Autodesk 3ds Max / 3ds Max Design 2014 Release Notes

Thank you for downloading Autodesk® 3ds Max® / Autodesk® 3ds Max® Design 2014.

This readme contains recent information regarding the installation and use of Autodesk 3ds Max 2014 and Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2014 software. It is strongly recommended that you read this entire document before installing the software. For future reference, you should save this readme to your hard drive.

Note: Autodesk is not responsible for errors or failures of Autodesk software arising from the installation of updates, extensions or new releases issued by third party hardware or software vendors for the qualified software or hardware identified in this document (or for any other third party software or hardware that you may use in connection with Autodesk products).

Contents

Additional Resources
Prerequisites
Known Issues Autodesk 3ds Max / 3ds Max Design 2014
Customer Involvement Program (CIP) and Customer Error Reports (CERs)

Additional Resources

Use the following table to locate various resources related to 3ds Max 2014 / 3ds Max Design 2014:

 

Resource

Location

Installation, licensing and networking instructions

http://www.autodesk.com/3dsmax-install-2014-enu

System Requirements

www.autodesk.com/3dsmax-systemreq-2014-enu

What’s New

www.autodesk.com/3dsmax-help-2014-whatsnew

Learning Resources

www.autodesk.com/3dsmax-learningpath  or www.autodesk.com/3dsmaxdesign-learningpath

Support Resources

www.autodesk.com/3dsmax-support or www.autodesk.com/3dsmaxdesign-support

3ds Max® Composite tool set Information

www.autodesk.com/3dsmax-docs-2014-enu

3ds Max Composite Release Notes

www.autodesk.com/3dsmax-releasenotes

3ds Max SDK Documentation

www.autodesk.com/3dsmax-sdk-docs

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Prerequisites

Initial Install

Before an end-user with restricted Windows® operating system privileges can use Autodesk 3ds Max 2014 / Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2014, an administrator, with full privileges, must install and start the software one time in order to generate the Windows operating system registry information needed to complete the installation.

Before an end-user with restricted privileges can use third-party plug-ins for Autodesk 3ds Max 2014 / Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2014, an administrator, with full privileges, must install and start 3ds Max 2014 / 3ds Max Design 2014 one time in order to generate the necessary folders for these third-party plug-ins.

3ds Max Beta Installs

If there are previously installed versions of any beta software (including Release Candidate (RC) versions) of Autodesk 3ds Max 2014 / Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2014, uninstall and delete all system folders pertaining to these beta versions before installing the commercial version. Instructions on how to uninstall the beta versions are posted on the beta portal in the Beta and RC Readme files.

Leaving Ports Open

Autodesk 3ds Max or Autodesk 3ds Max Design, Autodesk® Vault, Autodesk® Backburner™, and various other components of the install, require that certain ports be open in third-party firewalls. If you are having problems with your firewall, read the documentation included with your firewall.

Port Conflict with mental ray (When Installing Autodesk 3ds Max 2014)

During the Autodesk 3ds Max installation process (from the install wizard) the mental ray® port is assigned automatically and cannot be changed from the install wizard. In most cases this is fine. In a rare case a conflict arises if the port is already occupied. In such a case you will receive this error message: To fix this issue, perform the following steps:

1. Using a text editor, open the Setup.ini file (located at the root of your install media).
2. Search for the [MAX] section.
3. You need to reassign mental ray to a different port number by adding this line under EXE_PATH= EXE_PARAM= MR_TCP_PORT=[YOUR PORT NUMBER] Where [YOUR PORT NUMBER] is replaced by the port number you want to assign to mental ray.
4. Save the Setup.ini file and run installer again.

Installing the IPv4 or IPv6 Versions of Network License Manager

You can install the IPv4 version of the Network License Manager from the Tools and Utilities tab in the 3ds Max 2014 / 3ds Max Design 2014 installer. If you need to install the IPv6 version of the Network License Manager, you can do so from Autodesk.com at the following location: www.autodesk.com/nlm-ipv6-windows

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Known Issues Autodesk® 3ds Max / 3ds Max Design 2014

The following list contains known issues in this release:

 

Feature Description
Animation

  • CAT palm copy/paste is not working correctly.

  • A program error can occur when accessing the Global tracks in Track View.

     
File I/O

  • GPO Requirements for Deploying Revit Interoperability
    The GPO requirements for deploying Revit are not correct in the offline version of the Installation Documentation. For the correct information, please refer to this topic in the online documentation: http://www.autodesk.com/installation-help-2014-enu?contextId=GPO_REVIT_INTEROP​

  • In some cases exporting to FBX and then opening the exported file can cause a program error.

     
Gamma

  • There have been many updates to the way the software handles Gamma as well as accessing Gamma via Maxscript. Please refer to the "What's new" section in the 3ds Max help for more details.

     
General

  • Slider manipulator disappears when zoomed in.

  • LTU shortcut is installed when software is installed in the network license mode. LTU shortcut is not usable in this scenario.

     
Global Search

  • In some cases the tool tips will not display when searching. Switching to the Enhanced menu system will display the tool tips, even when switching back to default menu.

     
MaxScript

  • Since the release of 3ds Max 2013 Product Update 4 and 3ds Max 2012 Product Update 09 are now correctly throwing a compile error when using nested structure definitions. This will occur where an inner structure definition references a variable defined by an outer structure definition. When this occurs a compile error will identify where a struct member in an outer struct def is used in a inner struct def. Those are the places you will need to implement a fix. For additional info see: http://area.autodesk.com/blogs/maxstation/k0002-compile-error-when-using-nested-structure-definitions

  • Some floating UIs will freeze the buttons if the window is moved. To unfreeze them you must close and reopen the UI.

  • Accessing the MassFX rigid body via Maxscript can cause a program error.

     
Nitrous

  • On closing 3ds Max the value for progressive rendering storied in the 3dsmax.ini file is always set to TRUE. This means on launch the application again it was be enabled if set to false in the previous session​.

     
Populate

  • Populate creation CUI actions don't work when called from the Quad Menu.

  • Flows and Idle Areas can be keyed but don't respond correctly to their animation. Creating a Flow or Idle Area at a non-zero frame with Auto-key on will result in offset simulation. Turn Auto-key off before creating Flows and Idle Areas.​

  • When there is an intersection on two landings on a Flow that has no outlet in the scene, the initial placement of the characters in that intersection will be twice the height of the ramp. To correct for this, create another Flow off camera as a spawning outlet.​

  • Because Populate reuses people, simple Flow networks can result in the same people occurring too often as they leave the end of one Flow and appear on another. To correct for this, create a dense Flow off camera to use to cycle people "back stage".​

  • Snapping Flow segments to legal intersections does not currently work within the same Flow, such as when a Flow has ramps and intersects itself. To create legal intersections in this situation, use the main Align tool to align the segments.​

  • Simulating with Set Key active will result in some materials losing their textures and other potential instability. Turn Set Key off before simulating. To remedy missing textures, use Delete People, then re-simulate.​

  • The Ribbon Flow width spinner will show system units only. If scene units are different from system units, the value will be incorrect. The value in the Flow Modify Panel will be correct for scene units.​

  • Using the Delete People command before saving a file will reset any regenerated people to their original skins when the file is reopened and re simulated.​

  • When switching to high resolution skins after using Regenerate Selected, some of the male people may revert to their original skins. Switch to high resolution skins before using Regenerate Selected before rendering.​

  • Populate characters Render Control object properties are always set to By Object, even when the 3ds Max default is By Layer. ​

     
Track View

  • If you turn on the Global Tracks option in Track View, then close and reopen Track View or open a new Track View, the Global Tracks option reverts to Off.​

     
SDK

  • Uninstalling the SDK does not remove the start menu icons.

     
State Sets

  • State Sets will not render animation sequences properly when using a custom FPS setting in the Time Configuration.

     
User Interface (UI)

  • Enhanced Menus do not work with the Dark UI
    Workaround: Select from Workspace drop down list: “Reset to Default State”. This will update UI and the Graphical menu will be reopened again.”

  • Edit Named Selection Sets UI does not display tooltips.

  • When using Maxscript to build menus there can be a delay displaying them.

  • When running in windowed mode the menu bar may be truncated.

  • The tooltip for the mCloth density parameter says grams per square centimeter. This is incorrect. It should be grams per square meter.

  • WPF Hardware Acceleration can cause loss of UI elements and instability.

    Users can disable hardware acceleration for WPF UI.
    Registry settings to disable hardware acceleration for all WPF applications on the system:
    http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa970912.aspx ​

     

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Customer Involvement Program and Customer Error Reports

Customer Involvement Program (CIP)

The first time 3ds Max / 3ds Max Design is started, the Customer Involvement Program dialog opens. If you choose to participate in the Customer Involvement Program, 3ds Max or 3ds Max Design will automatically send Autodesk information about system configuration, which features are used most frequently problems encountered, and other information helpful to the future direction of the product. For further information, see www.autodesk.com/cip.

To enable CIP:

  1. Install and start 3ds Max / 3ds Max Design.

  2. If the Customer Involvement Program dialog box is not displayed automatically, then in the Help menu, click Customer Involvement Program.

  3. In the Customer Involvement Program dialog box, select "Participate - with contact information."

  4. Enter a valid email address and company name, if any. Click OK.

Customer Error Reports

We can improve the stability of Autodesk 3ds Max / Autodesk 3ds Max Design largely because of the Customer Error Reports (CERs) that end-users submit. We thank you for taking the time to fill out these reports and ask you to include as much information as possible about what actions you were performing at the time the error occurred. These details raise the value of the report immensely and are very much appreciated by the Autodesk 3ds Max Quality Engineering team.
For further information about CERs refer to www.autodesk.com/cer.

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