OS native dialog

[sean]

Isn't it about time that the open, import, merge, save as etc etc etc box was a OS native dialog box like in Maya.  This means you can then have the links to your projects,assets etc in the left of the box and not have to go hunting for them.  This will save finding the file dir in windows and copying the link.  This method is ok but having a better box built in would be good.

[pcrawley]

I sort-of like this idea - but I think I prefer the "History" field in max's current dialogs.

Perhaps a combination of the two would make everyone happy.

[kthalas]

This will improve the experience so much, Using certain type of folder access per plugin or module is a nightmare. It shouldn't be that hard, hope that they read this, it can be really anoying not to be able to copy and paste folders as windows does. And the history thing sounds great! Please Autodesk make this happen

[brentscannell]

 Hi @sean

I'm changing this over to archived status because of the low vote count. I think its a great idea, but maybe not the most pressing feature area that needs development effort. It's likely something we'll get to anyway as part of a higher level modernization effort in the UI sometime in the future. Thanks for your idea!

[pixelwash]

I think it is a BIG mistake not updating 3dsmax to have native dialogs, and moving this to "archived" status shows based flawed management at Autodesk for Max I think,.

Disliking the Max UI is one of the HUGE reasons why newcomers choose not to use max after using it for a while, and these people are not part of any "voting group" for this "new feature" ie they "self -select" early on not to use Max AT ALL for daily work.....and this huge number of people are not part of the sampled population for new feature suggestions. (I'm speculating only this a huge number of people, the fact is, this single data point ie upvotes in this forum, does not inform us with any indication of the size of that potential population. I think it is large, because it includes me, and many people I talk to ie dedicated 3dmax NON-users because they dislike the program....primarily because of its appalling UI.)

Thankfully Autodesk has an alternative product in Maya.....but for you guys to "fall" for one of the very basic problems of using surveys to drive product development shows seriously underwhelming management at 3dsMax and at Autodesk.

[pixelwash]

Mulling on that last comment of mine, there is one big elephant in the room I did not address, and that is the preview thumbnail that the non-native file dialog provides in the case of 3dsmax.....    Maya does not give a preview window in its "non-native" file dialog, so adding the option to use the native file dialog in Max would mean trading the thumbnails for better file access and navigation options, and maybe that is another reason why it has gained so little support amongst users.

The solution to all this is better support of 3d file formats in the native operating system file navigation, and both Microsoft and Apple are heading in that direction - the Mac natively support full 3d previews of obj files for example, and Windows now allows the similar sort of preview of Sketchup files.

Maya of course allows a user to save a thumbnail capture with a file also, and provides the "content browser" to more easily access that data...