Track View Hierarchy

Displays all items in your scene in a hierarchical fashion.

Reasons for selecting items in the Hierarchy list are:

• Selecting item labels for Track View operations.
• Selecting object icons to select objects in the scene.
• Selecting material or map icons when working in the Material Editor.
• Navigate the modifier stack in the Modify panel.

Reference

The Scene Hierarchy

  World

At the root of the scene hierarchy is the World. This item collects all keys in your scene as a single range for quick global operations.

By default, the World track shows the range of the Sound, Environment, Medit Materials, and Scene Materials branches. The Modify Subtree button in Edit Ranges mode causes the World track to include the range of all tracks in the Objects branch as well.

Note: The default location of the time ruler covers the World animation track. Move the time ruler to see the World track.

  Sound

You can synchronize your animation to a sound file or to a metronome. If a sound file is used, a Wave Form item appears in the hierarchy list and a waveform is displayed in the edit window. A sound file plays on your installed sound card. You set the Metronome and the Wave Form parameters in the Sound Options dialog.

  Global Tracks

Global Tracks is an area in which you can store controllers. Using expression controllers, for example, you could point to a controller in the Global Tracks from several other tracks. By altering the expression in the Global Tracks, all of the other tracks are changed.

By pasting an instance of a controller in Global Tracks to a number of other tracks, you can change many tracks by altering the controller in Global Tracks.

As a default, Global Tracks contains List tracks of the different controller types. To assign a controller, open one of the List tracks, highlight the Available track, and then click Assign Controller. Once the controller is assigned, you can point to it from an expression controller assigned to any other track, or you can copy and paste it to any number of matching controller types.

  Video Post

Animated parameters for Video Post plugins can be managed in the Video Post branch.

  Environment

The Environment branch contains items that control the background and scene environment effects. Examples of such items include, Ambient Light, Background definition, Fogs, and Volumetric Lighting.

  Scene Materials

The Scene Materials branch contains the definitions for all materials in the scene. It is empty until you begin assigning materials to objects. When you select materials in this branch, you are working with instances of materials assigned to objects in your scene. These materials might not be in any of the Material Editor samples.

  Medit Materials

The Medit Materials branch contains global material definitions. The Medit Materials branch contains the six material definitions in the Materials Editor. When you select materials from this branch, you are working with global material definitions that might not yet be assigned to objects in your scene.

  Objects

The Objects branch contains a dual hierarchy for all the objects in your scene.

Item Categories

Each type of item in the Hierarchy list is represented by an icon. You can use these icons to quickly identify what each item represents.

  Objects

Yellow cubes indicate objects in the scene. Branches below the square icon next to a yellow cube contain linked descendants of the object. Branches below the circle icon next to a yellow cube contain transforms, modifiers, and materials applied to the object, as well as the objects creation parameters.

   Controllers

Green triangles indicate controllers, the animation workhorses of Track View. They contain the animation values for parameters and are the only item in the Hierarchy list that can have a track containing keys.

Certain types of controllers can contain other controllers. Examples of these are Transform Controllers and List Controllers.

  Maps

Green parallelograms indicate map definitions. All branches below a map definition are part of that map. This includes values used by parametric maps and other map definition that are part of a map tree.

  Material

Blue spheres indicate material definitions. All branches below a material definition are part of that material. Because a material can be composed of multiple materials, it is possible to have nested material definitions in Track View. Blue spheres also appear in an objects modifier branch when a material is assigned to an object.

  Container

Blue cylinders indicate a container of other items. Branches below a blue cylinder can contain any number of other items. Blue cylinders are how 3D Studio MAX organizes complex items in the Hierarchy.

  Modifier

Orange diamonds indicate modifiers and Space Warp bindings. Branches below a modifier contain the modifiers sub-objects and parameters.

Hierarchy Pop-Up Menu

Right click any item in the hierarchy list to display the pop-up menu.

Expand Objects: Expands branches for all descendants of the object.

Expand Tracks: Expands all levels of all non-object branches below the item.

Expand All: Expands all non-object branches and descendants of the object.

Collapse Objects: Collapses all branches for descendants of the object.

Collapse Tracks: Collapses all non-object branches below the item.

Collapse All: Collapses all branches in the hierarchy.

Select All: Selects all tracks.

Select Invert: Inverts the current selection pattern of tracks, deselecting selected tracks, and selecting deselected tracks. Has no effect on collapsed tracks.

Select None: Deselects all selected tracks.

Selecting Children: Lets you select all child nodes.

Properties (Menu): Displays the Properties dialog for the selected item in the Track View.

For example, this button displays the Key Info dialog for the selected Key or the Sound Options dialog if an item in the Sound Track is selected.

How To

To select objects in the scene using Track View:

1. Do the following to select the first object(s):

Click an object's yellow box icon to select a single object.

Double-click a parent object's yellow box icon to select the object and its descendants.

2. Add to or subtract from the selection by doing one of the following:

Press SHIFT and click an object icon to select all objects between the object you click and the previously selected object.

Press CTRL and click an object icon to add or remove the object from the selection.

When objects are selected in the scene, their icons are also highlighted in Track View.

All objects in your scene are always displayed in Track View. However, selecting object icons in Track View follows the same rules as selecting objects in the scene:

• You cannot select the icon of a hidden object.
• You cannot select the icon of a frozen object.
• If you select the icon of an object that is part of a closed group, the icons for all objects in the group plus the group's icon are selected.

To select and deselect item labels by clicking:

1. Select the first item by clicking its label.
2. Add to or subtract from the selection by doing the following:
• Press SHIFT and click an item label to select all items between the item you click and the previously selected item.
• Press CTRL and click an item label to add or remove that item from the selection.
•      ·      Hold down the ALT key while clicking on an item label selects all item labels in that column
#ENDNUMBLOCK#.

Right-clicking an item displays a pop-up menu with three options for globally selecting items in the Hierarchy list.

To select objects with the pop-up menu:

1. Right-click any item label.
2. Globally change the selection pattern by choosing one of the following menu items:
• Choose Select All to select all items visible in the Hierarchy list. Collapsed items are not selected. Press CTRL and choose Select All to select only visible transform items.
• Choose Select Invert to reverse the selection pattern.
• Choose Select None to clear all items from the selection.
• Choose Selected Children to select the linked descendants of a parent object.

When working with function curves, you can also select a controller icon (instead of the label) to select that function curve for vertex editing.

To select Children:

1. Right-click over an object track in the hierarchy list window.

(The Select Children item only appears when right-clicking over an object track.)

2. Choose Select Children from the pop-up menu.

All object tracks that are children of the selected track are selected.

To select a material or map as the active material in the Materials Editor:

1. Open the Material Editor.
2. Open the Medit Materials branch in the hierarchy window and select a material.

The selected material becomes the active item in the Material Editor dialog.

To navigate the modifier stack in the Modify panel using the Track View hierarchy:

1. Create a cylinder.
2. In the Modify Panel add a Bend and a Twist modifier to the cylinder.
3. In the Track View hierarchy expand the Cylinder branch.
4. Expand the Modified Object branch.
5. Select the the orange diamond of the Twist modifier.

The Twist modifier displays on the Modify Panel.

6. Select the orange diamond of the Bend modifier in the hierarchy window.

The Bend modifier displays on the Modify Panel.