3Ds Max files takes a long time to Open, Save, Autosave, and Close

[Anonymous]

Hi, 

We are facing a unique issue with most of the max files, as mentioned in the title it take a very long time to open, save, auto-save & close most of the files. Sample file attached. 

File details:
Version - Max 2017

Renderer- Corona 1.7

Machine- Dell Precision Tower 7810

File location - local server

Texture map location - local server

We have checked most of the solution available on the forum but none of them are able to resolve it. 

File contains nothing as we had to delete all the assets. But still it has same issues and the file size is also 55 MB.

Please Advice.

Regards,
Dhruv

[I_Megaman_i]

My guess it is a poorly written plugin or script youre using and its broken. I didnt have any errors about a missing plugin thats wierd, it took 11Gigs of my RAM to open your file, thats as if its loading or rendering resources that doesnt exist. Resaving ( created a bigger 800Mb file) and open the file also didnt help. I would install 3ds max withouth any 3d party apps. What is wrong with Arnold or any other factory raytracers? are they not good enough?

[Anonymous]

Hi Megaman,

Thank you for your response. 

We are using Corona as the render engine because at present it gives the best desired result for our requirements.

Still looking for a solution. 

Regards,
Dhruv

[electrotoast_old · Accepted solution]

Looking at the scene you have a TON of animation layers showing up in the dope sheet. Me and one of the devs are looking into if there's something really wrong, however I did find a bit of MAXScript that removed a bunch of crud and empty file size back to 250KB on ScriptSpot.

Please use at your own risk as we can't be responsible if it does something unexpected to your scene.

http://www.scriptspot.com/forums/3ds-max/scripts-wanted/clean-bloated-max-file

Check in the comments for the one Submitted by 3dwannab on Fri, 2014-12-05 17:15. titled Or (Clean Motion Clips, Layer Controls + Retimer Managers)

You can just run it as a MAXScript if you just copy from the 'if' to the second to last ')' that is after 'DO NOTHING'. Open Scripting > MAXScript Editor window. In that window go to File > New and paste the script in there. Hit Ctrl+A to select all, then Shift+Enter to Execute. You'll get a dialog to continue, click Yes and it'll take care of the rest. Then a success dialog at the end.

[Anonymous]

Thank you ElectroToast. This did the magic.

Regards,
Dhruv

[electrotoast_old]

While I didn't write the script, you're welcome. 🙂 I've had instances of this happen in the past. It can be difficult to hunt down every nook and cranny where things like that hide. Usual culprits can be UVWUnwrap has some maps stored in it even when it's not applied to an object or there material or maps in material slots in one or both of the material editors.

In the end, I'm glad it was able to work for you!

[Anonymous]

Hi - this is the fix, its the proxy under internet setting:

[Anonymous]

Funny as it sounds... but I have found that when "High Quality" is set in the viewport it takes ten times longer to save then when "Standard" is selected.  Just thought I would put it out there since no one has mentioned it.  Seems odd that it affects the time needed to save a file...perhaps it does a refresh or something?

[RobH2]

@Anonymous

This is an interesting observation. Can you tell me what "High Quality" setting you are talking about? Is that a Windows setting, a video driver setting or a Max setting? I want to test it.

[RobH2]

I tested the script at Scriptspot that @electrotoast_old shared. In Max 2020 the three files I tested all grew 3X.  That's quite the opposite of what I expected. I think this script could be very helpful but in my test it made matter worse for some reason. 

[Anonymous]

Hi Rob.

Sorry if I wasn't clear.  There is an onscreen UI in the top left of every viewport (third option over).  Here you can change the display quality of your scene.  By default it is set to STANDARD.  If you switch it to HIGH QUALITY by clicking on STANDARD, and without changing the settings, you might notice what I see when you try saving the file or when it autobacks your file.

[RobH2]

Thanks for clarifying that. Yes, I know that setting. 

I tested it on a 212mb file (so it would take some time to save) and in all three settings, High Quality, Standard and Performance, the file saved in approximately 6.2 seconds almost to the 10th for each. 

I'll keep an eye on this now and see if I see any changes. It's good to be aware of. 

[Anonymous]

Yeah with the setting set to HIGH QUALITY...it doesn't happen with every file I work on.  But in the cases it did, I can only imagine it happens in combination with something specific to the scene.  If I ever figure out what that something is I will let you know 🙂  In this case...setting it back to STANDARD gives you normal save times.

[Anonymous]

This just started to happen with me.  My toolbar suddenly disappeared.  While trying to reset the UI, I suddenly couldnt get Max to start.  Later, like a day later, I found that if you rename ENU to another name, the system reconfigures to factory fresh settings, and it worked.  Max started.  All my tons of keyboard settings were lost, but I had Max back.  But something else happened.  Saving a file that took several seconds, now takes 42 seconds...  (42 revolutions of the Windows 7 ring).  Sometimes more.

I have tried saving to a different SSD drive.  I save these to C drive which is a Samsung 840 SSD.  The other is as well.  Same save time.  I have tried so many different things to see if I can get the speed back to normal.  Nothing worked.  The SSD isnt near full, and it was behaving up till I lost my toolbar when trying to get a Addon to show up.  (XPlane SDK).

I hope I can find out why this is happening.  Can you guys imagine waiting 1 minute to save a file?  How many saves a day do you make?  Multiply that by minutes.  Not good...   😞    Bad on blood pressure... 

[AntonyBK]

Hey,

I'm experiencing this problem as well.

I've noticed it happens on files that have used .3DS imports from sketchup files.

If I import using the 2014 .skp then the time to save is normal but with the .3ds imported it takes up to 15 minutes to save the same file.

I have also tried to open old projects that used .3ds sketchup imports and am experiencing problems I never had at the time (when i was using Max 2021).

I thought I'd share this as it might help.

It's a weird problem and find it somewhat frustrating that autodesk simply refer to quite obvious solutions when this problem is unique and strange.

Anyway, let me know if you work anything out.

Antony

[RobH2]

If you renamed your ENU and kept it, you can recover all those settings. I have a post somewhere here on the forum that goes into detail about how to preserve as much as possible during an ENU reset.

What I've done in your case when I had less experience resetting it and I'd lose everything, was to get it all setup again with all my customizations. I'd get all my plugins, shortcuts and menu tweaks just right. Then while I still knew it was healthy, I'd save that as 'ENU_Known GOOD_All Settings_[DATE]' . Back that up somewhere safe. Then, if things tanked again, I'd load that 'Known Good' ENU and I'd at least have my base settings back. Of course, any tweaks since that last Known Good date will be gone, but I'd have 90% of everything back.

And, if I install any 3rd party plugins, before I do so, I make a duplicate of my current ENU and name it something like, "ENU_Before Installing xyz plugin". Then if I found the plugin screwed things up, I could revert easily and no harm done.

By using the steps above, I'm rarely rebuilding my workspace and I can port it forward with new Max releases. Find my post as it tells about that more too.