Hello all

I have been struggling with what the max equivalent is to creating defined copies of objects or groups of objects.  In other 3D apps I have worked with, if I created a symbol or instance, any change I made within that group affected the other copies.  If I changed material properties, deleted faces, added objects, etc, these changes would appear across all copies.  There appears to be limitations of what changes will carry through in a max instance.  An example would be in a florescent light fixture instance, if I convert one of the light tube objects to an edit poly, change the id number of the faces, the other instances do not seem to reflect that change.  Am I right here or am I missing something?

Thanks,

Apologies if you already tried this,.. have you tried converting the object to an editable poly first then created instances from that?  Or perhaps putting the Edit Poly modifier on top of the stack, then create your instances with a instanced version of the Edit Poly modifier?

3DS Max 7, 8, 2010
Windows Vista 32 bit.
Intel Quad Core

Do not right-click and select Convert to Editable Poly.  That will un-instance the object.  Add an Edit Poly modifier, Right-Click over the modifier and select Collapse To.  It will maintain as an instance, and changes should follow through.

3DS Max Design 2011 64-bit - Advantage Pack
Dell Precision T5500, Dual Six Core Xeon X5650 @ 2.67GHz, nVidia Quadro 5000, 24 GB RAM, Win 7 Enterprise 64-bit
Minneapolis, MN, USA