3DS Max UI Stacking

[Anonymous]

For the longest time ive had my Command Panel and Layer Panel 'stacked' on top of each other docked to the right of my screen when using Max.

I was messing around with the UI to get the animation timeline which I found. However in the process undocked the Command and Layer Panels - now can't for the life of me figure out how to stack them again.

I can dock them separately like in the image i attached but not stack them. I want them stacked so I can switch between them easily rather than having both of them take up screen space. 

Please help me.

[DanielCantin]

Hi @Anonymous 

If I understand correctly, you want them docked at the same location and switch them using the tab, all you should have to do is drag the layer explorer on the command Panel with the whole command panel highlighted, then you should have the tabs to switch them

Thanks for reaching out with your issue, please let us know if that solve or not your issue
-Daniel

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply!

Yes the tabbed thing is what i intend to do - I have added a screenshot of my layer panel when I hover it over the command panel. The blue highlight doesnt show up. My floating panels dont have the close maximize and minimize buttons as well, does this affect things?

[DanielCantin]

Since you said in the first post that you can dock them in other configuration, I suspect the issue is not because the Lock UI layout is active in the Customize menu. In that context I would recommend you to close 3ds Max and try renaming your 3ds Max AppData folder in case something got corrupted in it, you'll find the folder at this location:  "%LocalAppData%\Autodesk\3dsMax\" then go in the d3smax version and language folders, for example "C:\Users\ [username] \AppData\Local\Autodesk\3dsMax\2020 - 64bit\ENU",  that will get rid of your customizations, if it solve the issue it is possible to try pinpointing which file and or folder cause the issue. 

Please let us know if that solve or not the issue

The close maximize and minimize buttons should not have any influence on this, the explorers have been migrated to OS frame with 3ds Max 2019.2 update.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Yes this worked I guess!

1. Follow the Appdata route %LocalAppData%\Autodesk\3dsMax\ to the Max version folder as suggested.

2. I opened the 3DS Max Configuration file (should open in notepad)

3. Searched for 'UI Lock' (use Ctrl+F) and changed the value from 1 to 0.

4. Save and exit.

5. Reopened my Max scene and the UI is allowing me to drag and drop floating panels now!

Thank you so much for your help 🙂 Are you able to find the UI Lock within Max itself without going this long way round?

[DanielCantin]

Hi @Anonymous 
you can find the option in the Customize menu: