GLOSSARY

Parametric

Unlike physical building blocks, with fixed shape and size, the geometric primitives in 3DS MAX (box, sphere, torus, etc.) are parametric; that is, you can change their dimensions, segment settings, and other features after you create them. Parametric objects respond to changes in their parameters by dynamically updating their properties.

Changing parameters can dramatically alter the structure of an object. For example, you can turn a cylinder into a prism by reducing the number of sides and setting the Smooth option off. Or you can turn a cone into a four-sided pyramid using the same technique.

You can animate almost all creation parameters for geometric primitives, and interactively change their settings during animation playback.