Select by name 3ds max

Using Select By Name

The Select By Name command opens the Select From Scene dialog, which lets you select objects by their assigned names without having to click in the viewports.

Procedures

To select objects by name:

If the Scene Explorer is not already docked at the left of the 3ds Max window, do one of the following:
- On the main toolbar, click Select By Name.
- Choose Edit menu Select By Name. Or if using the Alt menu system, choose Edit menu Select Select By Name.
- Press H . The Select From Scene dialog opens. By default, this dialog lists all objects in the scene. Any selected objects are highlighted in the list.
Use the mouse to highlight one or more objects in the list. To select multiple objects, drag vertically in the list or use Ctrl to add to the selection.
Click OK to make the selection. The dialog closes and the objects are selected.
Alternatively, to select a single object and close the dialog at the same time, double-click the object name.

For more information, see Select From Scene.

Selection Methods

Keeping track of and selecting objects in a scene is a crucial part of 3D modelling. Develop a good strategy for naming, selecting, grouping and displaying objects before embarking on a project. This should start in AutoCAD by using a comprehensive layer strategy for 3D conversion

This section explores the main selection and organisational tools available in MAX / VIZ thus:

Naming Objects

Viewport Selection Methods

Selection Sets Groups

Display Options

Download Sample Data

Naming Objects

You can name objects as part of the creation process and by selecting them and re-naming in the Modify Panel. Once named, you can select any object by its name using the Select by Name dialog

Name on Creation

Open kf202_01.max. This simple scene contains a box (at 0 height), some trees, bollards, lighting and seats
Create Panel > Geometry > Cylinder Draw a cylinder as a simple bollard. Notice when created the cylinder is auto-named Cylinder01 Before creating the cylinder change the name in the Name Box to Bollard
Change the colour by clicking the colour swatch before creating a cylinder in the scene at the appropriate parameters

Name after Creation

In kf202_01.max select one of the cylinders in a circle
Modify Panel > Name Box (top) Change the name to Bollard 01

Select by Name

Main Toolbar > Select by Name dialog Select Box01> Select Change the name Box01 to Ground
Main Toolbar > Select by Name dialog Practice selecting objects in the scene using this dialog

TIP: Apart from the normal use of the Ctrl and Shift keys to select single or multiple entries in list boxes, MAX / VIZ enables you to left click and drag the cursor down a list to highlight entries

Rename Dialog

Menu Bar > Tools > Rename
Select objects to rename
Type the new name for the objects in the Base Name text box
Check Numbered to auto-number the objects and change the Base Number to 1
Press Rename to automatically rename the objects

Viewport Selection Methods

Selecting objects in 3D is a little more complex than in 2D. As well as using the Select by Name dialog, become familiar with the following selection tools for selecting objects directly in the viewports

Open kf202_01.max if not already open .
Main Toolbar > Select ObjectThe button turns orange meaning you are in selection mode
In the viewport move the cursor over objects and notice that pop-up labels showing the name of objects appear in the viewport as you hover over objects

When selected the object will show selection brackets (default white) and also a pivot marker (default red) in Smooth + Highlights display mode and will turn white with a pivot marker in Wireframe display mode . This is how you know an object, or objects are selected. Practice selecting in each display mode
Also notice that when selected the name of the object appears on the top line of all panels in the Command Panel apart from the Create Panel where it is shown further down. If multiple objects are selected then ‘x’ objects selected appears instead

Selecting objects overlapping other objects

Sometimes, one object is positioned over or below other object/s. In the scene, recreate this by arc rotating so that a seat, lighting column and bollard or tree are all in line with each other in the User viewport
Place the cursor over a point over where the objects overlap
Keep left clicking and notice that the objects are selected in turn

Using Selection Regions

Main Toolbar > Region button flyout > Rectangular region

In the viewport left click and drag a rectangular region around all objects to be selected. This is a crossing window ie all objects crossing the window will be selected

NOTE: MAX has another button that toggles between window and crossing window selection modes when using these region selection tools. Window selection mode means that only objects entirely enclosed by (and not crossing) the window will be selected

Main Toolbar > Region button flyout > Circular region
In the viewport left click and drag a circular region around all objects to be selected. This is a crossing window ie all objects crossing the window will be selected
Main Toolbar > Region button flyout > Fence Selection Region
In the viewport keep left clicking to describe a polygonal selection region around objects that need selecting. Double left click to select the objects. Again, this is a crossing window ie all objects crossing the window will be selected
Main Toolbar > Region button flyout > Lasso Selection Region
In the viewport keep the left click button and move the mouse to describe a polygonal selection region around objects that need selecting. Unclick the left mouse button to select the objects
Main Toolbar > Region button flyout > Paint Selection Region
In the viewport left click and move the paint circle over objects that need selecting

NOTE: The Selection Filter dropdown on the Selection Tools enables you to filter types of objects for selection

Selection Sets

Selection Sets are a handy way of selecting objects and naming the ‘set’ so that you can select this selection set from a list to select the objects again

Open kf202_01.max if not already open
Select all the trees
Main Toollbar > Named Selection Sets Type ‘Trees‘ into the text box then pres Return

Deselect the trees by left clicking in a blank space
Main Toolbar > Named Selection Sets From the dropdown list select ‘Trees‘ Notice that all the trees have been selected as before

To Edit Named Selection Sets

Main Menu > Edit > Edit Named Selections

Practice adding and deleting objects from selection sets and explore the other available buttons. These are easy to understand

Groups

Grouping holds objects together and is used mainly to reduce the amount of objects in a scene. If you have 250 trees in a scene, for example, cosider grouping these together to form one group called ‘Trees‘. In this way they will not hinder selection of other objects in the Select by Name dialog

Open kf202_01.max if not already open
Select all cylinders in the scene
Main Menu > Group In the Group dialog type Bollard blocks >OK
Notice that you can now select the group as if it was one object. Also, in the Select by Name dialog notice that the Bollard blocks group is enclosed in brackets and is at the top of the list. In the Command panel the name ‘Bollard blocks‘ is in bold

To Ungroup

Select the group
Main Menu > Group > Ungroup The group is split up into the original objects

To Open and Close a Group

Select (Bollard blocks)
Main Menu > Group > Open This allows you to edit any object within the group. Select one or two cylinders and either delete or move them into new positions (covered later). Notice that the selection brackets still cover the whole group
Make sure at least one object in the group is selected
Main Menu > Group > Close This closes the group

To Detach an Object

Open the group and select an object
Main Menu > Group > Detach this detaches the object / s from the group

To Attach an Object

Open the group and select an object or objects that are not part of the group, but you want to include in the group

Main Menu > Group > Attach this Attaches the object / s to the group

NOTE: In general it is advised that for landscape objects such a seats, lighting columns etc grouping is not used to pull together different parts of the objects. The Attach command should be used instead and a multi/sub-object material used to apply different materials to different parts of the object

TIP: When moving multiple objects to a known point group them before the move and ungroup them after the move. Otherwise, all the objects’ will be moved to the new point by their own pivot point position and the spacial relationship between all the objects will be lost

Display Options

Use the Display Panel to elect to display or not display objects in the viewport. This is an invaluable aid when modelling, not least to help you concentrate on just those objects that needs editing without having the ‘clutter’ of other objects in the viewport

Open kf202_02.max. This scene contains similar objects to the last, but with a sunlight system and a camera on a path. Render the Camera viewport to get a feel for the scene and move the time slider to see the camera animate around a camera path (circle object called ‘Campath))
Display Panel > Hide (Off in VIZ) by Category rollout Check the following categories On whilst looking at the Top viewport

— Geometry — all geometry is hidden
— Shapes — the circle called Campath is hidden
— Lights — the Omni Lights and Sunlight system are hidden
— Cameras — the camera is hidden
— Helpers — the Sunlight compass is hidden

Display Panel > Hide (On/Off in VIZ) rollout The buttons in this rollout are self-explanatory. Practice selecting objects and using these buttons to Hide or unhide objects in many ways
Display Panel > Freeze (Lock in VIZ) rollout Freezing objects means that they cannot be selected. Although not as extensively used as Hide (or On/Off) these display tools can be used to ‘blank’ various objects from the scene
Finally, look at a very useful tool called Isolate Selection. Select one or two objects in the scene:
Main Menu > Tools > Isolate Selection The objects are isolated, the rest of the objects in the scene being hidden. On screen the following dialog appears:

Press Exit Isolation to restore the previous display

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MaxScript for picking an object name in 3ds Max

Hello fellow Stack Overflow members! First of all, thanks for spending your time reading this question. I’m learning Maxscript so I can do some quick and sofisticated facial rig. My script is 99% done. The only problem is that right now the script has hard coded the name of the target object to be rigged («MYOBJECT» in the code bellow). Instead of having to right down the name of the object in the MaxScript, I would like to create a function that will open a dialog window asking me to click in the target face abject, then after the user clicks in the target object, my code would do the job that it’s already able to do, but using the selected object name instead of a hard coded name. My code is bellow. Thank you very much for your help!

/* Script wrote by RDlady: This script was created following the example from Paul Neale's tutorial class: https://youtu.be/SKomaUCHAko Comments and little modifications added by RDlady. */ struct facialBoneHelpers ( targetNode=undefined, controlSize=10, fn makeControl hit= ( --If the user clicks somewhere, do the code bellow if hit!=undefined do ( print hit.pos print hit.dir --Creates the first helper, the root one (red) pt=point box:true cross:false axisTripod:true centerMarker:false size:(controlSize/2) wireColor:red name:(uniqueName "PT_ControlRoot) Zv=hit.Dir Yv=[0,0,1] Xv=normalize(cross Yv Zv) Yv=normalize(cross Zv Xv) pt.transform=matrix3 Xv Yv Zv hit.pos --Creates the second helper (green, bigger then the first), which will have the first one as parent pt2=point box:true cross:false axisTripod:true centerMarker:false size:(controlSize) wireColor:green name:(uniqueName "PT_ControlPos") pt2.transform=pt.transform pt2.parent=pt --Creates an outer circle connector (blue) that will have the second helper as parent cnt=circle radius:(controlSize) wireColor:blue name:(uniqueName "CNT_Face") cnt.transform=pt.transform cnt.parent=pt2 --Converts the circle to a spline, and moves the gizmo out a little bit, so it can be handled more easily --First, creates a xForm modifier xf=xForm() --adds the created modifier to the circle connector addModifier cnt xf --defines the Z position of the gizmo of the modifier as the control size, moving it outside xf.gizmo.pos.z=controlSize --Finally converts the circle to a spline convertToSplineShape cnt ) ), fun runTool= ( tool mouseHit ( on mousePoint clickNo do ( if clickNo>1 do ( r=(mapScreenToWorldRay mouse.pos) hit=intersectRay targetNode r makeControl hit --Creates a mirror helper if queryBox "Do tou want to make a mirror control" title:"Set mirror" do ( oppositePos = targetNode(ray(r.pos*[-1,1,1])(r.dir*[-1,1,1])) hit=intersectRay oppositePos makeControl hit ) ) ) ) startTool mouseHit ) ) facialBoneHelpers=facialBoneHelpers() facialBoneHelpers.targetNode=MYOBJECT facialBoneHelpers.runTool()

Selecting objects in 3ds Max

— [Instructor] When you work with objects in 3ds Max, you may need to select them, and selection is fairly straightforward. In our simplest case, all we have to do is just left-click on an object and it selects it. You can see it’s selected here in our explorer, we can also select by name here, and if we want, we can also left-click and drag to select multiple objects. Now, you can control this with this pull-down menu here. We can have a box, a circle, polygon, and so on, so if I select this box, left-click and drag, anything that touches that box will be selected. Now I can also shift-select, so if I hold down my shift key, I can add to my selection, or I can left-click and drag to highlight more objects. Now, how the box affects our selection is determined by this button. When the button is like this, anything that barely touches the box will be selected. In this case, it has to be entirely within the box to select, so you…

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