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View Full Version : XRefs: Xrefing a group?

Dave Black
05-19-2003, 06:32 PM
Working on a side project for work. It's just some concept renders of a product in development.

As the product evolves and changes, I'd like to be able to edit it and then have it update in a nice enviroment in a seperate scene. There are also 4 copies of the product in this scene linked to control objects bound to look-at controlers, etc.

So I had the bright idea of using XRefs to update this scene as I changed the product to the customer's wishes in another scene.

The problem is, that the product is fairly complex, with lots of objects, nuts, bolts, etc. I've used SUB-d to create the product, but I don't want to smooth everything, thus, a group.

Is there any way to pull a group of objects in as an XRef, and still have the ability to use proxy objects?

When the group comes in, there is no option to use this function, unless the group is opened and a single object selected. This means I'd have to have a seperate proxy object of all of 'em.

Perhaps too nebulous of a question, but if anyone has experience with this, I'd love to know.

-3DZ

:D
gaggle
05-20-2003, 09:26 AM
I'm sorry I can't help you directly, I.. don't know either. But I was thinking, if your Xref group has sufficient amount of individual objects, toggle displaying them as bounding-boxes might be good? This will provide fast viewport speeds, and if you want fast renderings as well you can apply a standard gray material on them.. just make sure to "update material" once you want real renders.

Not exactly ideal though.

Or set the original scene up so that the real objects are hidden, their proxy counterparts shown, and the proxies set to non-renderable. Then XRef Scene that. You should, again, get fast viewport updates, and by toggling Render Hidden on in render globals you get a proper rendering.

That's obviously no ideal either.

The only solution I can come up with that would satisfy your needs involves scripting. Ie. split them up and have a script set the proxies and do all the labour-intensive work.
KiboOst
05-20-2003, 09:57 AM
When using groups in xrefs, I simply don't attrib them proxies, so I get a cross. Then, before rendering, in xrefs options, I simply merge them.

Would be really cool if it were fixed in v6...

Kib
Dave Black
05-22-2003, 05:24 AM
Roger that! Thanks for the input, guys...really.

I let the Xref thing go after futzing with it for awhile. The thought did occur to me way after the fact, that I could just use a non-renderable object and have the real-deal just linked to it as an Xref.

Oh well. Perhaps R6 will see some improvement, but I'm not holding my breath.

Thanks again, gaggle and KiboOst!

-3DZ

:D
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