them is flipped.
Enable performance diagnostics: When this option is checked, additional performance diagnostics are enabled. They can be used to find performance issues with the integration.

Reset All to Default

To reset all integration’s settings to their default values:

Select the “Open Connecter Preferences” in the viewport’s right-click contextual menu.
Click the “Reset All to Default” button in the “Connecter | Preferences” dialog.

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