Well, there is a LOT of interest in 3ds Max/Design 2010. We're seeing roughly 2,500 downloads a day. I thought it would ease off after the announce, and it has dropped some, but I thought it would slow down to about 1,000/day which is where the prior release averaged. That is a lot of people checking out the release, in fact, as far as I can tell, we're the number one download at Autodesk right now.

I'd guess that the majority of you are really enjoying the experience of the new release. Yes, there are some things you wish had been done differently, but it seems that you're generally giving us a thumbs up.

One of the first reviews came in from Digital Arts, which gave us 4/5 stars. Here is the brief summary:

pros: Graphite modelling toolset and ribbon interface; render-preview effects in the viewport; enhanced OBJ support; Containers; Material Explorer; mental mill.

cons: Some features already appeared in subscriber-only Creativity Extension for 3DS Max 2009; some known bugs and limitations; expensive.

It seems the most angst is around the ribbon, which we completely understand. We knew it would be the most controversial element of the release. We started beta with 100% of users against it and we ended beta with 70% of users for it. We knew that 30% of you would simply not like it very much. Why do it? A couple reasons:
1) 3ds Max really needed a UI refresh. That’s not our opinion, that is what you all have been telling us for years and years. That is a huge task for our team to take on, but luckily, Autodesk embarked on a program to develop common UI elements that all teams could use. This meant we could leverage many other development efforts – but we kind of had to live with some of the design decisions too. We were able to get many, many of our requests supported by the component team - but not all. So, there are some things we wish were different with the design. We don’t view it as “perfect” or even as “finished” but it is a lot better than what we started with.
2) We have a vision and goal for the UI. You are not looking at the end-state, you are looking at something that is evolving. Unfortunately, we can’t share all the details of our thinking, but it is important for you to realize that it is a work-in-progress and we have a vision. We’re sharing that vision with customers under NDA and they are giving us good feedback – so we’re encouraged we’re on the right path – even if we’re not at the final destination.

We believe that the UI really needs to become something where your tools are at your fingertips and not something you have to “reach for”. I’d say that is our guiding principle. The ribbon is a necessary part of our UI strategy, but it isn’t the only part. As you know, it doesn’t exactly fulfill that guiding principle perfectly (though the tear-off nature of the panels helps a lot).

I see a lot of postings on the forum where someone starts with a “I hate the ribbon” only to learn from other posters just how configurable it is and then watching their opinion morph in a more favorable direction as they learn more about it. There are a lot of different ways you can set it up – even vertical configurations.

Realistically, any changes we would have made to the UI would have generated some level of negative response because we’re changing something fairly fundamental – and change is not always universally welcomed. So, we entered this effort knowing that no matter what we did, there would be those who would find fault with it. Our original design and goal was to make it significantly configurable, so that we could maximize what people could do with it. Unfortunately, we ran out of time/resources and had to limit the configurability to something less than our design. It doesn’t mean we’ve given up, it’s just that we couldn’t ship what we wanted.

I’ve also been very pleased to see the large number of people that really welcomed the ribbon and the new Graphite tools. A lot of people have found that the ribbon is a much more discoverable interface (the advanced tooltips help). I think that is a reasonable goal for the entire 3ds Max UI – make it fully discoverable so that anyone at any stage of learning can figure out how to work more efficiently without a lot of time spent learning.

Anyway, hope you're enjoying the experience. Let me know what is the #1 thing you like and what is the #1 thing you dislike. Please, no long lists - just the most important single thing. You never know, someone might read your comment and do something about it...