Nodes (scene objects) can be organized using: groups, layers, named selection sets, xrefs, and containers. The various organization mechanisms are grouped as follows:

• Groups, named selection sets, layers - allow to group scene objects and treat them as one entity (from some points of view), and the scene objects will continue to live in the current scene.
• XRefs - both scene XRef and object XRefs allow for assembling a scene from scenes and objects in external Max files.
• Containers - are used to group objects from the current scene or external scenes.