There is a change with the Material Editor that I do not like at all. I've been using Max for about 6 years now and something that used to be so easy to do has not become very difficult. If you've been using max for very long at all, you know that adding a "bitmap" to your diffuse under basic parameters and then applying them to a mesh was very simple (exam: putting blue prints on a plane to model a car with).. Basic MAX. With the release of 2009 Design Suite, I was very frustrated that I could perform this basic task due to the fact that the "Standard Material" was not set by default in the material editor. The default is a new added featured called "Arch & Design". I've even tried changing the material to a "standard Material" and the map still doesn't look right. I stumbled across the answer. If you are having this problem and would like to revert 2009 Design Suite back to "Standard Material" by default.. Here is what you can do, since there is no way to set "default material" from within MAX.

Solution

You can set the default type for the slots in the Material Editor by editing the 3ds Max configuration file. Follow these steps:

1. Exit 3ds Max Design 2009.

2. Navigate to the following folderthis example is for Vista Ultimate x64)

CUsers\<UserName>\AppData\Local\Autodesk\3dsmax\2009 - 64bit\enu

3. Open the 3dsmax.ini configuration file with Microsoft® Notepad.

4. Find the following line in the file:

Defaults=CProgram Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2009\defaults\DesignVIZ.mentalray

5. Replace it with the following line:

Defaults=CProgram Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2009\defaults\MAX

6. Save the 3dsmax.ini file and restart 3ds Max Design 2009.

This will get you back on familiar ground. I hope that this helps if you need it.

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Rick

[Link to www.3dartconcepts.com]