File referencing provides many workflow possibilities for working with large and complex scenes:
Objects, materials, and animation sequences that exist in the scene can be easily organized in a hierarchical manner based on the production requirements of the team. A pre-planned file referencing structure allows a production team to collaborate concurrently and efficiently on their project.
Complex scenes can be managed better from a spatial perspective when divided into various multi-level referenced files whose structure is appropriate to the production workflow of the team. When the contents of a scene are assembled as small units that are referenced into a scene, the references can be loaded or unloaded from the scene as required. This gives users the option of loading and working on their particular segment of the scene without affecting the work of their peers. Loading one segment of a larger scene provides additional benefits with respect to interactive performance. For example, a cityscape scene could be segmented so that one team works on the buildings and miscellaneous street props, another on the trees and vegetation, and another on the animated characters.
Digital assets for a project ideally need exist only once, and can be reused by being referenced multiple times, by multiple users, in many different scene files if required, from a single location on disk. For example, a prop such as a tree can be referenced many times into a large scene of a cityscape, and repositioned as necessary without affecting the referenced file. Users can also work on their particular asset (model, material, animation, and so on) separately without affecting their teammates who might also be working with the same data in parallel but for different goals. One user may reference a character to animate it, while another user references the same model to develop textures and shading materials. As a second example, a technical director creates a rigged character used for all the shots; that master rig is then used for various animations. Any issues with the rigged character can be fixed once, rather than having to re-import the model into many different scenes.
Complex scenes can be substituted by referencing less complex proxy scenes that can be used as simple spatial references. This improves interactivity, faster animation playback, and assisting in accelerating the iterative nature of lighting and rendering tests when in production. See About proxy references.
Any modifications or connections added to a referenced file from the parent scene level take precedence over modifications or connections made in the referenced child file. If a modification is made directly in the referenced child file after it has been referenced, any pre-existing connections that were made between the parent scene and the referenced child file may become broken. It will then become necessary to reconnect any broken attribute connections between the parent scene and the referenced child scene file. As a general rule, you should try to avoid changes of this type once a file has been referenced.
