Wrong colors after loading 3sdMAX2016 Custom UI Scheme into 3dsMAX 2017

[3d-labor]

Hello everyone,

lots of you had trouble with the new icons and colors of MAX 2017. The Icon problem is widely discussed and solved I think.

Another weird problem is the correct translation of the colors from a UI Scheme saved in 2016 for re-use in 2017.

What I found is, that the format of the *.clrx file produced by MAX 2016 is another format in MAX2017. The *.clrx of MAX2016 uses the following string for a color description (for example):

"ColorRef="12237498"" where the number seems to be a number between "0" for black and "16777216" for white (256x256x256 Colors)

In MAX 2017 the *.clrx file the color has the format:

"value="#3f3f3f", in HEX format where #000000 is black and #ffffff is white.

Additional the entries in the new clrx are sorted in categories. And in MAX 2017 you have only "General UI Colors" in the "Customize User Interface--->Colors" dialog while in MAX2016 there is a pull down list with 3 schemes "Use Standard Windows Colors", "Custom Colors" and Use Windows Theme".

File clrx-Formats shows the difference between 2016 and 2017.

File UI 2016.jpg is my UI from 2016

File UI_2017.jpg is the UI after importing the settings from 2016.

As you can see: there are some wrong translations of the colors.

Has anybody the same problem and solved it? I tried to import my 2016 settings after installation of Update 1 for MAX 2017. May be, that I´m late and the change of the file format was between MAX 2017 and MAX 2017.1 so that most users dont have this problem. Now I will try to restore my color scheme "by hand" with the colors customization dialog.

Holger

[3d-labor]

Hello everyone,

lots of you had trouble with the new icons and colors of MAX 2017. The Icon problem is widely discussed and solved I think.

Another weird problem is the correct translation of the colors from a UI Scheme saved in 2016 for re-use in 2017.

What I found is, that the format of the *.clrx file produced by MAX 2016 is another format in MAX2017. The *.clrx of MAX2016 uses the following string for a color description (for example):

"ColorRef="12237498"" where the number seems to be a number between "0" for black and "16777216" for white (256x256x256 Colors)

In MAX 2017 the *.clrx file the color has the format:

"value="#3f3f3f", in HEX format where #000000 is black and #ffffff is white.

Additional the entries in the new clrx are sorted in categories. And in MAX 2017 you have only "General UI Colors" in the "Customize User Interface--->Colors" dialog while in MAX2016 there is a pull down list with 3 schemes "Use Standard Windows Colors", "Custom Colors" and Use Windows Theme".

File clrx-Formats shows the difference between 2016 and 2017.

File UI 2016.jpg is my UI from 2016

File UI_2017.jpg is the UI after importing the settings from 2016.

As you can see: there are some wrong translations of the colors.

Has anybody the same problem and solved it? I tried to import my 2016 settings after installation of Update 1 for MAX 2017. May be, that I´m late and the change of the file format was between MAX 2017 and MAX 2017.1 so that most users dont have this problem. Now I will try to restore my color scheme "by hand" with the colors customization dialog.

Holger

[Alfred.DeFlaminis · Accepted solution]

Hello @3d-labor,

I do see where the color format changed to hex color palette.  In 2017 a switch was made to QT to support higher DPI monitors and the differences in the color value methods are likely a result of that.  I have logged a few issues where one of the values wasn't working correctly and it may be that some of those value are causing your problem here.  

It seems to be primarily the "Background Odd" color that is wrong here, is that about right?   The black buttons should be solved by restarting Max, but if that fails resetting the UI to dark or light should do it, but then we're right back where we started.  Are there specific colors that aren't translating?  I'd be happy to log it into the tracker.  Thanks for any additional information.

Best Regards,

[3d-labor]

Hello Alfred,

thank you for the answer. This is an explanation I can live with. A support member from Germany told me, that the possibility to store color values of the UI is intentionally for backup and restore it inside a certain version, only for MAX 2017 for example. But this would be not in the interest of the user, who tries to use his adjustments for the new version. As I said in another post: In AutoCAD 2017 it is only one click during the first start to take over all adjustments and custumisations - and it works!

[Alfred.DeFlaminis]

Hello @3d-labor,

Tarek may be right about that, but my experience with other versions was that I could load the UI colors in many cases.  There came a time around Max 9 where I stopped making my own colors because I was teaching classes in Max and needed my screenshots to be consistent.  However there have been a few versions where loading the UI colors failed on me, so it may be that whenever the UI is updated (max 8, 2017, etc.) that this problem may arise.  

In the meanwhile I have logged the UI color issues that I have come across.  If you'd like to post your .crlx file I'd be happy to look further and add that information to the tracker.  Thank you for taking the time to let me know about this, I appreciate your community minded nature. 

Best Regards,