Autodesk have released the 2nd Hot Fix (HF) for the 2011 flavours of 3ds Max and 3ds Max Design.

Please ensure you download the relevant version of the HF.

Autodesk 3ds Max 2011 - Download HF2 here
Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2011 - Download HF2 here

This HF covers many important areas including Viewports, Biped, CAT, and FBX from Revit issues.

Autodesk have released the 2nd Hot Fix (HF) for the 2011 flavours of 3ds Max and 3ds Max Design.

As always, please ensure your customers download the relevant version of the HF.

Autodesk 3ds Max 2011 - Download HF2 here
Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2011 - Download HF2 here

This HF covers many important areas including Viewports, Biped, CAT, and FBX from Revit issues.
Should you require them, localised versions are available.

3ds Max/Design Subscription (Subs) customers are aware they now get access to Autodesk Support via the ‘Subs’ web portal. This ensures you can free up your in-house support resources.

Your customers can access this additional benefit, by signing into the ‘Subs’ Centre at www.autodesk.com/subscription login

It is also worth knowing that they can also access web support directly from within 3ds Max/Design, by clicking on the below symbol



Found within this toolbar, generally located on the upper right hand side of the main menu toolbar.



From here you'll have faster and easier access to all your ‘Subs’ benefits.



‘Max’ Products Included in this ‘Subs’ benefit:
• Autodesk® 3ds Max®,
• Autodesk® 3ds Max® Design,
• Autodesk® 3ds Max® Entertainment Creation Suite.

Happy Max’ing

1. Quicksilver hardware renderer, a new GPU-based, multithreaded rendering engine that can achieve up to 10x faster rendering than traditional techniques on common graphics boards
2. A new FBX File Link that notifies designers of upstream design changes from Autodesk Revit Architecture software and helps reduce the need for rework
3. Significant enhancements for importing native data from Autodesk Inventor software into 3ds Max Design as a solid
4. Ability to view most 3ds Max Design texture maps and materials in the viewport to develop and refine scenes in a higher-fidelity interactive display environment — without the constant need to re-render
5. Significant enhancements to the modeling and texturing toolset, accessed through a new in-context user interface, that help accelerate everyday workflows
6. Import and export of surfaces and solids between 3ds Max Design and Autodesk Revit Architecture software, Rhino, SolidWorks and certain other applications that support the SAT file format
7. Ability to import Google SketchUp version 6 and 7 software files natively, enabling users to directly import files from the Google 3D Warehouse
8. A new Autodesk Material Library that enables designers to more easily exchange material data between certain Autodesk applications

METHOD 1:

If you want to be able to pan while creating a line/spline press "i" on the keypad while drawing. The "i" key only needs to be pressed once just after vertex placement.

METHOD 2:

This method is a workaround which needs 10 seconds worth of set up time everytime you start 3ds MAX Design or 3ds MAX.

When begining a new project follow these steps.

1. Create a rectangle in the view
2. Convert the rectangle to an editable spline
3. Enter vertex sub-object
4. In the modify panel search for the check box called "Automatic Welding"
5. Tick the check box
6. Change the "Threshold" to 1mm
7. Delete the rectangle.

Now Automatic Welding is set up!

When drawing lines make sure you do the following.

1. Press the line button
2. Turn off start new line ----- make sure you do not have another line selected!
3. Make sure you have 2.5D or 3D snap on with vertex and endpoint checked on
4. Start placing vertex points
5. Pan using the middle mouse button----the line will stop drawing dont worry about this!
7. Snap to the endpoint or last vertex just placed.
8. Continue placing vertex points
9. Press Esc twice to cancle the line drawing process.
10. Select the line
11. Enter the vertex sub object mode
12. Check to see if the lines are welded together and that only one yellow vertex exists.

As of December 21st 2009, the newest build, V-Ray® 1.50 Service Pack 4a for 3ds Max®, is available from the download section of the Chaos Group site.

The upgrade is free of charge for all current V-Ray for 3ds Max customers of Chaos Group.

The V-Ray® 1.50 Service Pack 4a is compatible with Autodesk® 3ds Max® 8, Autodesk® 3ds Max® 9, Autodesk® 3ds Max® 2008, 3ds Max® 2009, Autodesk® 3ds Max Design 2009, Autodesk® 3ds Max® 2010, Autodesk® 3ds Max® Design 2010.

The new V-Ray build supports both 32-bit and 64-bit OS.

It includes the following modified features:

• Added support for projection mapping when doing texture baking;
• Added new option to link the V-Ray VFB to PDPlayer;

And several bug fixes:

• Turning off "Affect specular" for a dome light made it invisible to reflections as well;
• Fixed a crash when importing a particular .vrmesh file;
• Fixed crash with VRayFastSSS2 material with VRayDirt map and a standard light with VRayShadowMap;
• The "prepass samples" option in the motion blur rollout did not work;
• Fixed stuck buckets with VRayEnvironmentFog and mesh gizmos;
• Fixed issues with VRayEnvironmentFog and mesh gizmos with modifiers;
• User could not remove gizmos/lights from VRayEnvironmentFog;
• ParticleFlow instancing did not render all mapping channels of original mesh;
• Fixed crash with VFB region render when region is outside of image;
• Turned off by default the option to save the DR servers to the scene (caused slowdown on scene save if servers are offline);
• Fixed some licensing issues.

Note, if you have downloaded V-Ray SP4 for 3ds Max we strongly recommend to upgrade it with V-Ray SP4a for 3ds Max because of the licensing issues.