3ds Max uses the Matrix3 class to represent transformation matrices. This section discusses the way transformation matrices are constructed and used in 3ds Max, and various APIs that are available for working with these matrices.

Transformation matrices can be used, for example, to transfer the coordinates of an object from local space to world space, or to position nodes in the scene. The transformations these matrices provide are translation, scaling and rotation. Methods of the Matrix3 class (and several global functions) are provided to easily create transformation matrices and perform matrix arithmetic.