Max freezes when the layer editor is open and you have a large number of objects selected

[matt.tyree]

I've noticed that for the last year or more, having the layer editor open and trying to make a large selection causes max to freeze for a really long time, sometimes it won't come back even after waiting for hours.

I have to be very careful when I try to select things.  If it's more than just a few objects at once, I have to make sure the layer editor is closed first.  Even trying to close the layer editor after making a large selection will cause it to freeze for a long time.

Or if I have the layer editor open and happen to pick a grouped object with lots of objects within, that will freeze max too.

Has anyone else experienced this?  Currently I am using selection sets as a pseudo layer system in cases where I need a large number of things selected at once.

Please advise.

[matt.tyree]

UPDATE: it seems to be related to instances.  I had a complex scene with hundreds of instanced objects and it would freeze when I had a selection of them and opened the layer editor.  But after making all objects unique, the layer editor no longer freezes when lots of objects are selected.

[Diffus3d]

Interesting.  How big is the stack on these objects?  Are these really high poly objects?  

Best Regards,

[matt.tyree]

Dear Diffus3d,

No, it will happen even on something simple. It seems to be caused by
having a lot of instanced geometry. As a test, I created an array of
instanced cylinders, 72 polys each.

At low numbers it's not an issue, but when I make a square array of 50 x 50
instanced cylinders (2500 total), the slowdown starts to happen.

If I have the layer editor open and I try to select some or all of them,
max will freeze.

In practice, we deal with a lot of different kinds of models and it's only
in the last year or so that I've noticed this problem. I've used max since
version 4 and we've never had an issue like this before.

As far as I can tell, poly count is not a factor. I repeated the above
test on cylinders of only 5 polys each, and it still happened.

Please advise.

Thanks,

Matt Tyree

[Diffus3d]

Hello @matt.tyree ,

I'm not sure how to advise here.  Does the problem persist if you tell the objects to display as box? 

One option might be to use the Selection Floater UI for selections for scenes with many objects. 

Best Regards,