Hi guys,

This is not a specific 3ds Max 2009 problem, it applies to all versions as far as I’m aware but as I’m currently using 2009 I’ll post in here.

A few months back my company changed its file server from Novell to Microsoft and of course the path name has changed as well.

When I open an old scene dated prior to the server change, 3ds Max looks for materials on \\OLDSERVER\Data\Shared. The new file server path is \\NEWSERVER\shared\. I have attempted changing these paths but the process is taking hours.

Using the Asset Manager, I right click on each missing material and change the old path name to the new path name. Unfortunately 3ds Max goes off in search of this path to check if it exists or not. This takes at least 15 minutes before it finally realises that the path does not exist (well, this is what I think is happening). Once it realises it can’t be found, then the menu appears where I can edit the path. To do this on hundreds of materials would take days. I have also tried selecting multiple paths but the process takes even longer… if fact, long enough for me to end the process. Hours in other words.

Is there a simpler way to edit these paths...? Am I doing something wrong...?

Any help on this subject would be most helpful.

Regards

Roly

You need to set up the User Paths in Max to find the maps, as shown. If like me you have loads of subdirectories to your maps folder, check the option Add Subpaths when you add your root map folder.
If Max cant find the map where your old file says it is, it looks here, and if it is there, it is found.
To resave the file with the new locations use Asset Tracking. You can Shift Select a whole bunch of maps at once, strip the old path, then Make Absolute, to fill in it’s found location, save the file.

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Hi Samab,

Unfortunately this doesn’t resolve the problem as Max still goes off searching for these server paths that no longer exist. I have two sets of paths setup for both local drives and the new server already.

I was hoping there may be a editable file somewhere which I could remove these paths from… unlikely but a nice thought!!!

Thanks anyway.

The external file paths are stored in the Project file - project_folder_name.mxp, in the [BitmapDirs] section. .mxp files are essentially .ini files with a different extension. Make sure Max is not running if you edit them outside of Max. You can also remove those paths by going to Customise | Configure User Paths | External Files (tab). That probably won’t impact on images which have an absolute path wherever they are used, Max will still look there first, but should speed up the process after that.

Max 4.2 through 2013.
XP-64 (SP2)
NVidia 9800GTX-512 (Driver 266.58).
Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz, 8Gb Ram, DX9.0c.