I started Max today and discovered that I no longer have the view cubes or steering wheel. The view menu has them listed but there menus are empty. I’ve tried re-installing with no luck.  Everything was working last time i was using Max. anyone have any ideas about what is going on here?

Check to make sure the file AutoCamMax.gup is in your stdplugs directory.

Or, consider yourself lucky, most users are spending their time trying to get rid of those features, you’re a lucky one and they’re gone for you automatically :)

- Neil

it’s there. stll no cube.. I really liked it.

I don’t get it! Why does people hate the cube so much? It is a small quite dice way out in the corner of your viewport that makes it a whole lot faster to navigate the orthogonal views..

Anyway.. Have you tried resetting the viewport by pressing T on the keyboard and/or disabling the wheel for a session? Sounds lame I know, but worked for me..

@ ikrel
Did you manage to accidentally disable it? Viewport configuration > Viewcube (tab) > Show the Viewcube (checkbox).
You might have a corrupted 3dsmax.ini - try renaming it and see if that cures the problem.

@ Thomas
I suggest you search these forums for problems caused by, and fixed by removing entirely, the Viewcube, then you would know why we hate it. If you’re new to Max I can understand why you would like it, but if you were used to using Max without it you might have a different opinion of it.

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

Something else to consider here too is that under OpenGL and Direct3D, the ViewCube and SteeringWheels are present and available, but if you’ve shifted graphics mode to Software, neither will show up.

To see what graphics mode you’re in, go to Customize > Preferences - then select the Viewports tab and at the bottom you’ll see a group of controls called Display Drivers. The currently used ones are listed in that part of the UI.

Hope that helps.

-=Beau

Buy a New Deadline
http://www.turbosquid.com

WTF! My comment got tucked with Steve_Curleys comment. Must have hit the wrong button. Sorry..

@ Steve_Curley
Did that and I see where you are coming from. I guess it is more of a “bugs caused by.. “ than a “functionallity of..” issue. Wich is more than justified.

What triggered me is a tendency in parts of the community to take every new feature as the ultimate gamestopper. Sometimes to a degree that borders on what seems more like an immature attempt to be cool than an informed opinion (no offence intended) and it is starting to get me a little bit.

"Comments” are tied to the post, “Quotes” and “Replies” are normal posts which appear at the end of the thread (as you would expect).

I’m glad you took the time to check up on the Viewcube issues. It (and the Steering Wheel) can be turned off in the Viewport Configuration which would be fine if it weren’t for all the other problems they can cause.
Not all customer “gripes” are just a mtter of preference and not linking change, there’s stuff in 2010 which simply shouldn’t have been done. Stupid file menu “because we have to to get MS certification”, lousy icons that all look the same. Things like that impact on people’s workflows and slows them down - and we all know that time is money (for most folks here anyway). Common sense, sadly, does not always prevail.

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

My bad. But why the extra option? Guess it ties in nicely with the main topic of our discussion..

I agree with what you are saing for most parts. Especially the MS Cerfication sticks out as weird. One should think that a company like Autodesk would have the oomph to tell MS.

About the icons and general interface changes there could be an argument in signalling emprovements and evolution. Though it is anoying to have to reconfigure you UI, it does make sence to show the new stuff in the default UI and not just hide it away in the customize section.
The prevoius icons still ship with the package.

I think the core of the matter is lack of testing. With the Subscription model Autodesk has forced themselves to come up with new stuff within each cycle. That results in forced release upon forced release. 2008, 2009 and now 2010 has had serious bugs and broken tools that should have been ironed out.

Why the extra option? Who knows. I suppose the idea is good enough - makes a forum look more like a newsgroup with “threaded” posts, but without the ability to see “unread posts” easily I’m not convinced it’s that good an idea. We will have to wait and see, though once they get NNTP access sorted out I’ll be using that anyway - I find it so much easier to deal with.

I’d be happy for them to forget new features for one release if they would fix all the outstanding issues which have been around for ages - a suggestion which has been made more than once around here ;-)

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

Why does people hate the cube so much? It is a small quite dice way out in the corner of your
viewport that makes it a whole lot faster to navigate the orthogonal views..

I think it’s mostly 4 reasons.

1) The steeringwheel and viewcube are not actually all that small. If both options are on, and you have 4 views visible, it takes up more than half of the viewport on a standard 21inch monitor (although I believe it was made slightly smaller for max2010.)

2) Turning the features off is overly complex. Renaming a file that ships with the software is not a good way to turn a feature off, there should be a preference that remains sticky between max sessions in the Preference section.

3) From my understanding (although I didn’t experience the problem personally), having these features enabled slowed down the viewport performance considerably.

4) Adding new features is tough, since there are a million new features that people want, and everyone has differing priorities. However, even considering this issue, the steeringwheel and viewcube are viewed generally I’d say as features that no one asked for. So people get especially annoyed that autodesk is spending their time adding features that people have not requested. Say they chose instead to add a schematic material editor. Not everyone will want to use it, not everyone will have that high on their priority list, but I would imagine everyone would understand why adesk put it there, since so many people over so many years have asked for it to be added. The viewcube and steeringwheel, not so much.

Anyways, this is all just my opinion, and the options of others I’ve seen stated on this and other boards. If you love these options, that’s great, use em and enjoy.

- Neil