zwischendrin.com blog
30Mar/110

release date for Autodesk 2012 series (3D Studio Max,…)

There are rumors on the internet predicting the release date for 3D Studio Max 2012 and the rest of the 2012 series of Autodesks software to be April the 8th. This does indeed seem plausible, since Autodesk increasingly started advertising and revealed more and more features of the individual software packages these days. Also indicating: earlier release dates of previous products from Autodesk also point to a release date in April.

4Jan/110

GrowFX on zwischendrin.com

We are proud to announce a new product on zwischendrin.com: GrowFX.
GrowFX is a plugin for 3D Studio Max that allows you to make very realictic 3D trees.

GrowFX lets you create broadleaf trees, conifers, palm trees, flowers, ivy and many other vegetational compositions. Its unique model building tools will help you create creeping plants, entwining scene objects, and shearing plants of any shape. Plants may bend around different objects.

Go and get it here!

31Oct/100

quick bugfix for SnowPrint

For all those that have a little problem using SnowPrint the first time:
If you get an error that says that something is wrong with map channel 0, just click the "map channel" spinner once and set it back to 1. There seems to be something wrong with the starting value of that map channel. Sorry for that!

14Oct/100

About the ribbon/”error parsing xaml file” bug

I think I should look much more often for updates, hotfixes and service packs of my 3D Studio Max... Smile
Even after following my own suggestions about fighting the ribbon bug (read this post) I got the same error again after a long time of silence...
After applying the fix again ("read only" protection had gone?!?) I searched the autodesk website for an 3D Studio Max update and - lo and behold - there seems to be a service pack for that software!

The readme says: "Ribbon -> Customization of Ribbon features are now working as expected."
My problem should be history, I hope!

You can find the SP1 here: Autodesk 3ds Max Design Services & Support

9Sep/100

V-Ray 2.0 release date and pricing

Chaosgroup officially announced the release date and pricing of VRay 2.0

Release date is 07.12.2010, the public beta of VRay 2.0 RT starts now and is available to all owners of VRay RT.

We can also answer the question "How much does an upgrade of VRay 2.0 cost?"
If you bought VRay or VRay RT before August 1 2010 you get the upgrade for 510 $ / 400 €. After this date (between august 1 and november 1 2010) an upgrade to VRay 2.0 costs 190 $  / 150 €.

If  you do not own VRay already, you get a preorder discount and you get it for just 1070 $ / 845 €.
Regulary VRay 2.0 will have a full price of 1230 $ / 970 €.

Good news for those who purchased a "three in one bundle" (VRay, VRay RT and PDPlayer): you get your update for free!

Last but not least:
The brand new VRay 2.0 includes V-Ray 2.0 for 3ds Max , V-Ray RT on CPU and V-Ray RT on GPU!!

(You can buy VRay 2.0 here)
26Aug/100

Bugfixing 3D Studio Max Design 2011

#1

Maybe you also got this error before: when starting 3D Studio Max you get an error warning that says "error parsing xaml file: root element missing" or another error message that says something with the new ribbon user interface is wrong. The solution is relatively simple:
go to [USERNAME]\AppData\Local\Autodesk\3dsMaxDesign\2011 - 64bit\enu\UI
(change the username to you username and remove the brackets, 3dsMaxDesign should be changed to 3dsMax if you have the regular version)
and search for a file called "MaxManaged.xaml.backup". Replace the file "MaxManaged.xaml" (which is zero bytes in size) with this file and 3D Studio Max runs as it should! I got this error several times until I checked "read-only" in its file settings. Those problems are now gone!

#2

My 3dsMax ALWAYS showed me an error when closing it. This was very annoying! Razz
All settings did not save and it was just... unnecessary?
This solution also was very easy! (btw. I never thought of this causing an error like that)
uninstall your graphic card's drivers and install new ones! This fixed it.