"XRef Objects” VS Standart Scene

[davidallen]

"XRef Objects” VS Standart Scene, is it an evident victory of the first or just a different method?"

Tried to use the scheme with XRef Objects models while building complex scenes. This led to reduction of number of verticles in the scene more than in 15 times! Autoback has reduced to a few seconds. You may save at least every minute!

The size of the scene, which used to be up to hundreds of MB, reduced to 1-2MB. It's fantastic! Why didn’t I use it before? Why don’t my colleagues use linking, but prefer working with models inside the scene? Perhaps there are some reasons because of which this method does not work in every situation?

[cg_Butler]

Hmmmm. Not sure on how long you've been using max or your colleagues too, but XREF's are hugely useful. Not only for the speed in which the maxfile can be used but also because it enables scenes to be split up in to parts and each team member can concentrate on one part. When the XREF is saved, it gets updated in the main file. No deleting and merging, only to find after you render that you forgot to delete a part and you have to re-render!

 

Welcome out of your previous dark world in to the nice bright world of Xrefs. Your colleagues no doubt will find the benefits in due course.

 

PS. If it's a small file then there's probably no need for XREF's, but certainly on the larger projects the can be very handy.

[davidallen]

Oh, thank you for your detailed response! )))

I’ve been using max not so long, and the work with the scene is an individual one. I’ve been doing everything by myself. I suppose if I worked in a team I would know more about Xrefs. Nevertheless, I still have some more questions. Are there any restrictions for XRef Objects comparing to the usual geometry? Will it be a problem if you need the scene with the huge number of objects to give to the Render in the Render Farm? My interest is related to the static scenes of interiors

[cg_Butler]

When it comes down to the rendering, you'll run in to pretty much the same problems if it's in your scene or if it's xref'd in. Xref's only speed up the maxfile you have them xref'd in to. If that makes sense.

 

There are no restrictions i can think of, except if you separate a scene too much, you'll have to go in to a lot of files to make changes and that can be annoying.

 

Apart from that, I'm all for xrefs! Containers are another way to do a similar job. But they are a bit more complicated and I don't use them anymore as ran in to a few problems with some other plugins used. You might want to have a look at those too though as they can be useful.

[davidallen]

Thanks again I also have not found any problem with Xref's yet. In most cases I use Xref for models that do not plan to work with in the future. Basically I speak about the room decor. So I do not need to change the geometry of these models.

Regarding Containers, I also found this method more dificult and focused on a large team work over the complex projects.

[salvador]

You can't move, rotate, scale or snap to XRef'd geometry. That's just about the one drawback when it comes to XRef. Other than that, it's great functionality.

[davidallen]

Yes, you are right, Salvador. But only in case you are talking about XRef Scene. We were discussing XRef Objects, and in this case it's ok to rotate, scale and snap. Besides functionality of working with materials and modificators remains the same.

[davidallen]

Having checked the functionality of XRef Objects and not found any drawbacks, I wonder why there aren't any tutorials on how to use it (I mainly work with interior scene). Indeed, in my case when the room has a lot of objects, the work with the scene turned into hell: long saving, viewports freezing. Now working with complex scene and using XRef Objects with Proxy enabled, I remember with the smile how nervous was I! Am I the first one who decided to convert my collection of models to XRef Objects with Proxy enabled and stop dreaming about a powerful video cards and ssd drive for my workstation? I can not believe it! But in any case, it will not be the first time during the history when something previously known is discovered again ))

[salvador]

Yes, you are right, Salvador. But only in case you are talking about XRef Scene. We were discussing XRef Objects, and in this case it's ok to rotate, scale and snap. Besides functionality of working with materials and modificators remains the same.

 

Plump!

 

You are right David. Scene / Object = not the same. Thanks for clarifying

[Jason Matthews]

Another useful tip for the Xref object like vehicles. Depending on how complex the vehicles, I have found that xreffing those in a scene is a huge memory saver and time saver in regards to opening scenes.

[davidallen]

Plump!

 

You are right David. Scene / Object = not the same. Thanks for clarifying

 

It's ok)))

[richardconner]

Am I the first one who decided to convert my collection of models to XRef Objects with Proxy enabled and stop dreaming about a powerful video cards and ssd drive for my workstation? I can not believe it!

 

You are right, David, you are not the first one

I was also thinking about the XRef problem and found an interesting site http://roombaroom.com/

They use Xref in their scenes. You can download their demo from the home page. The scene organization is very interesting. Especially I liked demo

[davidallen]

Thanks for the link!!! http://roombaroom.com/ is useful for me. I am working over the project where I might use it soon

Their approach to Xref is similar to mine. They use Xref with proxy to make it easier to work with the 3d models.

I liked the idea about that 3d model and its lowpoly copy for proxy Object are in one file. I even did not realize it could be :D I usually create special file and folder for them.

The rest of their features of Xref are similar to mine: merge transforms, materials and modifers. The models used are single mesh. This helps to avoid any problems working with Xref. It is as stable as possible!

Besides, I have never seen such thoroughly made scenes for 3D Max on the Internet. It looks like ready-made scene for final rendering of the 3d interior template.

[Francisco Penaloza]

You can't move, rotate, scale or snap to XRef'd geometry. That's just about the one drawback when it comes to XRef. Other than that, it's great functionality.

 

When you link your XREF scene, if you see at the bottom window you have the option to link that scene to any element in your scene, With this I load my XREF scene and link it to a Dummy, then I can re position or rotate my XREF scene to fit the main scene.

 

XREF are very useful for ArchVIZ type of work, not that much for modeling or interactive animation work, but all depend of your workflow of course. Where I work we could not develop any big project if we don't use XREF and proxies.