topic Re: 3Ds Max 2025 Demo - consistent crashing when trying to use hotkey editor. in 3ds Max Forum

3Ds Max 2025 Demo - consistent crashing when trying to use hotkey editor.

tpeack95msn — Fri, 19 Apr 2024 15:57:10 GMT

Hi all,
recently decided to try to shake off the rust after not using max in about a year and a half and decided to check out the 2025 demo version.

So trying to install the old scripts like regularize loop didn't quite seem to work as well as it did on my old 2020 version, at least the right click option doesn't appear though the script is recognized in the hotkey editor, and rapid tools works from the toolbar. so the functionality i want is possible.

but i wanted to try and set up a hotkey to make things nice and smooth.

unfortunately whenever i attempt to make a new hotkey for it, or even if i attempt to tweak a completely unrelated already existing hotkey for testing purposes max informs me something went wrong and it needs to close.

this happens if i attempt to remove an assigned hotkey, assign a new key in it's place, or attempt to assign a hotkey to a function that lacks one using keys that aren't already in use, seems touching the editor at all leads to an application error, even when dealing with keys entirely unrelated to the scripts.

is this intended for the demo version with the ability to edit keys being a full version feature?, or has something gone amiss.
apologies if this is well known and i'm just not aware of the terminology that would've led to the correct answer,

all the same many thanks for any help with this.

Re: 3Ds Max 2025 Demo - consistent crashing when trying to use hotkey editor.

RobH2 — Fri, 19 Apr 2024 16:40:30 GMT

You may have corrupted something by bringing in external scripts that aren't quite ready to be used in Max 2025 yet. I'd suggest uninstalling those temporarily, doing an ENU reset and then see if Max behaves normally in the Hotkey Editor. Once you determine that it's OK and is not crashing, then add your 3rd party scripts in one-by-one and test Hotkey Editor. If it now crashes, uninstall the script that you just installed and write the developer for an update.

If after doing that Max still crashes, then completely uninstall the Demo and reinstall it. Then open it and verify that it's working OK. Now, back up the ENU, save that somewhere, and then start installing scripts again.

It's common that people get a new release of Max and even before testing it or using it, they shove a bucket full of 3rd party scripts into it. Then Max crashes and they can't figure out why. It's best practice to install Max. Test it and make sure it's working OK and back up the ENU. Call it something like, "ENU_Initial Install_All Working OK". Then, start throwing things into it. When it breaks, delete the now corrupt ENU and copy the backup you made. Change its name back to "ENU" and launch Max. You'll be back to a "known good" place and can start in about 1-minute. It saves a lot of headache if you do it this way.

Re: 3Ds Max 2025 Demo - consistent crashing when trying to use hotkey editor.

tpeack95msn — Fri, 19 Apr 2024 17:32:44 GMT

thanks for the reply,
unfortunately even after removing all the scripts, re-setting the ENU with no luck i followed with a full re-install of 2025's demo this time with no optional addons and the application error message still shows up whenever i try to change or add a hotkey for any function.

checked the list and none of the scripts are present yet the problem persists.

so not sure what the next step should be.

Re: 3Ds Max 2025 Demo - consistent crashing when trying to use hotkey editor.

RobH2 — Fri, 19 Apr 2024 17:49:13 GMT

Crap, well that's not good at all. I don't have the issue but that does't mean it's not a bug. Something on your machine may be affecting this. Hmmm, let me do some thinking. Also, maybe someone else has run across this and will weigh in.

You might consider reporting it. Since Max is just out, the devs might want to get back to you. Can't promise that, just being hopeful.

Bug Reports:
https://www.autodesk.com/company/contact-us/product-feedback

Re: 3Ds Max 2025 Demo - consistent crashing when trying to use hotkey editor.

tpeack95msn — Fri, 19 Apr 2024 17:56:30 GMT

thanks for the suggestions, sent a report/summary there way via the link.

bit of a pain but i can still use most of everything max has so not the end of the world,

not sure what it could be that'd be causing it, like it is just going into the hotkey editor and trying to change anything that's causing it, haven't really dug into the rest all that much yet as i re-acclimatize but so far nothing else seems to have caused an issue.

Re: 3Ds Max 2025 Demo - consistent crashing when trying to use hotkey editor.

Mr.Mxyzptlk — Fri, 19 Apr 2024 18:28:36 GMT

I also got errors here because of some scripts. The dev updated and the issue was resolved.

Re: 3Ds Max 2025 Demo - consistent crashing when trying to use hotkey editor.

tpeack95msn — Fri, 19 Apr 2024 18:29:42 GMT

unfortunately it doesn't seem to be the scripts as removing them, then later trying a fully fresh install of just max 2025 demo has the issue still.

Re: 3Ds Max 2025 Demo - consistent crashing when trying to use hotkey editor.

RobH2 — Fri, 19 Apr 2024 18:48:47 GMT

I figured the scripts might be causing it. That's why it's always good to install Max and "as soon" as you open it and it looks OK, backup that good and fresh ENU. Then you can almost always use it to recover when a script breaks things.

Just removing a script won't, like you've found out, necessarily fix things. Uninstalling and reinstalling may not fix things because there may be some left over code in the registry or some Max file that doesn't uninstall and always stays on your machine. I imagine if you used an uninstaller like Revo and then reinstalled Max, it might be good and fresh again for starting over. But that's a lot of work too.

I often will 'Image' my drive after I get Max setup and know all is well. That way if things go really sideways and I can't find out what lingering file is still causing headaches, I can just Reimage my C: drive and be back to where I was and know that no bad code is lurking. That takes dedication to do on a consistent basis but it's saved me 100s of hours over the years. I use a LOT of 3rd party scripts and knowing they can break things, the 'Image' works well. In fact, the way I do it is I have Macrium Reflect and every other day, at night, it images my whole machine. So if things break, I can get back to day before yesterday with on problem, for all of my software.

3rd party script developers, while talented and amazing people, don't have the rigorous testing platform that the internal Max devs do. It's very common for a 3rd party script to wreck Max and then users start complaining that Max is defective. I'm not saying you are complaining, I'm just making a point that this kind of issue is common. 🙂

It's just really hard to figure out where it broke if someone installs 4 or 5 things all at once. You don't know which one broke things. But if you have that "known good" ENU, you can start over quickly.

Re: 3Ds Max 2025 Demo - consistent crashing when trying to use hotkey editor.

tpeack95msn — Fri, 19 Apr 2024 19:08:36 GMT

that's alright,

only scripts i tried were the regularize loop ones as one failed i'd try another,

https://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/loop-regularizer

https://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/edge-loop-regularizer-editpoly

https://rapidmxs.com/store/rapidtools/

from those sources, the latter of which says it's a 2025 version, going through where they say they go and checking and they aren't there on my end, is curious though, like the only time i'd check that functionality is when trying a new thing, and outside of this i don't tend to use the hotkey editor really, or at least once in a blue moon.

curious if there is some lingering thing from them and that that is what is causing it, where would be best to look?,

Re: 3Ds Max 2025 Demo - consistent crashing when trying to use hotkey editor.

RobH2 — Fri, 19 Apr 2024 19:23:04 GMT

Wow, I'm glad you said which ones. I use 'loop-regularizer' too. But, I hadn't tried it yet. I'll hold off. I also used to use 'rapidtools' but forgot about them. I might give that one another look once it's fixed.

I hope you are up and going now. What a lot of work, eh?

Re: 3Ds Max 2025 Demo - consistent crashing when trying to use hotkey editor.

tpeack95msn — Fri, 19 Apr 2024 19:36:27 GMT

ah no problemo, if my plight can help one person then it's alright.

and tbh the rapid tools one was working, like it appears on the toolbar and i can use the loop function there,

the hot key would've just saved me like 4 seconds every time i wanted to pop a hole in a thing, so not too much bother at all, and i can still use everything i wanna use just fine, but yeah when the trial expires and i'll scrub through absolutely everything i can find before purchasing the non demo version just in case.

but yeah hopefully it was just one of them that twigged something.

Re: 3Ds Max 2025 Demo - consistent crashing when trying to use hotkey editor.

RobH2 — Fri, 19 Apr 2024 21:58:18 GMT

I like your attitude. "if my plight can help one person it's alright." I like that... 🙂

Re: 3Ds Max 2025 Demo - consistent crashing when trying to use hotkey editor.

wojciech_gurycz — Sat, 20 Apr 2024 10:31:19 GMT

I have exactly the same problem, whenever I try to assign a hotkey Max crashes, script I installed was Subobj-Pivot by Funky Bunnies, I removed the script also reinstalled Max, and it still crashed, then I cleaned all the remaining traces from the registry and reinstalled again, it crashes aswell. I do have other versions of 3ds Max installed on my machine. I will try installing it on different machine.

Re: 3Ds Max 2025 Demo - consistent crashing when trying to use hotkey editor.

tpeack95msn — Sat, 20 Apr 2024 12:28:13 GMT

yeah i also had older versions on my pc, not active but still there, but even after uninstalling them and doing a fresh download of the demo it persists, very strange.

Re: 3Ds Max 2025 Demo - consistent crashing when trying to use hotkey editor.

RobH2 — Sat, 20 Apr 2024 12:36:43 GMT

Maybe there is something in the Demo version of Max that is causing the problem. You might try reporting it to the link below and see if you get an answer.

Bug Reports:
https://www.autodesk.com/company/contact-us/product-feedback

Re: 3Ds Max 2025 Demo - consistent crashing when trying to use hotkey editor.

jibijib — Sat, 20 Apr 2024 12:56:26 GMT

Were you assigning a key and then closing it, or did it happen during?

Does it do this when you run in admin mode?

Re: 3Ds Max 2025 Demo - consistent crashing when trying to use hotkey editor.

tpeack95msn — Sat, 20 Apr 2024 14:55:57 GMT

i can open the hotkey editor, and scroll through all actions and hotkeys and so on, and click on them just fine, but if i go to the press keys... box and enter any information, or try to press remove on an existing hotkey it suffers an application error with the whole an error has occurred and the application will now close.

so i've never made it as far as hitting assign,

and it seems to happen on the first key press, i.e if i want to give something a hotkey of say shift+b or something like that where it's 2 keys in tandem, the shift will appear in the box but will suffer the error before displaying the b, so it happens almost immediately.

happens on a clean install and happens even after uninstalling every autodesk thing i have (save for autodesk genuine service which has to self uninstall as far as i can tell).

and as far as i can tell the scripts i tried out also are uninstalled/deleted as none appear under actions anymore, so functionally it should be a fresh version of the demo i'm working with, creating all new folders and directories etc. so not sure what's getting it's wire crossed.

Re: 3Ds Max 2025 Demo - consistent crashing when trying to use hotkey editor.

wojciech_gurycz — Sat, 20 Apr 2024 16:51:05 GMT

So this is absolutely not an issue related to any scripts or plugins, exactly the same thing happens on a fresh new install of 3ds Max 2025, on a completely new machine. It's just bizarre that this is not a more widespread thing, either ppl don't customise their hotkeys or nobody uses Max anymore 😛 It's ok if it won't work we always have a plan B.

Re: 3Ds Max 2025 Demo - consistent crashing when trying to use hotkey editor.

tpeack95msn — Sat, 20 Apr 2024 17:04:42 GMT

thanks for checking,

are you using 2025 or the 2025 demo?, for me it's the demo at the moment but if it's present in the purchased version as well that's kinda worrying.

Re: 3Ds Max 2025 Demo - consistent crashing when trying to use hotkey editor.

wojciech_gurycz — Sat, 20 Apr 2024 17:31:03 GMT

I tried both the Full version and a Trial one. One thing that works around is if I load my config from Max 2024. But it does not fix crashing when you try to do any new hotkey customisations.