Autodesk 3ds Max and Autodesk 3ds Max Design software have one of the richest 3D modeling toolsets in the industry:

• Efficiently create parametric and organic objects with polygon, spline, and NURBS-based modeling features.
• Unleash your creativity with more than 100 advanced polygonal modeling and freeform 3D design tools in the Graphite modeling toolset.
• Control the number of faces or points in your object with ProOptimizer technology and reduce a selection’s complexity by up to 75 percent without loss of detail.
• Articulate minute details and optimize meshes for both interactive manipulation and rendering using subdivision surfaces and polygon smoothing.

Access a vast range of texture painting, mapping, and layering options:

• Perform creative texture mapping operations, including tiling, mirroring, decal placement, blurring, spline mapping, UV stretching, and relaxation.
• Design and edit complex shading hierarchies with the Slate material editor, leveraging extensive libraries of textures, images, and procedural maps.
• Use the intuitive Viewport Canvas toolset to paint multiple layers onto any maps in any material directly on 3D objects.
• Bake each object’s material and lighting into new texture maps with the Render to Texture functionality.
• Access up to 1,200 material templates and seamlessly exchange material data between supporting Autodesk applications with the Autodesk Material Library.

Create intelligent, believable characters and higher-quality animations by tapping into a sophisticated toolset:

• Leverage procedural animation and rigging with CAT (Character Animation Toolkit), biped, and crowd-animation functionality.
• Use the Skin modifier and CAT Muscle to help achieve more precise, smoother control of skeletal deformation as bones move.
• Rig complex mechanical assemblies and characters with custom skeletons using 3ds Max bones, inverse kinematics (IK) solvers, and customizable rigging tools.
• Wire one- and two-way relationships between controllers to help create simplified 3D animation interfaces.
• Animate CAT, biped, and 3ds Max objects in layers to tweak dense motion capture data without compromising underlying keyframes.

Create dynamics and effects with production-proven, high-performance toolsets:

• Use the built-in cloth-simulation engine to turn almost any 3D object into clothing, or build garments from scratch—and then make adjustments to and animate these cloth objects.
• Create hair, fur, and other strand-derived effects such as grass, and precisely control their styling and animation.
• Design sophisticated event-driven particle effects such as water, fire, spray, and snow, and control them with expressions, scripts, or direct manipulators.

Achieve stunning image quality in less time with powerful 3D rendering software capabilities:

• Get more predictable, photo-real results without worrying about rendering settings, using the iray® rendering technology from mental images.
• Make interactive decisions in context with the ability to view most 3ds Max texture maps and materials in the viewport.
• Take advantage of idle processors to finish rendering faster with batch rendering in mental ray® renderer.
• Output multiple passes simultaneously from supported rendering software, including high dynamic range (HDR) data, for reassembly in 3ds Max® Composite functionality.
• Create high-fidelity pre-visualizations, animatics, and marketing materials with the innovative Quicksilver hardware renderer.

iray and mental ray are registered trademarks of mental images GmbH licensed for use by Autodesk, Inc.

mental ray is a registered trademark of mental images GmbH licensed for use by Autodesk, Inc.

Import data from a multitude of sources and more smoothly transfer Autodesk 3ds Max and Autodesk 3ds Max Design data across file iterations, software applications, users, and locations:

• Use Autodesk® FBX® technology to exchange data with certain other leading 3D applications, including Autodesk® Maya® software, Autodesk® Mudbox™ software, Autodesk® MotionBuilder® software, and Autodesk® Revit® Architecture software, and work nondestructively with upstream changes.
• Import surface and solids data directly into Autodesk 3ds Max and Autodesk 3ds Max Design from Autodesk® Inventor®, Autodesk® Alias® Design, and other 3D CAD software.
• Aggregate data with support for more than 30 2D and 3D data formats, including 3ds, AI, DEM, XML, DDF, DWG, DXF, FBX, DAE, IGES, IPT, IAM, OBJ, STL, VRML, FLT, SAT, WIRE, and SKP.
• Smoothly transition between versions, with the ability to save scenes in a format compatible with 3ds Max and 3ds Max Design 2010 and 2011..

Collect, organize, and share data in complex scenes, enabling multiple users to collaboratively contribute to the workflow:

• Improve scene performance and reduce memory consumption by temporarily unloading Containers from the viewport display while maintaining their relationships to the scene for reloading when required.
• Use containers to override object properties for scene organization without affecting layer organization (similar to a nested layer workflow).
• Reference containers created by others into a single scene and layer local edits on top nondestructively for more flexible, collaborative workflows.

Use containers to override object properties for scene organization without affecting layer organization.

Enhance rendered passes and incorporate them into live action footage with 3ds Max® Composite functionality, a fully featured, high-performance, high dynamic range (HDR)-capable compositor, based on technology from Autodesk® Toxik® compositing software. The 3ds Max Composite toolset incorporates keying, color correction, tracking, camera mapping, raster and vector paint, spline-based warping, motion blur, depth of field, and tools to support stereoscopic productions.

Helps optimize your productivity with user interface features designed to help you work more efficiently:

• Maximize the usable workspace and focus on the features that matter most for specialized workflows with customizable user interface layouts.
• Create and store personalized UI configurations that include frequently used action items and macro scripts, and toggle the display of these configurations with the touch of a hotkey or button.
• Save time when modeling and maintain focus on the creative task at hand with the Caddy in-context UI for polygon modeling tools

• Measure light at any location by generating light measurement grids of any shape.
• Generate light-intensity and indoor-environmental quality evaluations such as those required for LEED® EQ Credit 8.1.
• Achieve more sustainable designs by better predicting how light will interact with buildings.
• Analytically explore direct lighting effects on complex architectural designs with interactive results right in the viewport.

Exposure has been validated by the National Research Council, Canada’s leading organization for scientific research.

Turn complex civil design geometry into precise and compelling 3D design visualizations faster and more efficiently with the 3ds Max Design Civil View feature set. With simple, style-driven functionality and an extensive library of parametric civil-oriented objects and materials, Civil View helps civil engineers achieve stunning results, even those with little or no detailed knowledge of 3ds Max Design. Civil View dynamically links to data from AutoCAD® Civil 3D® civil engineering software and other software products such as Bentley® MXROAD® software. When design changes occur, design visualizations are more easily refreshed, enabling them to evolve in tandem. Civil View now offers enhanced support for the new iray® and Quicksilver rendering solutions for faster results and simplified setup.

iray is a registered trademark of mental images GmbH licensed for use by Autodesk, Inc.