3Ds Max - Slow loading/xref/merging times

[paulharwood4304]

All

Running MAX design 2013 and just upgraded to 2014, experiencing extremely long delays when opening a drawing, attaching/updating xrefs and or merging drawings.

The drawing sizes are not big or complicate (basic square buildings with btmaps). The load/save times can be excess of 4 hours! Somehtings not right.

If you save the files as MAX 2011. Then open them up in 2013 the problem goes away (for a short time).

I found the following brief message on ano0ther forum ‘apperently XP has network lookup issues since SP2, so it could be that certain files are being searched with long delays between every file, and since i have all rpc subscribtion, (those are over 2000files) it takes 12minutes for a scene whatever it contains. So ill check if i can bypass that problem.
It also explains why reloading the scene takes normal load time.
(note: merging parts results very soon in same problem,)’

I know its XP and for 2009 but this seems to be what is wrong. Any thoughts????

Computer spec

Windows 7, HP Z8000, X5690@3.47GHz (12 CPUS), 192gb RAM, NVIDIA Quadro 6000.

Note : that we are working on network, do the drawing files are saved on different computers, could this be a creating a circular file path reference and keeps searching back and forth causing delays….

Any help very much appreciated

Thank,

[Laurent.Pallares]

Hi,

Maybe this link will be helpfull for the issue that you are having:

http://area.autodesk.com/blogs/maxstation/n187-slow-trackview

http://area.autodesk.com/blogs/maxstation/n170-filebloat-removing-lots-of-empty-retimers

Seems the retimers issue...

Tell us if this helps.

Best regards,

[paulharwood4304]

Thanks for your reply

unfortunately it hasn;t solved the problem.

Still getting 20min + to load a simple xref into the scene.

[keithmcveen]

Have you found a solution yet for your problem? I too have been having the same issues ever since I upgraded to 2014, and it is severely affecting my productivity.  I've searched for solutions and have not found any that work - and it doesn't happen with every file, only certain ones suddenly become corrupt like this.  Hopefully you have found a fix and can share =)!

[theAndreas]

Got the same bug here, I think. Suddenly in mid project we couldn't merge a model into a scene we had setup for render. Max just froze after selecting what objects to merge and hitting merge.

I couldn't find the root of the problem but the only thing that I could imagine being the source of the problem was that I had 3 xref-scenes in one of my scenes. However I couldn't get that scene to merge in the other one no matter what I tried. Removed all xref-scenes, merge the other direction, merge both scenes into a new one. Merging just one object from a scene. All kinds of clean up was made but still, nothing.

I could merge each of my scenes into a new one but just one. If I tried to merge one scene after another into that new one, it got stuck.

This is a scary bug in my opinion... Hate it when you don't know what's going on. I have never had any problems with merging before.

I solved it by saving out both scenes down to 2012 and then merged the scenes. Then opened that new scene in 2013.

[chaas]

We have gott he same problem with max 2013 and 2014.

Saving them as 2012, loading the scene IN 2012 and just save it there again fix the problem, but after a while working in 2014 the problem is back again. So we have to do thesteps again and again. we are already thinking of downgrading back to 2012....

chris

[mibelgue]

My problem is loading the file, it takes forever... but I think this all goes the same way... any solutions yet? 

[Laurent.Pallares]

Hi Mibelgue,

Can you share the file that is causing the issues, or a sample file with us, and we will be able to troubleshoot you with more efficiency.

Regards,

[mibelgue]

Sure, can I have your mail please?

[Steve_Curley]

first name [dot] last name [at] autodesk [dot] com
Can't just post the address as the forum filters them out.

[mibelgue]

Thanks

[keithmcveen · Accepted solution]

Below are the only solutions to the problem that I have found - and these two solutions have worked 100% of the time for me so far.  I have gotten into the habit of performing this regularly on files before saving them just in case.  I put in the first line of code, hit enter, then the second line, and hit enter again, then save the file and the problem seems to go away.  Sometimes just the 1st fix is enough but I have had files that required the 2nd fix as well, no idea why.

Step 1: Paste the following into the maxscript listener in the lower left corner and hit enter:

t=trackviewnodes;n=t[#Retimer_Manager];deleteTrackViewController t n.controller;gc()

Result will look something like this:

TrackviewNode:root
undefined
-- Unknown property: "controller" in undefined
2783976L

Step 2: Like before, paste the following into the maxscript listener in the lower left corner and hit enter:

trackViewNodes[#Max_MotionClip_Manager].track = copy trackViewNodes[#Max_MotionClip_Manager].track;gc()

Result will look something like this:

Controller:Max_Mixer_Clip
2783808L

Step 3: Then, save the file and you shouldn't have any problems.  I do this to BOTH files, the one you are working in and the one you plan on merging into your file. Let me know if this fixes your issue as I am interested in knowing if there are other bugs that cause this problem! Also, perhaps you dont need to do both step 1 and step 2 together, maybe step 2 fixes is every time and step 1 only some of the time, I am not sure, but all I know is that I do both and 100% of the time the problem goes away.  It's an easy enough fix to just do both together.

One last thing, I found the following code in another forum that might also fix the problem... I have not needed to use it yet, but I will paste it here anyway in case step 1 and 2 do not work for you:

while (numNoteTRacks TrackViewNodes.Max_MotionClip_Manager > 0) do deleteNoteTrack TrackViewNodes.Max_MotionClip_Manager (getNoteTrack TrackViewNodes.Max_MotionClip_Manager 1)

[karen]

Hi Keith,

Thanks so much for your post, that fixed my problem too - no idea how or why but you saved me a LOT of time - cheers. I also just did both lines of code.

[stephen.thompson]

I'm having the same problem and the only thing that worked was saving the file as a 2012 file as you mentioned. I opened it in 2013 saving it there. Did you ever resolve the issue?

[karen]

UPDATE: My issue is now solved due to a script that I found after lots of searching. It seem the problem is down to retimer nodes - my problem came from using scenes imported from Revit and I had thousands of them. Once I ran this script, the scenes saved and merged normally. I found the lines of code mentioned by keithmcveen that I tried initially didn't work consistently but this script did. Hope it helps somebody else.

http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/clean-retimers

[Pixelpark]

I had this problem in a project with several xrefs attached to the master scene. I tried the macroscript command lines and they perfectly solved the problem. Thanks a lot, without this trick it would be impossible to continue working with my project.

[nealjbiggs]

I am experiencing extremely long merge and xref delays.  It takes approximately 4 hours before 3dsmax (tried 2018.4 & 2019.3) returns.  I have a large Revit model (approximately 18 million polys; 800 objects) in the scene that I have tried to xref out of the scene.  The xref file only takes 15 minutes to save.  I don't know what is causing the long delay after that.  When I try to merge a simple object, all of the standard merge dialogues come up quickly but, once merged 3dsmax locks up for hours.  

I have tried this thread's solution scripts, cleared retimers, ran a Cleaner script, check my units from scene to scene, reduced scene size, etc.  

The scene itself loads, saves and renders with now major issue, minus the fact that it's about 400mb compressed.

Could the Security Tools be causing the delay?

Any help would be appreciated! 

[Javadevil]

 @nealjbiggs

Did you find a solution? My scene is literally screwed at the moment I cannot merge anything into it.

I've been tired Cleaner script, merge into a new file, back saving the file, nothing seems to work.

[nealjbiggs]

I don't know what the cause or the fix is, just that it's related to scenes with imported Revit models. Using Prune Scene https://3dground.net/prod/prune-scene-2180817  seemed to help the most. That and going through the scene bit by bit and deleting out any nonessential elements.

Good luck