Notes About 3ds max 7 Features

Notes About 3ds max 7 Features

ACTIVESHADE
• Using Raytrace materials can cause the ActiveShade window to lose focus, activating the main UI keyboard shortcuts. Click the ActiveShade window to reactivate ActiveShade keyboard shortcuts.

ASSET BROWSER
• Scene XRef drag and drop of files with scripts that depend on explicit scene object references can cause unpredictable results or program failure.

BONES
• Bones creation behavior can be unpredictable when using Snap Override. When you use SHIFT+right-click to invoke Snap Override, the Bones system interprets this as a left-click and places a bone in the scene.

• The Macro Recorder does not support Bones creation. However, you can manipulate the bones with the Macro Recorder after creating them.

• When Reassign Root is used, it deletes and recreates new bones. Any animated parameters, controller setups and custom bone settings are lost, including IK chain assignments. You should use this tool before making any adjustments or IK assignments to your bones.

• Negatively scaled bones can be set to unity with the Reset Scale button in Object Properties rollout of the Bone Adjustment Tools dialog. In tandem with the Reset Stretch and Realign buttons, it is now easy to create symmetrical bone chains free of scaling and stretch problems.

• The Stretch Factor for the selected bone is now displayed in the Object Properties rollout of the Bone Adjustment Tools dialog.

BOOLEANS
• Edges created during a Boolean operation involving compound (nested) Booleans might be visible when they should be invisible. This affects only viewport display modes that display visible edges, such as Wireframe, Lit Wireframes and Edged Faces. These edges can be made invisible through mesh editing.

CAMERA MAP TEXTURE
• Per Pixel Camera Map should only allow lights or cameras to be selected but does not correctly filter the available selection. Please use only lights or cameras.

CAMERAS
• Changing a Camera Corrected view to a User or Perspective view causes the view to display distorted geometry. Changing to any other axonometric view will correct this.

CHARACTERS
• Use of the Unlink Selection tool on objects that are contained in Characters can produce unexpected results. Instead, use the specific tools provided for adding and removing objects from Characters.

• Objects with animated TCB Rotation controllers can shift position when a containing character is destroyed. To avoid this, use Euler rotation controllers instead.

• Pick Object must be used to add characters to groups. Adding groups to a character by selecting from the viewport is not supported.

• In some instances, the Character Error dialog can appear with no nodes listed. If this occurs, try reselecting or selecting part of your hierarchy and then using Add Member to add more objects to your character.

• Before entering the Skin Pose mode for a character or group, it is advised to first set keys for all the members. The easiest way to do this is to click Set Key Pose.

CLONE AND ALIGN
• In 3ds max, some tools flip the sign of the scale of the objects they operate on. This is not always apparent to the user. If you use Clone and Align to align an object to another whose scale has been flipped, you might get unexpected positioning and orientation. Choose to also Match Scale to correct the discrepancy. (Example: the Mirror tool applies a negative scale to at least one axis of the object it is used on. In Clone and Align, select Match Scale to achieve the desired results with such objects.)

COMBUSTION MAPS
• combustion needs to be installed on your system in order to view CWS files. It should also be installed on all network-rendering servers if you are going to net-render a scene that contains CWS files. combustion does not need to be authorized to process CWS files used within 3ds max net-rendering servers, but does need to be present.

• CWS files that were created as “rub-throughs” won’t display unless combustion is installed on your computer.

• In the Combustion Parameters rollout when Track Time or Custom Resolution > Enable is turned on, viewport selections are not highlighted.

• If you are using a Combustion map with a Displace modifier or as a projector light map, the scene will not render correctly while a live link exists between 3ds max and combustion. To render correctly, save the loaded workspace file, and then turn off the Edit button to terminate the link between 3ds max and combustion.

• Using the Combustion map (within 3ds max 7) with combustion and attempting to change the UV Coordinates while Unwrap is selected and the Unwrap operation is visible in combustion, you might experience a disconnection error in 3ds max. To correct this, verify that all your UV settings are in place before you attempt to edit your map within combustion. The disconnection alert only appears when you have an object selected in your scene, so if you deselect your object and change the Unwrap UV channels, no disconnection alert should appear.

• The UV Offset values in the Coordinates rollout of the combustion map are not honored when painting directly on the object in 3ds max 7. To offset the UVW Coordinates of the combustion map, apply a UVW Map modifier and a UVW XForm modifier.

• You will have to save the workspace in combustion for every render in 3ds max. Save the combustion workspace and load it using the Project button.

• The latest changes in combustion are getting displayed in the sample slots of the material editor but not in 3ds max renderings. You will have to save the workspace in combustion and render again in 3ds max.

• In the Combustion Parameters rollout, when the Edit button is Enabled, combustion launches and prompts to create a new workspace. You must close this dialog, or 3ds max will not respond.