Share your favorite tips, tricks, workflows, and secrets in 3ds Max.

[Alfred.DeFlaminis]

Hello Everyone!

I wanted to make a thread about sharing your favorite tips, tricks, or secrets found within 3ds Max.  From awesome hotkey combos to those really essential tools that everyone may not know about, this is the place to share!  I've started the ball rolling below with some really cool tidbits on the particle flow presets that people may not be aware of.  

Please, share yours too! 

Best Regards,

[Waseem_Dabbas]

I tried all of what you said but they all didn't work with me! which 3ds max version are you using?

[Swordslayer]

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@Waseem_Dabbas wrote:

I tried all of what you said but they all didn't work with me! which 3ds max version are you using?

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It's a spam account/post (see the unrelated link at the end) with the content copied from some rhino tips&tricks blogpost.

[Anonymous]

Here I thought I'd share two cute examples of "Video Greeting Cards" for free re-use.  Pick them apart for examples of some cloth, forces and simulation techniques.

The first zip has a .max example of greeting using TextPlus, Animation, Renderable control, and use of Cloth and mCloth to simulate balloons, streamers, and candle flames.  See the menu: File -> "File Properties" on how to edit in someone's name, and pre-render cloth simulate and Bake mCloth (MassFX) prior to rendering.

The second zip is simpler, having fixed balloon-like TextPlus letters that flutter around.  The rendering on this is set to be only 60 frames, and I then submit to an animated GIF conversion to text to people as a greeting.   Just be sure to go to the TextPlus object mCloth and do a "Live Drag" to capture an initial state, and then "Bake" the object (mCloth) before rendering.

[Anonymous]

I have found this following Maxscript useful; to find all of the "lowest" (least Z) vertices of a selected mCloth object, and Preserve them.   One could vary this for other purposes.

try (
print ($.mCloth) 
getNumVerts $
minz = 31000
minzAlmost = 31000
minzUp = 31000
maxz = -32000
for v = 1 to getNumVerts $ do --loop through all vertices
(
	vert = getVert $ v --get the v-th vertex
	--print(vert.z as string) 
	if ( vert.z < minz ) then (
		minzAlmost = minz
		minz = vert.z
	)
	if ( vert.z > maxz ) then maxz = vert.z
)
"minz="+(minz as string)
"minzAlmost="+(minzAlmost as string)
"maxz="+(maxz as string)

-- get a list of all minz vertices
bottomVerts=#() 
bottomVertsBitArray=#{} 
for v = 1 to getNumVerts $ do --loop through all vertices
(
	vert = getVert $ v --get the v-th vertex
	if ( vert.z == minz ) then (
		append bottomVerts vert
		append bottomVertsBitArray v
	)
)
print ( bottomVerts.count )
print ( bottomVertsBitArray.count )
groupName = $.name + "_presrv"
$.mCloth.makePointGroup bottomVertsBitArray groupName
$.mCloth.makeConstraint groupName "Preserve" $
) catch (
	"you did not select an mCloth object"
)

[Anonymous]

My most effective hassle with that is that It does now not recognize my home windows localisation settings. I cannot use comma like I do everywhere else.

[Swordslayer]

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@Anonymous wrote:

In an editable poly and in the edit poly modifier, if you select a face and want to select the whole ring or loop of faces, shift + clicking on a face next to the one selected will select the whole ring or loop. 

---

Only up to max 2021, in 2021 it was changed to prevent ambiguity when trying to select loops like this:

You also couldn't deselect the loop this way. Now it's CTRL+doubleclick when selecting face and face directly adjacent to it to select the loop or ALT+the same when deselecting loop. Shift is for point-to-point selection instead. Clicking non-adjacent second polygon will select/deselect partial face loop.

[darawork]

Hi all, I've been using this script a lot now for when importing Revit or SketchUp models into 3DSMax;

https://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/attach-mesh-by-material

It covers a sweetspot between 3DSMaxs 'Collapse Stack' (Under the Utilities Tab on the end tab of the Create Panel) and STR Tools detach/attach multiple ( https://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/strtools )

It's envoked by first having a selection. Then loading the script via the 'Scripting Menu' or dragging at dropping it into a scene, and making a button on a toolbar.

It works most preferably on 'Ungrouped' scenes, where a lot of items are grouped together unnecessarily. Grouping slows down rendering time, scene loading time, disk resources at rendering time. Max likes a simple object table.
It works faster when it doesn't have to search inside groups, or determine how many objects in the scene have the same UVW mapping, per hundreds of items when it could only be one element all with the same material. It's pointless having a scene with 75,000,000 polygons, in seperate groups, inside subgroups. Etc. When you're only using 15 or so materials. Why not just have 15 layers, instead?

I'm using it in 3DSMax 2020 and 2022, and it still works fast. It takes about a second to join up 100,000 polygons into "Attached" single items of the same material. Much faster than STR Tools 'sAttach' or detach. Using this on models, live file links or Xreref'd scenes this is invaluble. It rarely messes up. Sometimes it misses one link on a MultiMap Material, but it's easily fixed afterwards. Much faster than attaching objects of the same material manually anyways.

A very underrated script: https://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/attach-mesh-by-material

*It also makes rendering a lot quicker, loading times quicker, Active-View Viewport starting up a lot quicker, Rendering 'Pharsing Scene' loading message dissappears a lot quicker, Orbit Zoom and Pan a lot quicker. FPS boost.

Best Regards,

[darawork]

https://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/3-point-align

So easy. So much nicer than Maxs Version. Very easy to use. And doesn't flip all your normals backwards. 

Regards, 

[trevillaengineering]

All the tips shared in this thread are amazing. And easy to implement.

[darawork]

Hi,

Just a few very simple ones I discovered recently:

[Shift]+[S]: Hide Shapes Toggle

[Shift]+[G]: Hide Geometry Toggle

[Shift]+[L]: Hide Lights Toggle
[Shift]+[P]: Hide Particle Systems Toggle

You can add mode toggles, but I'm currently using them for other custom shortcuts; Cameras, Frozen Objects, Helpers and Space Warps.

Regards,

[keveinparkar]

All the information share in this artical are amazing.

[darawork]

Just adding a few Shortcuts;

I like to use groups in 3DSMax, although I gernerally ungroup everything before rendering.
"Groups, inside Groups, Inside Groups", can be very inefficient. 3DSMax has to use extra cpu and ram.

But these are great Keyboard shortcuts to set up:

Regards,

[Waseem_Dabbas]

What is the purpose of degroup before Rendering?

[darawork]

Hi,

Interesting link here:

https://garagefarm.net/blog/how-to-render-better-and-faster-in-3ds-max

It's something I have started doing a lot; I completely get rid of all groups, and attach all similar objects by material ID instead. I also collapse everything in the scene before it comes to rendering (be careful doing this bit, if you need to go back to a complex object so as to modify it more). It makes the viewport a lot quicker, and I've noticed RAM usage is lighter and pre-compute render times faster too. 😉

Regards,

[darawork]

Hi,

Continuing this thread:

This is probably the best script I've found in years. So handy.
I have literally spent years of my life adding UWV mapping Modifiers.

This code compretely negates the need to go menu diving each time, even with modifer favourite tiles configured. Add UVW Box Mapping to Selected Object, at a scale specified:

(
			UvwRws = Uvwmap()
			UvwRwsObjs = selection as array
			for i = 1 to UvwRwsObjs.count do
					(
						addModifier UvwRwsObjs[i] (UvwRws)
							UvwRwsObjs[i].modifiers[#UVW_Map].maptype = 4
							UvwRwsObjs[i].modifiers[#UVW_Map].realWorldMapSize = on
							UvwRwsObjs[i].modifiers[#UVW_Map].utile = 1
							UvwRwsObjs[i].modifiers[#UVW_Map].vtile = 1
							UvwRwsObjs[i].modifiers[#UVW_Map].length = 1
							UvwRwsObjs[i].modifiers[#UVW_Map].width = 1
							UvwRwsObjs[i].modifiers[#UVW_Map].height = 1
							print UvwRwsObjs[i].name 
					)
		)

The last few lines are pretty self explanatory;  "Maptype=4" will be fourth item down the modifer shape list, etc...

You can attach the script above to [ALT]+[B] HotKeys. ~~~~(They are currently assigned to 'Viewport Background').

Script source here:
https://gist.github.com/3dAsmol79/0143ba58398f2d2a6c60870190a3377e
Kudos to https://gist.github.com/3dAsmol79 🙂

Here's a simlar Maxscript file, but without the ability to activate 'Real World' Scaling.
https://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/uvw-box-mapping-adding

Regards,

[888b_dayy]

ok

[brand_maccus]

The Fire_Candle Flame Preset doesn't seem to do anything. Ironically that would be the one that I''m most interested in.

[darawork]

Hi,

Very simple tip/trick;

If you ever need to cancel a transformation command, mid command, like move/scale/rotate.... Keep your finger on the left mouse button, and briefly click the right mouse button with your other finger.
It's surprising the amount of people who don't know this, continue the command to completion and then press Undo or [CTRL]+[Z].
For instance; you go to move an object and accidentially select and start moving the wrong object... briefly press the right mouse button, while still holding down the left mouse button: The object will move back to its original point. Same with rotatate, scale etc.... It works with spinners, orbiting the viewport too, and probably a lot more stuff.

Regards,

[RobH2]

Quickly link the basic proceedural paramaters of one (standard primitive) object to other objects to drive them. 

One thing I love about Max is that I learn something new everyday, and surprisingly, things right in front of my face.

I just joined a webinar with Paul Neale and Hagen Deloss and aside from a host of new info, I learned this trick for quickly linking 'Standard Primitive' objects so that their parameters can drive each other without having to go to 'Wire Parameters' or something more involved.

I don't have a use for this yet, but I'm sure I'll find one. Just 'right-click' in the numbers of the 'Height/Width/Length' parameters of an object and there are a lot of things you can do. I'm embarassed to say that I don't think I've ever 'right-clicked' in the numbers panel, I just put numbers or equations in them. You can even drive a mix of parameters, for example, the 'Height' can drive the 'Width' of another object. This is so cool, I can't wait to find a time to use it and explore the other options in there for the first time in 30-years...lol... 

See the attached video for how it works and how easy it is. Thanks Paul...  🙂