Max 2024 crashes often - which cache files can I delete and where?

[Alexx31]

Hello,

I have since yesterday frequently hard crashes with 3dsMax, which was not happening before.

Which preferences can I delete without loosing my custom UI and scripts etc.?

I guess there are some unimportant files, which wouldn't cause reinstallation work when I delete them.

Thanks

[RobH2]

Go find your ENU folder and back it up. I just rename it. Then start Max. It will build a new one. See if Max is stable. If so, then there is likely a script that is causing issues and you know it's not caches somewhere. It's not uncommon for a 3rd party script found on the web to cause crashes. 

If the new ENU solves the crashes, you can then get back about 95% of your customizations if you do it properly. Search the forum for ENU reset and you'll find some info. I even have a post with my method that I use each year with a new Max release. I believe there is a new feature in Max 2024 that tries to handle some of it but I haven't used it. You'll have to do some research and digging. 

[Alexx31]

Thanks for reply.

And in case I would like to delete caches: Are there Caches and where? 
Because deleting caches would be the most obvious method.

Sometimes I have the feeling, that after restarting the computer it is
more stable.

[10DSpace · Accepted solution]

@Alexx31 

The only user accessible "cache"  (i.e., memory) I know of can be freed up are with the following maxscript commands:

gc() --Garbage Collection

freescenebitmaps() -- Cleans up texture memory

clearUndoBuffer() -- Removes your Undo’s

These can be run separately in the max listener (maybe you don't want to clear your undo's for example but are Ok with freeing up the other 2).   I don't think there is a downside to using gc() at any time and scripters in the programming community often include it in their scripts.    Or you could combine them in a single macroscript.

macroScript FreeMemory
	category:"DragAndDrop"
	toolTip:""
	
(--Begin Macro
	
gc()
freescenebitmaps()
clearUndoBuffer()	
	
	
)--End Macro

[RobH2]

That's some handy code above to have. Thanks for that and I'll use it myself. 

Also, you can go to the 'Configure User and System Paths' panel and see where the Page File, Temp and Hardware Shaders Cache is and change it if you want.  See the attachment. 

But, I will tell you this. I've been using Max for 29-years and I've had all kinds of crashes, issues, malfunctions, problems, etc., and I can't think of a single situation where clearing the cache, or any cache, solved anything. For whatever reason, and I think it's a good one, Max's cache and temp files just don't affect it and cause it to malfunction like might happen in other software, from my perspective anyway. 

[10DSpace]

@RobH2 

In general, I also cannot say with any certainty that these particular script commands have done anything dramatic like solve a specific problem for me or had an impact on viewport performance.   They might (probably) just be a drop in the bucket vs Windows management of memory on powerful machines in 95% of use cases.  (I am not sure about less powerful machines and graphic cards however.)   But I agree with you based on the crashes that @Alexx31 was describing, it seems really doubtful that these maxscript commands would be the solution.   But I was responding to the specific question about any caches that could be purged.  

But in the context of using Arnold as a renderer there is a circumstance in which flushing the texture cache actually did solve a problem.   So even though it is a bit off topic since @Alexx31  posts were not in relation to rendering, for completeness I will mention that in the Arnold Menu there are also options to flush caches for Textures, SkyDome Lights, Quad Lights & All.    In previous versions of Arnold,  Flushing the texture cache allowed Arnold to update scene texture maps when for example exported texture maps from Substance Painter for scene objects were changed and re-exported after an initial render.  If you didn't flush the texture cache, Arnold would keep rendering the same texture that was available at the first render.  Hence the availability of these Arnold menu items.   Unfortunately, in the latest version of Arnold this no longer works (how's that for irony).   For more details, if interested see the following thread:

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/arnold-for-3ds-max/flushing-texture-cache-no-longer-works-when-updati...

[darawork]

Continuing along the lines of cache locations, not that it sounds like these are the problem but...
C:\Users\*username*\AppData\Local\Autodesk\3dsMax\2024 - 64bit\ENU\en-US\plugcfg\corona\drDump
Is the location for Corona Distributed Rendering Cache. I noticed recently that I had 84gb of Cache Data in there, perhaps from cancelled or crashed out Corona Distributed Render processes. It was making loading up Max really slow.
Not knowing which rendering engine the OP is using, or when the crashes are occuring leads to speculatory replies such as these.

Regards,