Spline Dynamics has introduced Hierarchy Guardian, a new cleanup tool for Autodesk 3ds Max. The plugin is designed for architectural visualization pipelines handling complex scenes imported from Revit, BIM, CAD, SketchUp and similar applications.
According to the developer, imported scenes often contain deeply nested hierarchies, placeholder nodes, unstable transforms and inherited scale issues. These structural problems can affect animation, instancing, lighting setups and export workflows. Hierarchy Guardian analyzes scene hierarchies before making changes, generating a report that outlines node counts, hierarchy depth, structural risks and the expected scope of cleanup. The tool assigns an estimated cleanup impact level and presents a preview of actions prior to execution.
The plugin includes preset cleanup strategies tailored to CAD, BIM, ArchViz and asset library workflows. It supports configurable hierarchy depth reduction and applies rules intended to prevent unsafe reparenting of multi-child nodes or sensitive objects. Group-to-hierarchy conversion is supported, including structural group hierarchies, alongside removal of placeholder objects and detection of inherited or corrupted scale.
Spline Dynamics states that the system is built with safeguards for production environments. Hierarchy Guardian can create a Hold snapshot and optionally a full .max file backup before high-impact operations. Users can restore the previous state or last backup after processing. The tool is designed to preserve instancing relationships, constraints, cameras, lights, proxies, XRefs and protected objects. Post-cleanup validation checks are included to verify hierarchy integrity after modifications.
Additional functions include flattening splines along the Z axis, moving cleaned hierarchies to new layers and deleting empty layers.
Spline Dynamics is currently conducting a beta test of Hierarchy Guardian and is inviting users to apply for access.
For more information, visit the Spline Dynamics website.
