Max 2019.2 update - Exclude lists crash Max

[office]

Does anybody else have this problem? If you have objects in the scene (make sure the scene is not empty) and start typing in the object name field in any Exclude list, Max crashes without an error report window showing up and without generating a crash dump file. I just tested this on another PC which doesn't have any updates applied to Max 2019 (so version 2019.0) and there's no such bug there. This means that the bug was introduced in the recent .2 update of Max "2019.

Reproduction steps:

1. Install The .2 update to Max 2019
2. Start Max 2019.2 and create some planes/boxes/spheres/etc and one Target Direct light.
3. Select the Target Direct light and click the Exclude... button to open the Exclude window
4. Start typing anything. It might take a few seconds before Max hangs or crashes so keep typing and adding spaces if necessary
5. Max hangs for ~10 seconds and then crashes to desktop without a bug report window and without generating a .dmp file.

Can anybody confirm?

[brentscannell]

Hi @office

I can confirm this behavior in 2019.2, I'll reach out to the appropriate development team and make sure it's logged, and see if we can figure out a workaround. Sorry about the inconvenience this may have caused you, but thanks for letting us know!

[office]

Thanks for confirming. You'd think that updates would be tested in a production-like environment for a day or two before rolling out, but maybe that's just my common sense. Unfortunately I'll have to revert back to 2018/2016 until this is fixed as I often work with Exclude lists.

[jandrewg]

I'm glad that you are seeing it over there as well also if the dialog does not yield a crash anything typed will result in all objects in scene being selected. A possible related bug that we have found is that in the same include exclude dialog the option for selection sets doesn't work either.  

[office]

Any news on this bug? Is it going to be fixed for update .3? Also, when can we expect .3 to come out? I find it unacceptable that I paid for a product that I still can't use for over 6 months because of a serious bug like this one.

[brentscannell]

Hi @office

The development team has validated a fix and it's schedule to go into an update. I can't discuss dates or anything like that, but you're free to make some guesses based on our previous update release history.

Alternatively, feel free to jump onto our beta program and help us validate the fix:

https://beta.autodesk.com/key/3dsMaxBetaApplication

[office]

That's sad. I shouldn't be guessing or testing anything. I'm paying thousands of euros every year (with the maintenance price increasing by double digit percents every year for no good reason!) and you're telling me I should be testing your software for you?

[brentscannell]

I don't mean to say that you need to test our software for us, we have team of passionate QAs who spend considerable effort every release trying to make sure we get everything. The unfortunately truth is that with a product as big as 3ds Max, testing every aspect takes a very long time and we have to balance that with our desire to push known working fixes and improvements out to you guys on a regular basis. Joining beta gets you access to the fixes you're looking for sooner, while helping us cover more areas of the product than we could alone.

[office]

Just wanted to let you know that I downloaded Update .3 and it looks like this bug has now been fixed!

[brentscannell]

I'm very happy to hear that! The availability of the update should be coming online progressively today, and our blog post just went live a few minutes ago (https://area.autodesk.com/blogs/the-3ds-max-blog/3ds-max-20193-updates/) This topic was on my hit list to come update, but it looks like you beat me to it 🙂