Autodesk 12812-051462-9011 User Guide 3 - Page 1798

Blocks and Interactive Selection and Navigation Once blocks and block components are linked to 3ds Max, you can begin adjusting their materials and properties. In a drawing for a small apartment, blocks are pretty easy to locate because the drawing is not very congested. You can simply select a block or one of its components in the viewport and alter it. With complex drawings, finding the block or block instance you want can pose a problem. For example, a common block you might add to a drawing is a table. If you're designing a corporate headquarters that makes use of several different types of tables, finding the one you want to change becomes more difficult. There are several ways for you to find and select a block more precisely in 3ds Max. ■ One way is by means of the block's name. When you link a drawing to 3ds Max, file linking creates a name such as Block: ConferenceTable. The first part of the name identifies the object's type, Block. The second part of the name indicates the block name, ConferenceTable. With this sort of naming breakdown, you can easily find a block using the Select From Scene dialog on page 228. ■ Another selection method uses the Layer or Color setting you made for your block when you created it in AutoCAD Architecture. Because layer and color data is also linked to 3ds Max, you can select entire groupings of blocks using Select By Color or Select By Layer. ■ Finally, you can select blocks by the type of material that's applied to them. Take care when selecting blocks this way because the material assigned to the block may also be assigned to other objects in the scene. Once you've selected a block or set of block instances, you can isolate them from the remainder of the model to work on them more efficiently. To select a block by color: 1 Choose Edit menu > Select By > Color. 2 Select a block in the scene. All blocks that share that color are selected. To select blocks by name: 1 Choose Edit menu > Select By > Name, or press the H key to open the Select From Scene dialog on page 228. File Link | 7053