3ds Max Design 2010

Graphite Modeling
Create 3D models quickly and efficiently with the new Graphite modeling toolset. Graphite builds on the renowned 3ds Max polygon modeling functionality by delivering 100 new tools for advanced polygonal modeling, texture painting, and freeform design. Because the Graphite tools are always displayed in one centeral location, it’s easy to find the right tool for the job. Customize the tool display or hide the command panel and model in Expert Mode.

Exposure
Simulate the lighting in your designs with confidence—Exposure^™ lighting analysis technology has been validated by the National Research Council Canada (NRC), Canada’s leading organization for scientific research and development, and the same organization that has conducted validation studies on Radiance for lighting simulation. A feature unique to 3ds Max Design 2010, Exposure enables you to achieve more sustainable designs by analyzing how sun, sky, and artificial lighting interact with your design and exploring direct lighting effects right in the viewport. Load complex designs and watch lighting levels adjust in the scene as colors.

View video about Interactive Lighting in 3ds Max Design.

Containers
The new Containers toolset in 3ds Max Design facilitates collaboration and flexible workflows by enabling users to collect multiple objects of a complex scene into a single container. Place related objects―such as sections of a city―in a container and treat them as a single element. To improve scene performance, temporarily unload containers from the viewport display while maintaining their relationships to the scene and reload later when needed―saving memory, increasing viewport performance, and decreasing load and save times. Translate, delete, copy, or save container nodes; use containers to override object properties for scene organization without affecting layer organization (similar to a nested layer workflow); and reference multiple containers created by others into a single scene so users can work together in context. Users can access and edit each other’s container, allowing flexible workflows while also imposing constraints on what can be edited.

Review 3
Take the guesswork out of your final renders with Review 3, the third generation of Review technology and a major advancement in viewport display. In addition to a redesigned Viewport menu that significantly streamlines your workflow, Review 3 offers support for ambient occlusion, High Dynamic Range Image (HDRI)-based lighting, soft shadows, hardware anti-aliasing, interactive exposure control, and the revolutionary mental mill® shader technology.

Material Explorer
Quickly navigate all rendering-related assets in your scene, perform operations on multiple objects, and inspect―and even replace―individual materials. The Material Explorer simplifies the way you interact with objects and materials, making design iterations much easier, even in highly complex scenes.

xView Mesh Analyzer
Validate your 3D models prior to export or rendering with the xView mesh analyzer technology. This new functionality gives you an interactive view of potential design issues so you can make informed decisions and avoid costly mistakes. The analyzer significantly improves the speed of testing models and maps. Test or query for flipped or overlapping faces and unwelded vertices. You can also add your own specific tests and queries.

Global Quality Knobs: mental ray
If you are familiar with Revit you will appreciate the addition of global quality knobs to the 3ds Max Design mental ray toolset. This new feature can be used to quickly dial up or down quality settings for shadows, glossy refractions and reflections along with image anti-aliasing and indirect illumination quality.

Multi-Map Shader: mental ray
Purposely assign specific color variations to a set of objects that otherwise share the same material. Also quickly randomize or assign colors to multiple objects/maps based on object IDs or Material IDs. This new capability could be used to randomize the colors of trees, leaves, crowds, or anything repetitive that could benefit from a degree of color variation.

Linear Color Space Workflow
Gamma correction has been improved to correctly handle images and textures for a physically-accurate rendering workflow where color consistency is critical. Gamma settings now load correctly with files and propagate correctly on network rendering solutions.