Can someone explain 3ds max?

[hendu]

Well yeah, it doesn't claim to be "well-tested, quality software" on the tin, but that doesn't give it a free pass to have such terrible implementation quality. Not for the price it's commanding.

[christianclavet]

@hendu. Why do you want to use 3DS Max when you complain so much about it? At your place, I'll drop it right there and start using Blender! If you start "as new", Blender is FREE, come with a big community, is now supported in the industry... I never liked 3DS Max until I went back to school and had someone to teach it to me.

3DS Max is my main tool now as it allow me to reach goals, that other tools were not able to reach. (I might be able to get really decent results now with Blender, but will have to learn it, while I'm comfortable with Max now, so you can call me a lazy guy to not use Blender )

As for some complaints you had about Max:
- I never saw it "slow" as you mention. What kind of rig are you running it on? I even find it fast compared to other tools I've used in the past (Might not be right as I've changed systems during the years)
- As for the Y axis, why bother when you have exporters that will do the work? Why would the Y axis not being up would entrave the artist creativity?! All over the years when I was modeling, I never thinked "X,Y,Z" axis, but "Top, left, front, etc".
- I never saw any "glitches" or flickering on the interface. (MAX 2009 up to MAX 2012)
- As for the "monotone" interface, it's was designed that way to be "out of the way" and let the artist concentrate on the work. I would surely try to change the gui if someone changed MAX to have colored buttons all over the place and created some kind of "disco light" interface.

As for an artist point of view, they don't really bother about the technical side of it. They only need a tool to create and a tool that can give the result they seek for in a reasonable about of time. If they can reach the desired result, then they are happy. If they can't reach the result they want then they will surely seek another tool.

[Mel]

Send Autodesk feedback so they may improve in next versions

[hendu]

I don't know if I mentioned it, but it was also really crashy (both versions, 2011 and 2013). Often crashed in rendering or when applying some heavier operation.

@christianclavet

I'm not going to touch it after this, as now I know how bad it is

@Mel

Many of these should be obvious if they even do 5 minutes of testing.

[Asimov]

Hi Hendu,

Did you get your max problems sorted out. I have been using 3ds max for 8 years. I started with 3ds max 2009, then 2010, then 2012, and now I am using 2015.
3ds max is an excellent piece of software. The only bugs I have experience in all versions is the occasional graphical bug while using directx. I don't have that problem now as I 100% use the nitrous display.

You say from an engineering point of view max is bad. Well actually if I was an engineer I wouldn't be using max. An engineer would be more suited to autodesk inventor which is CAD software. I use Inventor on a daily basis and it is a different kind of modelling to Max. The great thing about max is that you can make a while model without having to know any dimensions at all, whereas with CAD dimensions are important.

If you need any help on anything let me know, and I am sure I have the answer.

I also tried blender and hated it, and didn't do well with Maya either.

Oldest 3D software I have used is Real3D on the Amiga.

PS. Forgot to say that my avatar was done in 3ds max.

[hendu]

No, I quit using it after this. Nowadays I model in Blender, and it's shining bright in comparison. It hasn't crashed on me once (Max crashed at least once a day), it starts much faster, and the UI is much more logical. Blender's UI still sucks in many places, having hidden some options several levels deep in a place you won't know to look in, but there's a lot less of those than in Max.

I don't think the issues I had could be solved by other users; crashiness, bugs, and bad UI can only be fixed by Autodesk.

Funny anecdote from Blender related to bugs: when I reported bugs to them, I got told the bug tracker is not for bugs
(I reported build issues, and they mainly want modeler reports in there. But there is no other place for build bugs either.)

[Asimov]

Hi Hendu,

It hasn't crashed on me once (Max crashed at least once a day)

That is strange, I have never had a crash with max. What version were you using, and what are your computer specs?
I find max 2012 and max 2015 most stable, but then it helps if you use an nvidia graphics card, as the software was designed to be used with that card.
I use max on a quad core laptop with 22Gb of RAM, although when I started out I was running max on just 4Gb of RAM on a dual core machine.

I have tried blender, but I find it inferior to max. Also we will have to disagree on the UI, as I think it is excellent. However I would agree Maya has a bad UI heh heh.
I literary had blender installed for about an hour after I decided I didn't like it, and removed it.

It sounds like you were using a very old version of Max.

PS. Just read back and saw that you were using max 2011 and max 2013. Both of these releases were buggy. Which is why I went from Max 2010 and waited until 2012 came out, and I waited for 2015 to come out before I moved from 2012 to 2015. As for the colour of the screen, you can config that to your needs and change the whole look of the interface, and you can move it anywhere you desire. I prefer the dark grey so I can concetrate on modelling instead of the interface and I mainly use hotkeys for everything.

[hendu]

You're asking two years old things. I cannot remember what the specs of the various computers were.

Both of these releases were buggy.

My point in making this thread was that that's not supposed to be possible at the amount Max costs.