topic How to aboid missing textures when working with merged files in 3ds Max Design Visualization Workflows Forum

How to aboid missing textures when working with merged files

Anonymous — Sun, 21 Dec 2014 17:15:31 GMT

Hi everyone. I work as a freelancer archviz artist and have a lot of 3d files like furniture and vegetation that I merge over and over again in my projects. The problem is that every time I move or rename those files, messages about missing textures appear in my scennes. So my question is, how can I prevent this to happen?

Re: How to aboid missing textures when working with merged files

josemanuelelizardo — Mon, 22 Dec 2014 13:21:40 GMT

Hi Juan,

Those 3d assets that you merge into other scenes are likely referencing images (texture maps) on disk. If the path to those images changes, than 3ds Max lose the reference to them and something needs to be updated. There's a few ways you can handle this:

1- This might sound obvious but try not to rename or repath the images and other assets. Preferably you would have one "master" asset location where you would always pool from.

2- You can add a custom search path to 3ds Max by going to Customize> Customize User Paths> External Files. All assets located in these paths will be discoverable by 3ds Max, regardless of what absolute path is set on the asset itself in Max

3- You can repath the missing assets in your Max file manually by using the Asset tracker: Shift+T(to open asset tracker)> highlight missing asset> right-click and select Set Path> locate asset on disk

4- Once assets are found, you can pull all referenced assets into the existing project folder by using the Resource Collector utility. Utilities Panel> More> Resource Collector. This tool will take referenced assets in the scene (bitmaps and photometric files) and copy them to the project folder's archive folder. If you enable Update Materials, the paths on the materials themselves will also be updated to this new location.

Ultimately, when merging many assets into other Max files, ideally you would never change the original assets, and their referenced assets (texture maps), location on disk. This is usually how larger facilities operate.

If you're merging from one project to another and you don't necessarily have a "library" of assets as such, than always make sure to bring over the referenced textures as well, not just the 3ds Max asset. It helps to have all assets pertaining to one project living in the same location on disk, the project folder.

Hope this helps!

Jose

Re: How to aboid missing textures when working with merged files

Anonymous — Mon, 22 Dec 2014 15:23:14 GMT

Hola jose. gracias por tu respuesta. Hablas español? Me gustaria si es posible, preguntarte unas cositas mas.

Re: How to aboid missing textures when working with merged files

josemanuelelizardo — Mon, 22 Dec 2014 19:02:10 GMT

Hi Juan,

I can read Spanish but don't ask me to try and write it! 🙂

Ask away, I'll try and help if I can.

Jose

Re: How to aboid missing textures when working with merged files

Richard.Vivanco — Sun, 22 Feb 2015 06:34:51 GMT

Lo mas aconsejable es que trabajes con un project folder y coloques las texturas que utilizaras en tu proyecto dentro del project folder.

La otra opcion es que tengas una carpeta centralizada con texturas y que la añadas desde el panel, customize/configure user paths

cada vez que hagas un proyecto.

Re: How to aboid missing textures when working with merged files

MarionLandry — Fri, 06 Mar 2015 17:59:17 GMT

Great answer. I would strongly suggest to:
1-Have all external point to the same pool of textures as mentioned by Jose. That is the correct approach. However, by default, Max will want to look for assets directly withing the project folder.. So make sure you set you project folder first, then add the path towards the pool of textures manually.
2- When archiving a project it would be a good idea to use the asset collector(mention by Jose) and place all the required textures within the project folder directory to protect these textures and keep them within the project for later use.

How to set a project folder: http://help.autodesk.com/view/3DSMAX/2015/ENU/?guid=GUID-D61846F5-1495-4E70-A928-9B6FE978095E

asset collector:http://help.autodesk.com/view/3DSMAX/2015/ENU/?guid=GUID-7109A5FC-94E9-4B7A-A46E-38637CDDCE3B

Good luck!