Modify Panel (New Features)

What's New in Max 2.0

• Configure Button Sets: You can now have up to 32 buttons in a set of modifiers. In the Configure Button Sets dialog, the Total Buttons spinner now goes up to 32 rather than 16. Also, a scroll bar has been added to the right side of the button cluster so you can scroll through the list.
• More Modifiers Dialog: The Modifiers dialog that appears when you click the More button is now resizeable. In addition, it remembers where you left it last and reappears in that location and size.
• Disabling Viewport Display with Stack Items: The Modifiers dialog that appears when you click the More button is now resizeable. In addition, it remembers where you left it last and reappears in that location and size.You can now disable the viewport display of the effect of any Stack item. This is implemented in two places:

·      The Active/Inactive Modifier Toggle button below the Stack list is now a flyout containing the original function, that disables the current modifier for both the viewport and the Render, plus a new button (Active/Inactive in Viewport) that disables the effect of the modifier only in the viewport display. These buttons let you activate/deactivate the current Stack item for either the viewport only, or for both the viewport and the Renderer.

·      The Edit Modifier Stack dialog has two new icon buttons in the lower-right corner. The left one is the original Active/Inactive Modifier function, and the right one is the new Active/Inactive in Viewport function. Using these in the dialog lets you select several modifiers and deactivate them all at once. Note that if you select two or more items that do not have the same state in common, one or both buttons become blank, but can still be used to affect the state of the selection.

• Stack Display:

·      When an item in the stack is inactive to both the Renderer and the viewport, it’s now displayed in gray in both the stack drop-down list, and in the Edit Stack dialog. Items that are inactive in only the viewports are displayed in blue.

·      The line representing the derived object (the “modifier box” in Tutorial 8) is now a solid black line instead of a dashed line.

·      The double-dashed lines between space warp bindings and the modifiers are now double-solid lines.

·      If the drop-down Stack list can’t fit on the screen (because of too many modifiers), a scroll bar appears.

• Converting Parametric Objects: The Edit Stack button now has double-duty. If you click it when one or more modifiers are on the Stack, it acts like it always has displaying the Edit Stack dialog. However, if you click it when there are no modifiers on the Stack and the selected object is both parametric and can be converted to a different type of object, a pop-up menu appears listing the type of objects to which the current selection can be converted. The items in the menu differ depending on the type of object currently selected. For primitives, however, the menu looks like the following:
•      ART DIRECTIVE (INSERT GRAPHIC)
•      Convert To::
•      Editable Mesh
•      NURBS Surface
•      --------------
•      Edit Stack
•      Select Editable Mesh or NURBS Surface to convert the object to that type, or select Edit Stack to display the Edit Stack dialog.
•      In the following cases, clicking the Edit Stack button displays the Edit Stack dialog instead of the pop-up menu:

·      The object contains one or more modifiers.

·      The object is already an editable object.

·      The object can’t be converted to an editable object (cameras or lights, for example).

• Converting Objects to Copies or References: Two new buttons in the Edit Modifier Stack dialog let you convert the selected object to a Copy or a Reference.

·      Click the Reference Object button to convert the object to a reference object. This adds an empty “derived object” line at the top of the Stack. All modifiers applied above the line affect only the object.

·      Click Copy Object to replace the entire Stack with an independent copy of the Stack.

•      ·      Note that these two functions are the equivalent of performing a SHIFT-clone, choosing Reference or Copy, and then deleting the original object.
• Cutting,Copying, and Pasting Modifiers: You can now cut, copy, pasteand therefore rearrange modifiers in the Stack. All of it is done in the Edit Modifier Stack dialog. Changes in this dialog are as follows:

·      The Remove button has been, uh, removed. Its function is replaced by the new Cut button.

·      Three new buttons have been added: Cut, Copy, and Paste. These let you manipulate the selected items in the list window.

•      A new Instance checkbox has been added that lets you specify if you want the pasted data to be instanced.
• Undoing Stack Changes: You can now undo the following changes in the Modifier Stack:

·      Remove Modifier from Stack.

·      Make Unique

·      Adding modifiers

·      Changes made in the Edit Modifier Stack (including collapsing the Stack)

•      Now that you can undo changes made in the Edit Modifier Stack dialog, a Cancel button has been added to this dialog so you can cancel any changes you’ve made, as well.
• Space Warps as Modifiers: Space warps can now also be created as modifiers. See When Space Warps Become Modifiers.