Exporting the AImesh in 3dsmax
by Dnamro
- AImesh Import 3dsmax
- Create AI Meshes with 3dsmax9
- AIMesh Hierarchy Editing
- AImesh Export 3dsmax
- How to set up 3dsmax collision mesh schematic
- Understanding the AImesh (COL3)
- Troubleshooting the Aimesh
- Creating an AImesh from a multi-part object
- Creating an AImesh for a Multi-Story Building
- AImesh_Trick_for_Problem_Stairways
- BF2142 AImesh Creation Project
How to set up a Hierarchy/schematics for collison meshes in 3dsmax
This tutorial explains how to setup the Hierarchy/Schematic. The common term used in Battlefield modding is hierarchy. 3dsmax calls it a Schematic. Select the schematic button in the top right corner of the 3dsmax window as shown in the blow up image below. You may need to maximize the window to see it.

This is a schematic window example, shown below. It's hard to read like this. You can move view in and out using the middle mouse wheel.
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For this tutorial, to make it easier to read, I moved the schematic so that it's ordered from top to bottom instead of left to right. It makes absolutely no difference in how it's used.
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Take a look at the menu above the schematic window and make sure the highlighted tool is selected as show below:

Tool Image 1
As you can see, it's organized into two outlines. The one on the left/top I will refer to as the first. This is the one with a top node that starts with root_static... The second/bottom outline that has the collision meshes (col0,col1, col2 and col3).
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This is where it gets a little complicated. You need to delete the nodes in the second the outline that are above the 'nonvis' node as highlighted below. Select each node and press the delete key.

Next select the connection tool as highlighted below:

Connection tool image
Select the 'nonvis' node and move the mouse pointer to the last node on 'lod0' leg of the first outline. This will result in connecting the second outline to the first. See how there is now a line from the 'nonvis' node in white to the 'medieval..' node under the 'lod0' node.
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We are done with the connection tool. Go back and select the regular pointer as in the tool selection 1 image. Now, select and double click the top 'root' node to go into edit mode. Highlight the text after root_staticmesh_ as shown below and copy it into memory (CTRL-C):
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We are ready to clone a node to make the anchor. Select the 'nonvis' node. Go back to the main menu, select edit>> clone. Clone a copy of the node.
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In the name field of the clone, paste the name we copied (CTRL-V) and add a double underscore and the word 'anchor' as show below:
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Go back to the connection tool selection tool and connect the anchor node to the same node that we connected the nonvis node as show below:
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That's it for the Schematic/Hierarchy. Close down the schematic window. The next step is to export the collision mesh. That is explained in another tutorial: