Home Technical Talk

Undo hell in MAX

When I am animating in Max it is not smart to press on Ctrl + Z to undo my action because it probably will not undo or it will ruin my whole animation. The undo works when I am just modelling so it is only when I am animating. A lot people in my school have the same problem and we already searched for an answer but have nothing found. I was hoping there is somebody here who can help me.

Extra information :

3ds max 2009 32 bit
Windows vista
Nvidia Quadro
Intel Centrino vPro dual core
4 gigs ram

(Hp laptop Compaq 8710w)


Greetz

Replies

  • tarickTDS
    Options
    Offline / Send Message
    use another program <shrugs>

    I know that might sound silly but knowing different programs (Maya) is a good idea and if its something that you just cant fix, then use another program, who knows maybe by the time you go back to max the next version will be out and the problem will be fixed.

    Maybe thats bad advice but then again maybe not, you decide.
  • Mechadus
    Options
    Offline / Send Message
    Animating in Max is infuriating compared to many other apps.

    Ive had the same undo problem here at work while animating. My only suggestion for a workaround is to use the 'hold and fetch' option rather than actually undo. basically hold the scene, animate for 5 mins, then hold again - when you need to undo hit fetch and it will bring it back to when you hit "hold". Nowhere near as good as undo, but "Nowhere near as good" pretty much sums up MAX IMO.

    -N!
  • Mark Dygert
    Options
    Offline / Send Message
    It really depends on what version you're using.

    max 9 and lower:
    - Disable autosave. It had several issues with stability and it also would clear out the undo list. It was fixed in newer releases 2008 SP2 or it was in with the creative extensions, I think.

    Don't crank up the number of undos, and don't crank back in the history. Wait for it to finish reapplying the first undo before undoing the next.

    If you're using motion mixer and have a lot of clips, save often and relaunch max after mixing.

    Sounds effect performance and can cause crashes if you scrub through too many frames with the tracking setting set pretty high.

    Display settings are important, while having complex materials rendered in the viewport and lighting with shadows is nice for modeling and texture preview, its not always a good idea for animation.

    Every new, raw release since 9 has been bugged and its not until the first or second service pack that it gets better. So always install those service packs, never go with a raw new release.

    When you load max don't launch other apps at the same time. Its best to restart the machine, wait for it to idle, launch max, wait for it to idle then load your file.

    If you built your own rig, there is a good chance you might have set things up in non standard ways that create all kinds of chaos. You might have thought "well it works so I'll go with it" and not known there is a easier more stable way to rig something up. You may not have reset transforms and scale, you might have tried to scale bones, or messed with IK settings just to see what they do. Or followed a really old half baked tutorial or insutructor who didn't really have a clue.

    It happens a lot when people are learning. The app gets blamed quite a bit no matter what app you're using, then you learn techniques and things get easier and more stable. That's not to say they aren't buggy piles of crap sometimes but they are like badgers, the more you work with them the more you know what not to do to set them off.

    If you're using biped, know that setting it to Euler isn't the most stable form of biped, it might make the curve editor slightly less annoying but its buggy... oh so buggy, but did get better in later releases.

    Don't work off of crash saves.

    Try not to work off of autoback saves.

    Other apps have their issues too so its not going to get a whole lot better. If you haven't rigged in Maya before and you can't use a free rig, the challange could be daugnting espeically if you've only ever used biped. There is nothing in Maya like biped, thats good and bad all at the same time. Toss in the learning curve and you're in for more frustration.

    Learning other apps is a smart thing to do later on down the road, but not when you're starring down the barrel of a deadline.
  • BradMyers82
    Options
    Offline / Send Message
    BradMyers82 interpolator
    I would say Vig is pretty much has your solution outlined, but to just chime in; Save often. When you doing something that you know might cause a crash like a tricky part of an animation and you know you will need to undo, save before you try it. I know it's sort of common sense, but actually planning on crashes will really help you from losing your work.
    FYI, Max2010 has a lot more bugs it seems when I am modeling. Sometimes I feel I spend more time working around the bugs, than working around the modeling. But I put up with it because I really like the new Graphite Modeling tools (better than Polyboost IMO). Not a whole lot you can do about crashes though. Good luck man.

    [Edit] oh, and make sure you have the latest hotfix and service packs from autodesk site. You may actually find this resolves some of your issues.
  • Nysuatro
    Options
    Offline / Send Message
    Thank you for the replyes. This is very usefull
Sign In or Register to comment.