topic Re: Select by Material - Broken in 3ds Max Forum

Select by Material - Broken

neilTEQYD — Mon, 28 Apr 2025 11:55:02 GMT

Hi,

I have been using 3ds Max 2025 and V-Ray for my usual texturing and rendering. I downloaded 3ds max 2026 last week. I am facing an issue whereby when I select a material in the material in the material editor, right click, then "select by material" nothing is selected.

I have tried opening other existing models I have produced, that have previously worked fine with this workflow, however when selecting by material, it keeps selecting a single random object that does not have the sampled material applied.

This is affecting my workflow, as I solely use the "select by material" to quickly change materials etc.

Please help, Thanks

Re: Select by Material - Broken

calberto.cart — Mon, 28 Apr 2025 15:27:23 GMT

This is happening to me with Corona & Vray too

Re: Select by Material - Broken

ads_delesdr — Fri, 02 May 2025 15:26:37 GMT

Unfortunately, an update to a Vault/ DevExpress component broke this functionality in the Scene Explorer code. This also affects a couple of other functionalities such as Select By Name in XRef Objects and Unhide By Name. 😢 It will need to be addressed in an update.

Re: Select by Material - Broken

Hadrien_Ha — Thu, 15 May 2025 13:57:05 GMT

Hi, I can confirm this feature is broken, happens to me with Corona and standard Physical Materials. It has ruined a few hours of my life trying to guess what was wrong with me or my models. I hope this bug gets fixed, it's really annoying.

Re: Select by Material - Broken

BjörnRadler3814 — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 06:57:01 GMT

So when can we expect to get this fixed, since this a crucial issue.

Cheers

Re: Select by Material - Broken

MartinBeh — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 11:33:11 GMT

Here is a workaround using MAXScript:

Select the object carrying the material you are interested in
Run this MAXScript code:
ref = selection[1]; select (for o in objects where o.material == ref.material collect o)

You can turn that code into a macroscript if you like by simple drag-and-drop'ing it into a toolbar, for example.

Re: Select by Material - Broken

MartinBeh — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 11:42:26 GMT

Or:

(based on a function from https://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/sme-get-selected-materials) - this code will work on the selected material(s) in SME:

function SMEGetSelMats = ( viewNode = sme.GetView sme.activeView smeSelMats = #() sav = trackViewNodes[#sme][sme.activeView] if sav!=undefined then ( for n = 1 to sav.numSubs do ( m = sav[n].reference b = viewNode.GetNodeByRef m if b.selected do append smeSelMats m ) ) smeSelMats ) selMats = SMEGetSelMats() select (for o in objects where (findItem selMats o.material)!=0 collect o)

Re: Select by Material - Broken

ads_delesdr — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 17:40:46 GMT

This issue is fixed in the 3ds Max 2026.1 Update that was just released today.

Re: Select by Material - Broken

calberto.cart — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 18:15:56 GMT

Big thanks!!!!

I was hoping to see that in the Release Notes but it doesnt say anything about this, only for Assign material with SME button

Re: Select by Material - Broken

wernienst — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 15:21:03 GMT

Well, not completely.

I have 4 boxes. If I assign Mat1 to Box1 and Box3, then choose Select by Material Mat1, Box1 and Box2 are highlighted in the Select Objects Window. However, clicking on Select selects Box1 and Box3 correctly.