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When using multilight for a building model it is very difficult to handle 20-30 sliders of the misc lighting options. However there are some lights that work as one.
To have only one slider in Studio for these lights, we should turn these objects to one mesh from inside MAX.
Can someone tell me how? I can't find the correct command/modifier to use. Please explain also how to undo this.
Thank you in advance.

Hi JTB,

You want to turn multiple objects into one?

firstly, pick one object, make sure it is unique (not an intance or reference) and either an editable mesh or poly (or add a Emesh or Epoly modifier) and then choose 'attach' and pick you other objects.

You cann ot really undo this, just save it as another file.

J.

j_man wrote: You cann ot really undo this, just save it as another file.

actually you can, just detaching polys or elements from an object.

Thank you both, this is a big help

Or you can select all the elements that you want to be a single element, go the utilities menu, and select "Collapse."

Be sure to strengthen your emitter after you do that appropriately.

rivoli wrote:

j_man wrote: You cann ot really undo this, just save it as another file.

actually you can, just detaching polys or elements from an object.

well of course you can but a cleverer workflow would be to keep an unattaced version of your objects rather than rebuilding them from a single mesh. If the mesh is very simple you could use the explode function with a high theshold to detach elements into objects
There is no magic undo for complex objects that have been attached together

J.

j_man wrote: There is no magic undo for complex objects that have been attached together

there's no need to explode the mesh, any object attached to another one will end up being a different element in sub object mode. selecting elements and detaching them is a couple of clicks task. in this case, where all the light objects attached together are not connected between them, it's very easy to go back to each light source as a different mesh.

file ¦ merge : select file : all : ok! - delete old

Now they're all restored in exactly the same state, with names, material, layers and even the same modifier stack as before you merged them.

Simply detaching elements is going to give you a flat Emesh named objectXX on the current layer. It's simple workflow that can make your job easier at a leter stage of a project.

misterasset wrote:Or you can select all the elements that you want to be a single element, go the utilities menu, and select "Collapse."...

Neat trick, does this overcome the memory problems that max has attaching large number of objects together?

J.

j_man wrote:

misterasset wrote:Or you can select all the elements that you want to be a single element, go the utilities menu, and select "Collapse."...

Neat trick, does this overcome the memory problems that max has attaching large number of objects together?

I don't know if it fully overcomes it, but it helps. I use it mostly on when my meshes don't attach easily. For example, 5 different light bulbs in a fixture.

j_man wrote: file ¦ merge : select file : all : ok! - delete old

lol. fair enoug, no point in arguing about workflows.. I reckon. and anyway, I also always save files incrementally, so that each stage of a project is still there if anything goes wrong.

where would we be if we couldn't argue about workflow! <:

J.

guess you're right.