Problem with 3ds Max 2017

ThePugLife

When I opened my 3ds max file for a project I have been working on, I was greeted by the sight of this...
Any ideas of what could be causing this? 

Valandar

Corrupted file?

spacefrog

Is this happening in the same Max version you created the scene with ?
How is you system units setting in relation to your object dimensions ?
Is this with some modifiers on the  stack or is the stack collapsed ?
Is it edit mesh or edit poly ?
If the modifier stack contains a selection modifier, its possible that the vertex selection got changed by accident ...

thomasp

is that an edit poly modifier containing mesh changes in the stack? we stopped using that on a project because it screwed up like this randomly, causing lost work.

LaurentiuN

Maybe you had some modifiers plugins in the old max and in the new are missing ?

cptSwing

Export to FBX/OBJ and reimport to a fresh scene?

spacefrog

thomasp said:

is that an edit poly modifier containing mesh changes in the stack? we stopped using that on a project because it screwed up like this randomly, causing lost work.

There was such a specific issue when edit poly modifier code was updated with - i believe - Max 2013. This would effect old ( pre Max 2013 scenes ) when loaded in Max2013+  too i think . Usually Edit Poly modifiers should of course keep the edits intact ...

ThePugLife

Thank you all for the responses! I ended up remodeling the object, but I would like to figure out whats causing this so I dont make the same mistake in the future.

spacefrog said:

Is this happening in the same Max version you created the scene with ?

Yes, I have only used 3ds max 2017 for this scene

spacefrog said:

Is this with some modifiers on the  stack or is the stack collapsed ? 
Is it edit mesh or edit poly 

It is an edit poly with quite a few edit poly modifiers in the stack. However, there was also a pro-Boolean at the bottom of the stack.
spacefrog said:

If the modifier stack contains a selection modifier, its possible that the vertex selection got changed by accident ...

What do you mean by a selection modifier? Sorry, the terminology is still quite new to me 

cptSwing said:

Export to FBX/OBJ and reimport to a fresh scene?

I tried but had no effect

huffer

Sometimes the vertex (or face, etc) selection at the base of the stack gets reset, so all Edit Poly modifiers on top have a different effect - you can try going back to the base object in the stack (the first Edit poly, or Editable Poly base), and re-enter sub-object component mode (vertex, edge, face, whichever it was on which you applied the next Edit Poly) - your selection should have been preserved, then move up the stack and do the same for the next Edit Polys.

spacefrog

It is an edit poly with quite a few edit poly modifiers in the stack. However, there was also a pro-Boolean at the bottom of the stack.

Than i woud suspect the pro-Boolean being the bad guy. IMHO It's possbile that  the boolean operations produce different output after a scene load due to rounding errors etc. Additionally, booleans always tend to produce stray vertices etc. which i would'nt trust being always exactly the same after the boolean operation gets recalculated ( after a scene reload eg ). I always would collapse a pro-boolean to an edit poly when finished with modelling, especially before placing vertex indices dependent modifiiers on top. (Best would be keeping the source object intact and do the collapse on a copy )

What do you mean by a selection modifier? Sorry, the terminology is still quite new to me

It's a modifier which lets you change the current selection of  vertices, edges or faces and pass that changed selection up the stack. The modifier can not change mesh topology or vertex positions etc..,  only the currently selected elements.

ThePugLife

spacefrog said:

Than i woud suspect the pro-Boolean being the bad guy. IMHO It's possbile that  the boolean operations produce different output after a scene load due to rounding errors etc. Additionally, booleans always tend to produce stray vertices etc. which i would'nt trust being always exactly the same after the boolean operation gets recalculated ( after a scene reload eg ). I always would collapse a pro-boolean to an edit poly when finished with modelling, especially before placing vertex indices dependent modifiiers on top. (Best would be keeping the source object intact and do the collapse on a copy )

Thank you!

perna said:

Never use Edit Poly modifiers except temporarily unless you know exactly 100% why that is a bad idea. It's generally terrible modeling practice and will break in the absolute majority of cases, and then people complain about Max.

edit: Edit Poly on TOP of a boolean modifier? That is guaranteed to fail. Never use Edit Poly like this. There's no reason to.

You learn something new everyday, Thank You! 

Mark Dygert

To add to what Per said. Edit Poly (the modifier) is a separate set of commands on the back end. so if you take time to set up custom key binds for Editable Poly (the object) you have to set them up again for Edit Poly. Also in Edit Poly you don't have access to Subdivision surface which depending on what type of model you're working on, can be a pretty big deal.