Start up Error Dialog

[Ted_Hadden]

Hello Everyone,

Me again! 😛

When starting 3ds max everything goes along fine, the screen displays the viewports and everything, then I get an error dialog.

I have attached a jpg of the message.

I have no idea how to resolve this, or even what it means, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[Alfred.DeFlaminis]

Hi @Ted_Hadden!

I would love to help you with this problem about a startup error in 3ds Max regarding the civil view plugin.  I have a few questions I need to ask you to solve this issue, and thank you for taking the time to answer them.  First let me try to explain what this error message is and what is happening, as I understand it.  The CivilView plugin seems to be not able to find or properly read the maxscript file named "CivilViewStartup.ms".  It may be missing content, have been moved or uninstalled, or possibly corrupted.  As to how this happened, I am unsure, but I am confident that you and I can get this working.  

A few questions to help me diagnose this issue:

1) Which version of max are you on?  (Hard to tell from screenshot)

2) Did you recently activate civil view, or is this just totally random?

3) If you navigate to the folder referenced in the error, does that file exist there?  (If not, I can attach it to a post for you but I'd need to know the max version first to ensure it's the right one.)

4) Are there files inside the folder "C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\Civil View\201X"? (X being your max version)

Thank you for taking the time to answer those and best regards,

[Ted_Hadden]

Hello Mr. DeFlaminis,

Thanks for your reply,  I do have 3ds Max installed on other machines and it seems to function normally on them.  It's just this one laptop, if it is a matter of transferring a file to the proper folder I believe I can do that with what I have, thus saving you the need to have to upload anything. 😉

To answer your questions however ...

     1. I am using 2016 software across all my platforms.

     2. To be honest, If I have ever activated civil view it was probably completely by mistake.  (I still get carried away in 3ds Max crossing over from AutoCAD where I type in all my commands long hand on the keyboard ... and I still catch myself starting to hammer on the keyboard with Max, before realizing I'm not in AutoCAD.)  Oops.

    3.  I have navigated on the machine I get the error message on and it appears that whatever file it is seeking doesn't exist in the folder mentioned in the error.

    4.  There are other program folders, but no single file types in the referenced folder of the error message.

Thanks for  your time, and if you can answer back I'd appreciate your time and help.

Respectfully,

Ted Hadden

[Alfred.DeFlaminis]

Hello @Ted_Hadden,

Thank you so much for looking at those items for me.  I wonder if the civil view was somehow not installed with that one version of max.  I went to attach the missing file but that entire folder is almost 600 MB, so I think that must be part of the problem and it's too big for me to attach here. I think we should try to reinstall the Civil View Plugin.  I have 3 methods here you might try.  They are in best -> least order.  

1) In the case that it was never installed:

The installer for Civil view specifically exists in the temporary folder that 3ds Max unpacked all the files to when it was first installed.  If by some chance that folder still exists for you, you'll find the Civil View plugin in this folder:  C:\Autodesk\Autodesk-3ds-Max-2016\x86\Components\CV.   Otherwise, you can redownload the package and just run that single installer.  

2) In the case it was installed and is somehow corrupted:

Here's how you can reinstall the Civil view for 3dsmax 2016. 

A) Go to Windows Button-> Control Panel -> Programs and Features  (in windows 7, location may be slightly different in win 10)

B) Select "Autodesk Civil View for 3ds Max 2016 64-bit" and select the "Repair" button.  

C) Select "Repair" for the installation for the plugin.  

3) You may be able to simply copy the contents of your ProgramData folder from one of your other machines, but you'd also have to make sure to get any script/plugin folders too.  This has a high chance of more problems cropping up, so I don't recommend it.  But for customers in Australia or other countries with per MB download rules on ISPs, it's worth listing as an option just in case.  You'll also have to make sure to grab the folders called "CivilView" and "CivilViewIO" from the 3dsmax/stdplugs folder.  

Please let me know if you have any problems and thank you very much for your time.  If any of the solutions work, please let me know which one was the effective one and mark this post as "Accepted Solution" so that future users with your problem can be similarly helped.  Thanks again!

Best Regards,

[Ted_Hadden]

Hello again Mr. DeFlaminis,

Sadly I have to report that option 1 (up to a point,) was unsuccessful as the temp file doesn't appear to exist yet on my machine with the problems.  And as for option 2, doing the repair thing didn't seem to produce results either.   And as you have mentioned, and I fear is likely the case, just copying from one machine to another, 600 megs of information, while doable, is as you said tricky, as AutoDESK, has a tendency to bury information in a multitude of various places within the operating system substructure.

I think the only option may be to attempt to re-download the installation and see if I can select civil view as a separate install.   I haven't had time to attempt that as yet, I will update you when I have an opportunity.

Respectfully,

Ted Hadden

[Alfred.DeFlaminis]

Hello @Ted_Hadden,

I'm sorry to hear that.  I had hoped we could avoid having to go through that, but I think you are correct in that it's the logical next step.  Please keep me posted and I will do anything I can to help if you continue to have problems.

Best Regards,

[Ted_Hadden]

Hello again Mr. DeFlaminis,

I am sorry to have to report that after several attempts to try to get 3DS MAX to locate and install just the civil application to the program, I have been very unsuccessful.

Is there any probability that I can have AutoDESK provide me with just this application as a separate install?

Otherwise, everything else with 3DS MAX is working great for me.  I'm making progress in my learning curve. 🙂

Thanks again, I look forward to a positive response about separating out the civil and emailing me a link or the package.

Respectfully,

Ted Hadden

[Alfred.DeFlaminis]

Hi @Ted_Hadden,

You are so polite!  Thank you for that.  

If you don't mind me asking, when you go to Control Panel -> Programs and Features does your list show this?  (probably not)

If not, then I think the key here will be to reinstall 3ds Max.  (I know that's not ideal, but we can then be sure that we have the plugin.) When you install 3ds Max, you'll see this button inside if you expand the 2016 menu.  (Yours won't say "already installed")

Would you mind trying this?  Thank you for your patience.

Best Regards,

[Ted_Hadden]

Hello Again Mr. DeFlaminis, I do indeed have Civil View listed as installed as you can see by the attachment below. I have also downloaded the Civil installer and attempted an install and probably did it all wrong, because when I started 3ds Max up after running it, I still get a plugin error message before 3ds Max allows me to access the work area. Why I say I installed wrong, is when I ran the MSI file it asked if I wanted to uninstall, repair, or modify. I chose repair if I remember correctly. I probably should have chose uninstall first and removed any previous attempts from my system before running the MSI. I haven't tried that as yet, I am going to wait till I get a verification from you that, that is how I should have proceeded. Otherwise, 3ds Max still works, I just won't be able to use the civil thing I guess ... I'm not even entirely sure what it is. 😉 Respectfully, Ted Hadden

[Ted_Hadden]

I apologize, I thought I had added the screen shot. And for some reason my formatting of my comment went bad too. Let me try again.

[Ted_Hadden]

Never mind. I got it to work.

[Alfred.DeFlaminis]

Hello @Ted_Hadden,

I'm glad that it worked out!  Was the key here to uninstall and then reinstall?  Thank you very much for the update! 

Best Regards,

[Ted_Hadden]

Mr. DeFlaminis,

I'm sorry but my comment above seems to have misled you.   My post about "getting it to work" was about the problem I was having in posting an attachment.

My problem with Civil still exists I'm sorry to have to report.  As I mentioned, I have not as yet, done an uninstall of the program, I merely did a repair with the link you provided, but that didn't seem to have worked as I still get the error message in the attachment to this message.

I did however in one session attempt to open the civil just to see if that would help.  On closing and reopening 3ds Max, I got the error in the attached message.

I guess my next attempt will be to remove / uninstall the civil application and try to reinstall it afresh from your download.

Again my apologies for my misleading you.

Respectfully,

Ted Hadden

[Alfred.DeFlaminis]

Hello @Ted_Hadden,

I think maybe I just misunderstood you, I am sorry for that.  I wonder, if you put this .ms file in the location in your screenshot, does it help at all?  

Thank you for being patient during my misunderstanding, and I'll keep at this until we solve it!  Thanks so much for your politeness.  

Best Regards,

[Ted_Hadden]

Hello Again Mr. DeFlaminis,

Thank you for the attachment.  I'll try it shortly.

However, I do have a question.

My install for 3ds Max is on my 😧 Drive.  I just checked my folder arrangement on 😧 and the path that the error message says it can not find is exactly what it needs to be on the 😧 drive where my install sits.   The difference here is that the file, 'civilviewstartup.ms' isn't in that location either.

Is there a way that I can direct my install to look in the 😧 drive instead of the default C: drive?  IF there is I think I might be better served, if the .MS file is put on my 😧 drive and not my C:

I look forward to your comments.

Respectfully,

Ted Hadden

[Alfred.DeFlaminis]

Hello @Ted_Hadden,

I see... strange that it's reporting the wrong path.  You should be able to put it into the 😧 path and it work out, but I'm starting to be concerned that the problem here is deeper than just placing a file.  (Let's try it though.)  I don't have a reason for the path there to be incorrect unless the path was somehow hard coded into the error message, which it might have been.

Did the CivilView.msi installer work for you?  (It needs a .cab file which I thought might still exist on your computer, but it may not.  It's too big to attach here but it's called CivilView.cab.)  

I think the best bet here if that doesn't work might be to reinstall 3ds max.  Or, If you have multiple machines, the two files you need are the installer I attached earlier and CivilView.cab for a full reinstall of Civil View. You might search all machines for those in case some kept the temp files around.  Make sure to uninstall it first.  Otherwise, I think just to be safe we should uninstall/re-install 3ds Max.  I know it's a pain to do, so I try to suggest it last.  Thank you for your patience and if you need anything I'll be here asap. 

Best Regards,

[Alfred.DeFlaminis]

Hello @Ted_Hadden,

I just wanted to follow up here, any progress on your issue?

Best Regards,

[Ted_Hadden]

Hello Mr. DeFlaminis,

I am sorry to report that I have not actually had time to sit down and attempt your suggestions at this time.  Workload and time and real life are sometimes fickle things. 🙂

As soon as I can find a break in the activity here, I'll apply the file and see what happens.

Currently, however, when I select the Civil View tool bar, here is what I get for all 3 selections from the drop down.  (Please see attachments.)

Thanks for your patience in dealing with this.

Respectfully,

Ted Hadden

[Alfred.DeFlaminis]

Hello @Ted_Hadden,

You are the model of politeness and cordiality.  Thank you.  

You don't have to apologize to me, I just didn't want you to think that I had forgotten about you or your issue.  Those screen shots do help a lot, it tells me two things.  

1) Civil was at one point installed and it was activated.

2) It's no longer actually *in* the installed location.  

But no rush and I wasn't trying to be pushy.  Thank you so much for the update and best of luck on your project.

Best Regards,

[Ted_Hadden]

Mr. DeFlaminis,

Bah! I'm no model of politeness.   Just that I've been around long enough to know that you get more bees with honey than you do with ... well you know.

In the mean time, and I may need to apologize here .... but I have attached a screen shot of my 3ds Max install on my 😧 drive.  Currently it would appear that all other standard operations and plugins and etc., work fine from this location.   It is just Civil View that is giving me fits.

As you can see from the screen shot, I have all the required files for civil view on my 😧 drive and in their proper location, and yet for whatever reason 3ds Max insists that I need to check the C: drive.  ??!!?? 

Truth be known, if I understand my quick cursory investigation into what Civil View is ... it appears that I, being a mechanical / machine designer, and someone who will most likely never dabble in highway construction as a career feature ... I may not need the plugin.

However, somewhere, possibly the registry or some lost files somewhere, sits a files that tells Max to display this message.   I took some time yesterday to open and read practically every line in the code of the startup to see if perhaps there was a directive telling Max to go to C: ... blah blah blah ... but for my cursory investigation, I did not find anything such command.

Can you get your hands on a Registry expert at AutoDESK and have him pinpoint where Max might have tucked this instruction away?  And is it possible to edit it via REGEDIT?

Thanks again.

Respectfully,

Ted Hadden