The new Containers toolset enables you to collect multiple objects in a complex scene into a single container, to be treated as a single element. To improve scene performance, temporarily unload containers from the viewport display while maintaining their relationships to the scene and reload them when you need them. This process can save memory, increase viewport performance, and decrease load and save time. Translate, delete, copy, or save container nodes, and use containers to override object properties for scene organization without affecting layer organization (similar to a nested layer workflow). Reference containers created by others into a single scene, and access and edit colleagues' containers, enabling flexible workflows while imposing editing constraints.

Reduce errors in your pipeline with the new xView mesh analyzer technology, a powerful tool with live in-

viewport reporting that helps you quickly and efficiently resolve mesh errors, such as overlapping UVs,

duplicate faces, and isolated vertices. The xView analyzer speeds the testing of models and maps and lets

you add your own tests and queries.  

• Ready-to-use 2D shapes serve as starting points for creating editable splines and spline cages to convert to any 3D geometry type.

• Precise spline-based curve and surface construction tools include loft, one- and two-rail sweep, beveling, extrude, filet, cap, offset, lathe, ruled, mirror, and multisided blend.

• Attach, detach, align, stitch together, extend, fillet, or rebuild surfaces with a high degree of control over parameterization and continuity.

• Deform, lathe, normalize spline, set spline render properties, sweep, and trim/extend with spline modifiers when modeling with the modifier stack.

• Directly manipulate subobject geometry with a range of modifiers, such as Curve CV, Surface CV, and surface. 

• Subdivision methods include NURMS Subdivision, which produces an object similar to a NURBS object, classic which like MeshSmooth produces three- and four-sided facets, and quad output, which produces only four-sided facets.
•  Using MeshSmooth on polygon objects controls the polygon count of the final mesh for render optimization or level of detail.
• MeshSmooth, TurboSmooth, Subdivide, Tessellate, and HSDS modifiers increase the resolution of objects or subobjects and offer controls specific to each technology. 

• Design and edit simple-to-complex shading hierarchies with the Material Editor.
•  Material/Map Navigator displays libraries of textures, images, and image swatches.
•  Extensive library of 3D procedural maps includes cellular, dent, falloff, marble, noise, particle age, particle motion blur, planet, smoke, stucco, wood, and waves.

• Render to Texture functionality bakes each object’s material and lighting into new texture maps.
•  Output per element allows generation of specific characteristics, such as diffuse color, height, normal, lighting, and mental ray ambient occlusion.