This topic includes procedures for using general functionality in the Scene Explorer window. You can find additional procedures for specific Scene Explorer features in Scene Explorer Columns, Advanced Search Dialog (Scene Explorer), and Advanced Filter Dialog (Scene Explorer) .

To highlight objects in Scene Explorer:

• Optionally, set the object-type filters to show only object types you’re interested in. These filter buttons are on the left-hand toolbar by default. They are also available from the menu choice Display Object Types.
• Next, do any of the following:
  • Click in the Find field, if necessary, and then, on the keyboard, enter enough characters to distinguish the object or objects you want to select from the rest. For example, if the scene contains several spheres and several boxes, you can highlight all the spheres simply by typing S (assuming the spheres still have their default names).
    TipThe Scene Explorer dialog always opens with the keyboard focus in the Find field, so in general you don’t need to click the field before entering a search phrase.
  • Use the mouse:
    • To highlight a single item, click its name.
    • To highlight multiple contiguous list entries, drag vertically in any column. Alternatively, click the first item and then Shift+click the last.
    • To highlight noncontiguous items, hold down the Ctrl key as you click.

      To remove highlighting from an item, Ctrl+click it.

    • On the upper toolbar, click Select All, Select None, or (after making a selection), Select Invert.
  • If any named selection sets exist, choose one from the Selection Set drop-down list on the upper toolbar.
  • Use the Advanced Search Dialog (Scene Explorer): From the Scene Explorer Select Menu, choose Search, set any number of Boolean search terms, and then click Select.

To edit properties for multiple objects:

1. Highlight several objects, as described in the preceding procedure.
2. Change a property for any of the highlighted objects. For example, turn on Hidden, or change an object name.

   All highlighted objects receive the changed value or property.

   TipYou can toggle an on/off-type property, such as Hidden, by clicking anywhere in the cell, not just in the check box.
   NoteClicking a highlighted item’s row doesn’t remove highlighting from other highlighted rows.

To synchronize selection between the scene and Scene Explorer:

Do any of the following:

• Make a selection in Scene Explorer, and then right-click a selected item in the list and choose Select In Scene.
• On the Scene Explorer Select menu, turn on Sync Selection. When this is on, selecting an object in the viewport highlights it in Scene Explorer and vice versa.
• Make a selection in the viewport, and then right-click any cell in Scene Explorer and choose Pull Selection from Scene.

To delete objects from the scene:

• Highlight one or more items in Scene Explorer, and then right-click a highlighted item in the list and choose Delete From Scene.

  The objects are deleted from Scene Explorer and the scene.

  TipTo undo such a deletion with the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Z, first change the focus from Scene Explorer to the main application by activating a viewport or clicking an empty part of the Caption bar or the command panel.

To edit hierarchies with Scene Explorer:

• To link one object to another (child to parent), drag an object’s icon (to the left of its name) to another object. The first object will become a child of the second object. When a yellow arrow appears to the left of the target object, release the mouse button.
• To unlink a child object from its parent, drag the object’s icon to the Scene Root node at the top of the list.

To remove a column from the table:

1. Drag the column heading downward until the mouse cursor changes to an X icon.
2. Release the mouse button.

To edit multiple items:

1. Make sure the value or values you want to change are visible in the Scene Explorer interface. If they aren't, add them with Configure Columns.
2. Highlight multiple list entries.
3. Change a value for one of the entries.

   Scene Explorer sets the same value for all of the highlighted entries.

To rename an object:

This method applies to editing any text field, such as the custom Radius field demonstrated in the next procedure.

1. Select the object in the list by clicking its name (or the field you want to edit). Alternatively, select multiple list entries. The editing is applied to all highlighted entries.

   The last item you highlighted explicitly has a yellow background; any others have blue backgrounds.

2. Do any of the following:
   • Press F2.

     This highlights the name of the item with the yellow background.

   • Click the entry with the yellow background.

     This highlights the object name and places a blinking insert cursor at its start.

3. Edit the name using the keyboard and, optionally, the mouse. To replace the name, just type. To change part of it, click where you want to edit, or drag over part of the name. After doing so, you can move the cursor with the arrow keys.
4. When finished, press Enter or Tab, or click a different part of the dialog.

   If you rename several items, the items other than the one you edited explicitly take on numbered versions of the name (for example, door01, door02, etc.)

Example: To customize Scene Explorer:

With some knowledge of MAXScript, you can add custom fields to Scene Explorer that lets you view and edit object properties of your choice. In this example, you’ll add an editable Radius column that applies to object primitives such as Sphere, Cylinder, and Teapot.

1. Open a text editor and enter the following (you can copy and paste this listing):

   showinterface sceneexplorermanager
   function getter node=(return getuserprop node "user")
   function setter node value=(setuserprop node "user" value)
   sceneexplorermanager.addproperty "User" getter setter
   function getrad node=(if isProperty node "radius" then return node.radius)
   function setrad node value=(if isProperty node "radius" then node.radius=value
   as float)
   sceneexplorermanager.addproperty "Radius" getrad setrad

2. Save the file in text format in the Scripts folder in your program installation. Use the file name radius.ms.
3. In 3ds Max, create some teapots and spheres.
4. From the MAXScript menu, choose Run Script, and then find and highlight the script file from step 2 and open it.

   This adds a new item to the Configure Columns list.

5. Open a new Scene Explorer window, right-click a column heading, and choose Configure Columns.
6. Scroll down to the bottom of the Configure Columns dialog, and then drag the Radius item to one of the current column headings.

   The new Radius column shows and lets you edit the Radius values for the teapots and spheres. You can now, for example, highlight several of the objects by dragging in the Radius column, press F2 to edit the first item you clicked on, and enter a new value; this sets all highlighted items to the new Radius value.

Using groups with Scene Explorer

• By default, group members do not appear in the Scene Explorer list. To show group members, open the group. When the group is closed, only the group itself appears in the list.
  TipYou can open a group directly in Scene Explorer by right-clicking the group entry, then choosing Groups Open Group.
• Scene Explorer does not support grouping functionality by dragging and dropping items. However, with the right-click menu Groups submenu commands, you can group items, open, close, and ungroup groups, and detach (exclude) group members.