Utilities Panel

Command entry: Command panels

Utilities panel

The Utilities panel gives you access to a variety of utility programs. 3ds Max utilities are provided as plug-ins. 3ds Max ships with the utilities listed below. Some utilities are available from third-party developers, so your setup of 3ds Max might include utilities not described here. Look for documentation describing these additional plug-ins by choosing Help Additional Help.

NoteDocumentation for MAXScript and Visual MAXScript is provided in a separate help system. To access the MAXScript Help, choose Help

MAXScript Help. See About MAXScript.

Interface

The Utilities panel contains one rollout for managing and invoking utilities. While a utility is running, additional rollouts can appear. Some utilities use a dialog rather than rollouts.

The Utilities rollout contains the following controls at the top:

More: Displays a Utilities dialog that lists all utilities not already displayed in buttons on the Utilities panel. Highlight a utility in the list and then click OK to display its controls in the Utilities panel. (You can also double-click the utility's name.)
Sets: Displays a list of button sets to choose from. By default, there is only one button set, called MAX Default. You can create custom button sets by clicking Configure Button Sets.
Configure Button Sets: Displays the Configure Button Sets dialog, where you can create custom button sets of up to 32 buttons.
Named utility buttons: These buttons show a selection of utilities. Click one of these buttons to run a utility. The utility's parameters can appear in rollouts below the Utilities rollout. Some utilities use a dialog rather than rollouts.

While a utility is running, its button remains active until you click it again to turn it off and close the utility, or when you click a different utility's button.

Many utilities have a Close button that appears at the bottom of their rollout. This is another way to close a utility. If the utility controls appear in a dialog rather than a rollout, closing the dialog closes the utility.

Topics in this section