Select by Material - Broken

[neilTEQYD]

Hi,

I have been using 3ds Max 2025 and V-Ray for my usual texturing and rendering. I downloaded 3ds max 2026 last week. I am facing an issue whereby when I select a material in the material in the material editor, right click, then "select by material" nothing is selected.

I have tried opening other existing models I have produced, that have previously worked fine with this workflow, however when selecting by material, it keeps selecting a single random object that does not have the sampled material applied. 

This is affecting my workflow, as I solely use the "select by material" to quickly change materials etc.

Please help, Thanks

[calberto.cart]

This is happening to me with Corona & Vray too

[ads_delesdr]

Unfortunately, an update to a Vault/ DevExpress component broke this functionality in the Scene Explorer code. This also affects a couple of other functionalities such as Select By Name in XRef Objects and Unhide By Name. 😢 It will need to be addressed in an update.

[Hadrien_Ha]

Hi, I can confirm this feature is broken, happens to me with Corona and standard Physical Materials. It has ruined a few hours of my life trying to guess what was wrong with me or my models. I hope this bug gets fixed, it's really annoying.

[BjörnRadler3814]

So when can we expect to get this fixed, since this a crucial issue.

Cheers

[MartinBeh]

Here is a workaround using MAXScript:

1. Select the object carrying the material you are interested in
2. Run this MAXScript code:
   ref = selection[1]; select (for o in objects where o.material == ref.material collect o)

You can turn that code into a macroscript if you like by simple drag-and-drop'ing it into a toolbar, for example.

[MartinBeh]

Or:

(based on a function from https://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/sme-get-selected-materials) - this code will work on the selected material(s) in SME:

function SMEGetSelMats = (    
	viewNode = sme.GetView sme.activeView
	smeSelMats = #()
	sav = trackViewNodes[#sme][sme.activeView]
	if sav!=undefined then (
		for n = 1 to sav.numSubs do (
			m = sav[n].reference
			b = viewNode.GetNodeByRef m
			if b.selected do append smeSelMats m
		)
	)
	smeSelMats
)

selMats = SMEGetSelMats()
select (for o in objects where (findItem selMats o.material)!=0 collect o)

[ads_delesdr]

This issue is fixed in the 3ds Max 2026.1 Update that was just released today.

[calberto.cart]

Big thanks!!!!

I was hoping to see that in the Release Notes but it doesnt say anything about this, only for Assign material with SME button

[wernienst]

Well, not completely.

I have 4 boxes. If I assign Mat1 to Box1 and Box3, then choose Select by Material Mat1, Box1 and Box2 are highlighted in the Select Objects Window. However, clicking on Select selects Box1 and Box3 correctly.