Associating lights and geometry

Lights must be associated with geometry in the scene for the lighting to be visible, and for Auto placement and Interactive placement to work correctly. Lights can be associated with imported geometry in the scene from either the Lights interface or the Light Properties dialog box.

Note

Ray tracing shadows from Lights will be cast by all objects, regardless of whether they are associated with and illuminated by the Light or not. To remove the shadowing of the object, open the Appearance > Environment Light and Shadows dialog, and set “Shadows are cast by:” to Specified Objects and remove the object from casting shadows.

In the Lights interface:

Press the L key (or select Appearance > Lights) to open the Lights interface.
Select the geometry to be associated.
Right-click on the icon for the light to bring up its context menu.
Choose Add Selection To when to the current light, or choose Remove Selection From to unlink the light from the objects.

In the Light Properties dialog:

Select the geometry to be associated.
Click the Choose>> button.
Select Add Selection To for linking to the current light, or select Remove Selection From to unlink the light from the object.
The third option, Select Associated Objects, will select geometry linked to this light.