Default value for standard object attribute

Hi,

I have a max object that has a couple of attributes.
One of these should be a long in the range 1 - 4. I am using CLASS_ATTR_FILTER_CLIP to clip the value in this range.

This works fine, but the value still defaults to 0, which is incorrect. What is the correct way to avoid this. CLASS_ATTR_DEFAULT does nothing, although a "dictionary based constructor" is mentioned in the SDK but I'm not sure how this applies to a non UI object or how to do this.

ANy help appreciated.

Thanks

A.