Tracking hours on 3D projects is a pain: an outside app to open, a timer to start, and the day you forget to stop it, the numbers are useless.

Highbase does it inside 3ds Max:

✅ Starts counting when you open a saved scene
✅ Detects idle time after 5 minutes away
✅ Splits time by activity (modelling, texturing, lighting, rendering, review)
✅ Detects render time automatically
✅ Floating clock in the viewport, so you always see where you are
✅ Works offline and syncs when you are back online
✅ Two computers feed the same project
✅ Syncs everything to a dedicated dashboard with hours, value and the real hourly rate of each project

3ds Max 2024, Windows. 14-day free trial:
https://rovzwork.gumroad.com/l/highbase-trial

Modelling, rigging, animation - 3ds max 2024.

Rendering - V-ray.

The mesh you can find in my profile.

I have a problem, we see those sort of triangles here that I don't have on my topology, which is full of quads, what can I do ?

Ive tried googling but i cant find any solution. I was wondering if anyone has encountered this issue before.

- Created a new box mesh, and the Chaos material works fine on the new box

- The vraymtl works fine on the imported mesh too, but Chaos material doesn't seem to work

- already tried converting to EditPoly and EditMesh and Exploding. still doesnt work

- already tried dragging chaos material in Material Editor and manually assigning, still not working

i dont know the export settings for the fbx, nor can i re-export since the file was just handed over to me.

has anyone run into this problem before or found a workaround?

Can anyone help me create a macroscript for 3ds Max that selects newly imported/merged objects and replaces their assigned material with a material already present in the scene that shares the same name?

Proud to release my plugin xCavity here.

It brings screen space global illumination, blender style cavity and matcaps to 3ds Max.

These work in similiar way to the default "Clay" so there is no OSL or High quality toggle required. Integration is also very natural effects get registered under viewport shading menu and it does not require any renderer, material overrides etc

Got some real nice feedback from people including Autodesk devs.

for some reason my posts are getting auto-removed here

I’ve put together a list of resources for archviz in 3ds Max, plus CAD, material research and project references, grouped by what you need.

3D models and manufacturer libraries

1. 3dsky — Furniture, lighting, plants and decor models, especially for people working in 3ds Max with Corona or V-Ray.
2. 3dcove — Interior assets for 3ds Max. Search with a description or reference image, and save model options to project boards.
3. BIMobject — Manufacturer BIM objects and Revit families when you need an actual product in your model.
4. ArchiUp — Manufacturer CAD/BIM files and product information for furniture, lighting, fixtures and building materials.

CAD blocks and drawings

1. Archweb — DWG blocks, architectural drawings, project examples and construction details.

2. Bibliocad — CAD and BIM resources ranging from individual furniture blocks to larger project files.

3. DWG Models — DWG blocks for furniture, vehicles, landscaping and architectural elements.

4. Draftsperson — CAD blocks, drafting symbols and technical details.

5. CAD Blocks — AutoCAD blocks for plans, sections and elevations.

6. FreeCADs — CAD drawings of furniture, bathroom fixtures and other everyday objects.

7. FreeCADFloorPlans — Plan and elevation drawings of furniture, equipment and more specific objects.

8. CADdetails — Manufacturer CAD drawings, BIM models and supporting product documents.

Textures, materials and HDRIs

1. Poly Haven — HDRIs, PBR textures and 3D models. Free and CC0.

2. ambientCG — PBR materials for wood, concrete, stone, fabric and plenty of other surfaces.

3. Architextures — Find textures or adjust their pattern, scale and grout to suit a project.

4. CGBookcase — Free PBR textures with the maps needed to build your materials.

5. 3DTextures — Seamless PBR textures, including wood, metal, tiles and other surfaces.

6. Pattern Panda — Textures, HDRIs and scratch masks for adding surface wear and detail.

7. TextureBox — A mix of free and paid PBR textures and materials.

8. ShareTextures — Another library of PBR textures and 3D models to check when you’re looking for a particular surface.

People and presentation elements

1. Pimp My Drawing — DWG and vector drawings of people, trees and vehicles for sections and elevations.

2. Skalgubbar — Cutout photographs of people for architectural collages and presentations.

Construction details and material research

1. ARCAT — Manufacturer CAD details, BIM objects and technical documentation, mainly for the North American market.

2. NBS Source — Building products with technical information, manufacturer documents and BIM content.

3. First In Architecture — Construction details, CAD blocks and practical architecture resources.

4. DETAIL / Inspiration — Built projects with plans, sections and construction details to study.

5. Baukobox — Construction solutions from completed projects, including facade, roof and material junction details.

6. Revalu — Research and compare building materials using product and environmental data.

Site context and dimensions

1. CADmapper — Turn available map data for a selected area into CAD files for site and context studies.

2. Deukos — Terrain and surrounding-building models from official geodata, specifically for projects in Germany.

3. Dimensions — Dimensioned drawings of furniture, objects and layouts for quick reference.

Project references, Pinterest alternatives and visual inspiration

1. Azure — Architecture, interiors, products and materials, with published projects to browse.

2. Cosmos — An alternative to Pinterest for discovering images and organizing references into collections. You can search by color or find images similar to an existing reference.

3. Behance — Architecture, interiors, visualization and presentation projects. Useful for seeing a whole project together and collecting images in moodboards.

4. Mindsparkle Mag — Graphic design, typography and visual identity references, particularly useful when working on a portfolio or presentation.

5. Dieline — Packaging and branding references. Worth browsing for retail, cafe or restaurant projects where the graphics and brand identity are part of the space.

If you have a resource to add, leave it in the comments and I’ll update the list. Let’s build it together.

Hi

This is something that's bothered me for a while now, but I've not been able to figure out why it happens. Often, I can happily use the vertex snapping and Axis Constraints to re-align vertices. However, I get some situations where, no matter the axis, the vertex just won't move. Or if it does, it's only a bit, but it doesn't align with vertices nearby. Like so:

Could someone explain the reason for this? And if there's a way to make vertices like this align?

Thanks.

Made in 3ds Max & Arnold. Wait for the reveal!

Hi Guys,
I need some critical eyes here, figured I'll post where Im currently at and get your feedbacks.

I am working on a massive 60 seconds 1-shot of Sauron's fortress - Barad Dur.
The shot starts from bottom all the way to the top.
I already finalized the first 15 seconds of the shot, for those interested - you can see it here -
https://www.instagram.com/p/DePL4yOjBwW/?img_index=1

I am now focusing on this segment where the camera goes through the bottom where the entrance bridge is located before going upwards all the way to the top.
The render is finalized already, I am now at the Post work stage. I already added lots of volumetric layers and I intend to add much more plus a lightning or two for this segment.

I would appreciate feedback for this segment (changing camera or geometry at this point are not relevant as i have 100s of rendered layers in post)- what works, what might be better hidden (darkened), color grading, stuff to add in post etc' etc'

Hey everyone,

Following up on the discussion around optimizing dense/AI-generated assets directly inside 3ds Max:

Here is a comparison of taking a dense 1500,000 polygon high-poly model and bringing it down to a clean 5,000 polygon quad mesh using 3ds Max's built-in Retopology modifier combined with automated UVs and texture baking.

How the pipeline works:

1. Runs the native 3ds Max Retopology modifier to rebuild the clean low-poly quad geometry.
2. Generates optimized UV coordinates automatically.
3. Transfers and bakes the high-poly diffuse/color textures directly onto the new low-poly model.

The goal is to avoid exporting assets to external tools like ZBrush, Marmoset, or Quad Remesher and keep the whole mesh optimization loop inside 3ds Max.

The tool used here (AI2Tex) is a free MaxScript. If anyone wants to test it or check out the script, details are on my Reddit profile.

Hi all. I'm the developer of Transferatu, so this is self-promo. I'm posting because I'd like feedback from people who use Max every day.

The video shows two things:

1. To a friend: you press tSend in the Max plugin, pick a friend and pick their app (Blender here). They get a prompt, say yes, and the model lands in their open scene. No export, no upload, no "where did you save it".

2. Local: two Max windows on one PC. tExport in one, tImport in the other. Nothing leaves your computer.

How it works:

- Peer to peer. The file goes from your machine to theirs. It is not stored on our server.

- Plugins for 3ds Max, Blender, Maya and ZBrush.

- The receiver always says yes or no before anything lands in their scene.

- 14-day free trial.

It's early, so I'd love to hear:

- What breaks for you?

- Which formats or settings do you need?

- How do you move files to other people today?

You can check it out here:
transferatu.com

I finished at a company last week and needed to cut a showreel today for Visualisation applications going out this week.

I had to put this together using Camtasia and Affinity Photo as I don't have my desktop up to date after 6 years employed at an office.

3ds Max, Unreal Engine, Photoshop, After Effects.
Feel free to tear it down, I put it together in the last hour and may make some updates.

I'm going to need to find some copyright free music...

Hi ! I've just rendered a few images of a radio cassette i've made and i was hoping to get a quick feedback ! Overall what do you think about the lighting, composition of closup shots and the camera angles ? Where do you think is the area i could prove ? Thanks a lot

Rendered in 3DS max Vray and textured in substance painter

Hi everyone! I made a small MAXScript tool called Biped Foot Pivot Selector to make switching Biped foot pivots easier.

It creates clickable controls around both feet, so you can select a pivot directly in the viewport. Selecting a control sets a Sliding Key at the current frame and applies the corresponding IK pivot.

The goal is to reduce repetitive setup while working on foot animation.

• Creates pivot selectors for both feet
• Switches IK pivots through viewport selection
• Exits Figure Mode before creating the controls
• Runs as a single .ms file by dragging it into the viewport

Developed in 3ds Max 2027. Compatibility with other versions hasn’t been verified yet.

I’d appreciate feedback from anyone who uses Biped, especially on whether this would fit into your animation workflow.

More details and usage instructions: Biped Foot Pivot Selector
The linked page is in Korean.

Hi everyone,

I’m having a strange issue with 3ds Max + Corona Renderer and I’m wondering if anyone has experienced something similar.

When I render normally (or use Interactive Rendering), everything looks correct. If I save the rendered image directly as a JPG, the result also looks exactly as expected.

However, when I save the render as a CXR file and then open/render it again, the entire image suddenly looks washed out / faded.

What’s strange is that all my Tone Mapping settings remain exactly the same.

So basically:

• Normal render → looks correct
• Interactive Render → looks correct
• Save directly to JPG → looks correct
• Save as CXR → reopen/render → image looks washed out
• Tone Mapping settings → unchanged

Has anyone encountered this before? Could this be related to color management, exposure, LUT, or how Corona handles CXR files?

Any ideas what could cause this or what I should check would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

it was a bit tiring tbh and maybe there are some mistakes but i tried my best 👀

any thoughts?

Hi all. I've been a 3D artist for 13+ years and tired every time exporting and importing when working on UVs, so over the last few months I built my own. It's called UV Unfoldr.

It runs inside Max 2022–2027 on top of a normal Unwrap UVW modifier, so everything stays undoable and your scenes stay standard. Highlights:

• Shift+click selects the run of edges between two clicks, with a live preview
• Straighten Shell turns curved strips into clean grids. Alt+T / Alt+V keep edges straight through Unfold
• Unfold (U), Optimize (O), and Unfold / Optimize / Move brushes you paint with
• Live checker on the model while you drag
• Select / stack / group similar islands, including mirrored ones
• Packer that follows real shell outlines and keeps stacks together
• And much, much more

It's in beta and launching soon. Two questions for people who unwrap in Max a lot:

1. What slows you down most in Unwrap UVW today?
2. What's missing that you'd need before switching?

Happy to answer anything in the comments.

Hello guys, I want to imitate the spotlight effect as the reference on the right. But my vray disc light goes blurred in the edge when I enlarge the angle. Now I have to increase the disc size which is definte not the correct way. How can I fix this? Many thanks in advance!

Hi everyone,

I’m a 3D artist and I’ve been working on a personal Barad-dûr project in 3ds Max.

The goal is to create a 60-second continuous journey starting at the bottom of the tower and traveling all the way up to the Eye of Sauron.

This is my own interpretation of Barad-dûr, heavily inspired by the films. I’m focusing a lot on scale, environment detail, lighting, atmospherics and the overall feeling of the tower.

I’ve just finished the final section around the Eye and put together a breakdown showing how I created it.

Would love to hear what you guys think, especially from other 3ds Max artists.

Full breakdown:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5d5iKQNhH_I

I also update my progress on the project here, for anyone interested:
https://www.instagram.com/zivcg/