3ds Max - Dragging files into the viewport

Bruno Afonseca

Hey!
Usually when I do this, it shows up a dialog asking whether I want to open this file or merge it into the current scene. But sometimes the dialog stops showing up and it just automatically merges it, which drives me a little bit insane.
How can I fix this behavior?

Bryan Cavett

I believe the dialog only shows up when dragging in /max files into the viewport. If you're dragging in .fbx, .obj, etc. then it just merges it and attaches it to the cursor for you place into the scene. I find it annoying as well.

Bigjohn

That dialog is supposed to always show up. I'm pretty sure the behavior you're describing is a bug. I've been seeing it for years now. 90% of the time if you drag and drop a file into the viewport, it'll bring up a little menu asking you if you want to open or merge or whatever. But the other 10% of the time it'll just automatically merge.

I never found the condition under which it merges. Seems random. It also seems that if I reset the scene, it fixes it in the short run.

vik

Do you have Disable View ticked by any chance? Try turning it off or resetting Max.

Mark Dygert

I really wish it wouldn't attach to the mouse cursor for me to place, so many times I need to import something in the exact position it was in the previous scene but you can't do that through the drag-drop method, soo annoying. It would be nice if "drag and place" was an option along side merge. But of course we'll get more UI gradients and rounded menu buttons, you know important stuff.

I've run into the bug where it automatically merges instead of asking, but I haven't hit that recently, I assumed it was because of my wireless mouse, it had a habit of falling asleep if it wasn't moving and then would often register a mouse click when you started to move, or just stick whatever you where dragging to the cursor and ignored the mouse clicks. I pitched that mouse and went back to wired and it hasn't happened since, but then I do File > Merge more often now because of the annoying drag-place behavior.

Bruno Afonseca

I was getting mad at max right now and did a google search that drove me back to my own thread... And I decided to try to untick "disable view". And it worked!
Apparently I left that on in maxstart.max so I didn't even notice. And I keep hitting D on accident, so I got rid of that hotkey. My life suddenly got better, thanks guys!

Mark Dygert

Disabled view... son of a...

Now that I think about it I haven't had that issue since I bound D to something much more useful.

evanesac

Here you go:

http://www.3dmax-tutorials.com/Preferences_Dialog_Asset_Browser.html