topic Batch Collect Thumbnails - 3ds Max in 3ds Max Forum

Batch Collect Thumbnails - 3ds Max

nic190 — Fri, 21 Nov 2025 20:31:01 GMT

Hi, hope to find a solution to this problem,

would it be possible to extract the thumbnail preview of the .max file that i see in windows explorer? I'm zipping a lot of old files and it would be great to collect all the previews as i can't see them inside winrar. Automating the process is also a must as i don't want to screenshot every single preview.

Thank you

This post has been edited due to: @heather_tracy added the product to the title to help more users find this topic via external search.

Re: Batch Collect Thumbnails

MartinBeh — Fri, 21 Nov 2025 13:51:08 GMT

This tool https://thumbcacheviewer.github.io/ might be able to help you. Look in %LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer for the tumbnail caches.

Also, there seems to be a free MAXScript utility for this available at https://miauu-maxscript.com/portfolio-item/miauu-get-external-max-file-properties-thumbnail-generator/

Re: Batch Collect Thumbnails - 3ds Max

nic190 — Mon, 24 Nov 2025 09:26:08 GMT

Thanks for the insight. The script seems cool but unfortunately is supported until max 23

Re: Batch Collect Thumbnails - 3ds Max

MartinBeh — Mon, 24 Nov 2025 09:36:50 GMT

Have you tried it? There is a good chance it will also work for newer versions of 3ds Max.

Re: Batch Collect Thumbnails - 3ds Max

nic190 — Wed, 26 Nov 2025 08:55:38 GMT

Yes i tried, it doesn't install unfortunately

Re: Batch Collect Thumbnails - 3ds Max

MartinBeh — Wed, 26 Nov 2025 08:59:42 GMT

And which version do you need it for?

Re: Batch Collect Thumbnails - 3ds Max

nic190 — Wed, 26 Nov 2025 15:43:18 GMT

I'm on Max24

Re: Batch Collect Thumbnails - 3ds Max

A娘 — Wed, 26 Nov 2025 17:46:08 GMT

.max file is a compound document file , just like old version .doc , if you have some programming experience , it's easy to export thumbnail from file direct

the thumbnail info was saved in the stream named "\u0005SummaryInformation" , you can get the stream with open source dll , such as I use c# , with openmcdf , I can access .max file without the knowledge about compound document

when get stream , check is there 0xFFFFFFFF at 1st 0x200 data , if no , there is no thumbnail saved in file , if yes , after 0xFFFFFFFF , the 7 and 8 bytes means width and next 2 means height , then from the 99 byte to end without last 6 bytes means the thumbnail data , parse them as rgb you will get the thumbnail image (you should set a = 255 if need)