I want to place something on the rock face where the red arrow is pointing, but the tree is in the way. I'd rather not move the tree as it's placed just right, so I was wondering if there's a way to hide the tree or make is almost transparent so you could edit objects that are obscured by other objects?

Like the lock system in Classic, where the locked object was "invisible" in the editor. Also does Max have the same as classic to use the mouse scroll wheel to vary the height at which objects are visible.

I don't have under construction MAX to test...
Seriously thought of a script first! What about a quick MAX entity editor SCALE job?

Question for you guys: isn't this the new and improved, MAXimized features, MAX that
we're talking about? Is it true that the precise location of objects (and angles), (and scales)
are accessible via the entity panels?? Serious question- never used it.
Can you just leave asset where it's at, but scale it down at all way, do the behind editing,
then scale the tree back to what you had it? (write them down if necessary! )

I suppose I would save a backup (always good) before chopping the tree down George.

Agreed, Perfect !!
Use the scale slider to make it tiny and out of the way ..
The slider is probably set to 50. Bring it down in size so its clear, Do your thing and move the slider back up to 50.
Job done

1- Select the occluder mesh>goto positionY slider, and set 30/50 whatever that fits your needs.
2- Work with the occluded mesh
3- Select occluder mesh again, and press ENTER (to get it at ground level again)

And yes, being able to hide entities when needed, such as 3ds Max does, would be a nice feature.
Or using The Slice modifier via a tab key, as GG does.

And the obvious answer that I really should have though of goes too......

Thanks GubbyBlips.