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If you could change 3dsmax...

If you could change or fix something with Max what would it be?

Personally I would like to see:
- The viewport not come to a stand still if I have the curve editor open.
- UV editor become a mode you can enter at any time instead of a modifier dependent on the stack and its history.
- HumanIK integration.
- The layer manager replaced by Outliner.
- Viewport Canvas improvements, like being able to paint on the diffuse map with other maps being displayed.
- Viewport canvas should have better photoshop interoperability like adjustment and layer folder support.
- Viewport canvas mode that allows you to paint over the viewport, much like DView Paint where it onion skins.
- Include "welder" that creates welds between two intersecting objects.
- Include something like GhostTown.

Replies

  • [HP]
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    [HP] polycounter lvl 13
    That pretty much sums up my points as well.

    - Outliner
    - Quad-Chanfer
    - UV-Editor as a mode, not a modifier.
    - More intuitive and easy to use snap tool
    - Ability to detach a viewport to use on a seperate monitor.
    - Polyboost like UI for the Graphite Modeling Tools, or just a better UI overall for that horrible bar.
    - Sort out the tangent space baker/render problem!!

    That's it from the top of my mind anyway.
  • JamesWild
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    JamesWild polycounter lvl 8
    Tear it down and rewrite the whole thing from scratch. 3DS Max has some great tools but tacked on UI paradigms and poor design in many places that would require a near total rewrite to shift means you might as well.
  • darthwilson
    They should be nailing the viewport canvas so it's more like 3D coat in my opinion..

    And they should be doing what they done for AutoCAD and support Max on the Mac.
  • haiddasalami
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    haiddasalami polycounter lvl 14
    - Get Maya's snap stuff. Snapping in maya is a dream compared to max
    - Marking menus

    @HP: Doesnt max let you pop viewports out? Haven't actually tried it myself.
  • Mark Dygert
    Those are some good ideas guys.

    Quad Chamfer, I forgot about that but it would be incredibly helpful.

    Marking menu's would be cool too, I really miss that from Maya.
    "Doesnt max let you pop viewports out? Haven't actually tried it myself."
    No you can't, its a deep rooted problem that is hard coded into the oldest bits of max. You will never have more than 4 views and they won't tear off unless they do some major work to the foundation of max and I'm not sure they would be willing to take that on given they have to release a new verison of max every April. But who knows they might be working on it on the side and at some point when its ready, slip it in.

    In 2013 they added "tabbed views". which lets you switch the configuration of the viewports to presets that you can change. They said that isn't as far as they want to take it, but they wouldn't say exactly what else they have planned.
  • Kbrom12
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    Kbrom12 polycounter lvl 8
    only thing i'd really like is a more advanced viewport canvas, thats about it.

    I must be the only one who prefer's max's snapping to maya's lol.

    Quad chamfer in program might be helpful, would save me from loading a script .

    oh and that thing that maya has, the option to only render only a small portion of your render space, IPR render i think its called, the red box you draw...as far as I know max does not have this...if it does please someone throw a link my way on where, thanks!
  • Eric Chadwick
    Kbrom12 wrote: »
    oh and that thing that maya has, the option to only render only a small portion of your render space, IPR render i think its called, the red box you draw...as far as I know max does not have this...if it does please someone throw a link my way on where, thanks!

    ActiveShade is probably the closest thing.
    http://download.autodesk.com/us/3dsmax/2012help/index.html?url=files/GUID-6430FB35-2232-4451-945A-C1EBD708024-2189.htm,topicNumber=d28e425724
  • Ace-Angel
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    Ace-Angel polycounter lvl 12
    +Viewport Canvas
    -Stop having Viewport Canvas lag at 2K textures
    -Enable Normal Map viewing
    -Fix the jitter issues around the 'seams' of model on too high values

    +Baking
    -Proper AO map in Scanline
    -Fix the Mental Ray issues where it jitters the padding
    -Allow custom Tangents and changes for Normal Map

    +Modeling
    -Quad Chamfer a-la Modo style, with weight, smoothing groups respecting, etc.
    -Graphite tools should keep all function 'open' so that there is no jitter lag while changing modes.
    -Orbiting shouldn't breaking the spline like tools

    +UV editor
    -Revamp so that it doesn't lag on something as simple as a 5K mesh
    -Have the 'explode' function respect the Smoothing groups properly
    -Relax need a revamp, way too many times it wouldn't relax mesh properly and forced to stitch piece by piece

    +Animation/Rigging
    -Proper HumanIK integration
    -Allow CAT to be to 'categorized' to a sort system (I have to use Outliner for this specific reason)
    -Rigging should be allowed via mesh sorting

    Those are off the top of my head...looking back, Max sucks...
  • monster
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    monster polycounter
    - The viewport not come to a stand still if I have the curve editor open.

    LOL! That was my first thought when I read the subject line.

    A couple of ancient bugs I would like to see fixed:
    • Rotating or Panning on your secondary monitor make your mouse freak out.
    • Biped - Sometimes figure pose becomes corrupt if you press the Clear All Animation button.

    New Features/Improvements I would like to see:
    • Python scripting, dotNET is pretty powerful, but Motion Builder and Maya use Python...
    • Save Animation saves custom attribute animations. Currently it save the ones made with Parameter Editor, but not CAs made "by hand."
    • Improve Motion Builder importing FBX to Biped. Sometimes it doesn't work. I haven't found a clear reason why.
    • Link Inheritance or Assigning Controllers works with multiple objects selected.
    • Replace Bone Tools with Rigging Army Knife.
    • Replace the Rename Tool with Renaming Army Knife.
  • Anuxinamoon
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    Anuxinamoon polycounter lvl 14
    - I would like the invisible vertices bug be fixed.
    - The option to use the maya alt commands for navigation (not just some plugin I have to install)
    - Be able to embed my Material editor and UV editor into the viewport panels (like maya)
    - Oh and the (H) object selector window to be able to be opened at all times with the option to pin it to the UI (like maya) and have it not freeze everything while it 'opens'

    Also I want to be able to use the windows file navigation system rather than Max's no frills system. (I can change it in maya... can't figure out if I can do the same in Max, if there is a way plase tell me!)
  • Mark Dygert
    Kbrom12 wrote: »
    oh and that thing that maya has, the option to only render only a small portion of your render space, IPR render i think its called, the red box you draw...as far as I know max does not have this...if it does please someone throw a link my way on where, thanks!
    I might not quite understand what you're talking about but maybe you are looking for Region Render?

    Press 9, Common Tab, under frames is "Area to render" switch it to Region, it will pop a box on your viewport. You can use the same tools in the render preview window too.
  • Justin Meisse
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    Justin Meisse polycounter lvl 18
    - Oh and the (H) object selector window to be able to be opened at all times with the option to pin it to the UI (like maya) and have it not freeze everything while it 'opens'
    )

    You can bind H to "selection floater" rather than "select by name" - I believe you can't use the selection floater to link things or other instances where you are picking a target for something, those are situations where you still want to use "select by name"

    I'm still on 2009 and haven't used the later versions, it's perfect for me so I'm probably going to be disappointed by all the stuff they've screwed up in later versions.
  • Computron
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    Computron polycounter lvl 7
    Make it completely tablet accessible like zbrush.

    zbrush is the perfect tablet interface.
  • mLichy
    this thread will go on for 100 pages, lol
  • Computron
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    Computron polycounter lvl 7
    Completely Modeless UI.
    Tooltips and explanations for every item in preferences and UI customizations.
    Caddy-less/gestured control over tools/operations like in Modo.
    Consolidation of Ribbon and Roll-up Bar.
    Game Artist Mode for quick loading and less cluttered interface.
  • r_fletch_r
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    r_fletch_r polycounter lvl 9
    Kbrom12 wrote: »
    t maya has, the option to only render only a small portion of your render space, IPR render i think its called, the red box you draw...as far as I know max does not have this...if it does please someone throw a link my way on where, thanks!

    there's a dropdown on the render view that says 'view'. change it to region. a selection area will appear.
  • nufftalon
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    nufftalon polycounter lvl 11
  • Bigjohn
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    Bigjohn polycounter lvl 11
    Viewport Canvas. If nothing else, I wish that thing would be as awesome as Bodypaint. Maybe even awesomer (if we're dreaming), with support for adjustment layers, and all the photoshop-power in the world, so that I can finally stop painting in 2D over UVs.


    Now, if we're totally dreaming, I'd like to see the entire UI gone, and allow me to create my own buttons that'll do whatever. I know it's gonna sound silly, but I'd like the WoW UI inside 3dsmax, complete with LUA(Maxscript) and macros and everything. Again, sounds silly, but in WoW I have tens of abilities all mapped to maybe ~5-6 buttons (with modifiers) and I can do stuff super efficiently.

    All you gotta do is write some logic into them, and you're working double-fast. Like if I hit the button and I have faces selected, then extrude. If I hit that same button and I have edges selected, then chamfer. etc etc.
  • Anuxinamoon
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    Anuxinamoon polycounter lvl 14
    You can bind H to "selection floater" rather than "select by name" - I believe you can't use the selection floater to link things or other instances where you are picking a target for something, those are situations where you still want to use "select by name"

    I'm still on 2009 and haven't used the later versions, it's perfect for me so I'm probably going to be disappointed by all the stuff they've screwed up in later versions.

    Yeah I loved 2008 and 2009. After that I had to work in maya. Now I try to go back to 2012 max and I'm pulling my hair out.

    I didn't know about selection floater. Will have to check it out! Thanks!
    It just gets messy with 50 different modular objects in the scene and having to open the (H) menu (which hangs for a few seconds) every time I need to find the specific thing.

    I would also like to open FBX files (or have a specific .ADK file type that is uniformly recognised between all autodesk products) instead of having to import all the time. Since I love things about maya, and love things about max, switching between the two its still too gummed up to be worth it.
  • monster
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    monster polycounter
    One more thing,

    FTLOG, bring back the old containers.
  • Anuxinamoon
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    Anuxinamoon polycounter lvl 14
    and bring back Shift + left click to duplicate an object :<
  • Kbrom12
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    Kbrom12 polycounter lvl 8
    I might not quite understand what you're talking about but maybe you are looking for Region Render?

    Press 9, Common Tab, under frames is "Area to render" switch it to Region, it will pop a box on your viewport. You can use the same tools in the render preview window too.


    dammmm thank you! haha thats just what I wanted...I like it better than maya's to since this one is actually in the viewport as well as in the render frame window

    and bring back Shift + left click to duplicate an object :<


    What do you mean? I've always been able to shift + left click to duplicate, I have not tried 2013 yet though, did they take it out?
  • maze
    native P-A-S-S-E-S !!!
  • Sean VanGorder
    Pretty much everything I can think of has been mentioned.

    Also, I'd like to be able to move around the viewport while using array and the spacing tool without losing the preview.
  • Quack!
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    Quack! polycounter lvl 17
    Game Art Mode:

    This would be more then just a ui change. It would be a whole separate loading sequence. Nothing is loaded that I don't need. I use probably 10% of what max features, so having them in the environment creates clutter and, undoubtedly, performance issues/crashes.

    Mostly, Autodesk needs to reevaluate their software and strip out the deprecated bs that is still in the program (Edit Mesh?!?!). This can't happen though with a yearly release cycle. It will only be a couple years before zbrush takes over the world, so I am becoming OK with Autodesk just milking their product and not improving it in a meaningful way.
  • Anuxinamoon
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    Anuxinamoon polycounter lvl 14
    Kbrom12 wrote: »
    What do you mean? I've always been able to shift + left click to duplicate, I have not tried 2013 yet though, did they take it out?

    They took it out a while ago. I remember raging on the autodesk forums about it. You can still Shift click drag to duplicate, but you can no longer duplicate in place by Shift+single left click.
    Now you have to CTRL+V
  • Neox
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    Neox veteran polycounter
    They took it out a while ago. I remember raging on the autodesk forums about it. You can still Shift click drag to duplicate, but you can no longer duplicate in place by Shift+single left click.
    Now you have to CTRL+V

    its removed from 2010 on, i hate it
  • Sage
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    Sage polycounter lvl 19
    shift click to duplicate in place got removed in max 2008. max 9 was the last version that had that.

    bring back the old shift click behavior but add options to it so it doesn't bring up a dialogue every time you do it, and you can also specify how far you need to move something before the duplicate happens for those that hated how it used to work.

    assigned shortcuts like you can in modo or zbrush.
    edit the ui like you can in zbrush
    you can access all functions that max does via maxscript
    maya or xsi snaps in max.
    grid that acts like the one in game editors, and you can increase the grid with keyboard shortcuts like say the plus or minus button.. this set up right out the box
    able to assign keyboard shortcuts to the mouse.
    supra keys that xsi has.
    easy real time shader creation right out the box.
    viewport shows, all map properties in real time.for offline and realtime shaders

    example. if you make and material that has a video post fx like glow it shows up in the viewport.

    for animation

    a storybord mode. so you can instantly see what happens. so if you want to jump from one camera cut to another for example you just frame the shots and animation and max will be smart enough to know hey at frame 30 I go to this shot.
  • jimmypopali
    Anyone use the re-topo tools on the ribbon in Max? Seems like I have to dig my way to the tool every time I want to use it.
  • sprunghunt
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    sprunghunt polycounter
    Quack! wrote: »
    Game Art Mode:

    This would be more then just a ui change. It would be a whole separate loading sequence. Nothing is loaded that I don't need. I use probably 10% of what max features, so having them in the environment creates clutter and, undoubtedly, performance issues/crashes.

    You can disable features manually in Max. Just remove the relevant files from the stdplugins folder. It does speed up loading.
  • Ace-Angel
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    Ace-Angel polycounter lvl 12
    Anyone use the re-topo tools on the ribbon in Max? Seems like I have to dig my way to the tool every time I want to use it.
    Nope, never used them, they're severally gimped in terms of real-time application. On the other hand, Wrapit would be the best of all worlds.
  • AlanSMitchell
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    AlanSMitchell polycounter lvl 14
    one thing that I wish was presetup; which you can do in settings
    ctrl+w = target weld for every mode, it does UV's by defalt, but also vert and edge mode. for some reason I have never been able to assign it to both. So I chose the lesser of 2 evils and I chose edge mode. I just think it would be nice to have in defalt settings, it's a hotkey I use constantly.
  • Elyaradine
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    Elyaradine polycounter lvl 11
    I think the way shortcut keys work is pretty broken in Max. Toggle override seems to sometimes need to be on, sometimes not, and I just wish I could use the same shortcuts regardless of whether I'm in Editable Poly, Edit Poly, Unwrap UV or any other similar modifier, especially selecting loops and rings, welding and connecting edges.

    Cut tool leaving duplicate verts.

    Raytraced selection that only selects the first thing hit (like xsi, modo, pretty much all other programs?). At the moment, paint selecting stuff selects everything right through your mesh, even if you can't see it because it's being blocked by what you actually want to select. Unless I'm just being a noob.
  • coldside
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    coldside polycounter lvl 10
    Some of the stuff being requested here has already been implemented in Max 2013 such as:


    -Orbiting shouldn't breaking the spline like tools
    - The option to use the maya alt commands for navigation (not just some plugin I have to install)
    -Also, I'd like to be able to move around the viewport while using array and the spacing tool without losing the preview.

    But yeah, I agree with most things here; specifically:

    - The viewport not come to a stand still if I have the curve editor open.
    - UV editor become a mode you can enter at any time instead of a modifier dependent on the stack and its history.
    - HumanIK integration.
    - Quad-Chanfer
    - Ability to detach a viewport to use on a seperate monitor.
    - Get Maya's snap stuff. Snapping in maya is a dream compared to max
    - FTLOG, bring back the old containers.
    - Raytraced selection that only selects the first thing hit (like xsi, modo, pretty much all other programs?)

    Plus:

    -Be able to dock ANY window in a viewport i.e- particle flow, material editor, uv editor ect.
    -Complete UI customization
    -Bring MassFX features up to that of Reactor, including rope, softbodies and water.
    -Try fix some of the completely fucked up stability, memory usage and speed issues that have been gradually getting worse since the introduction of the XBR debacle.
  • McGreed
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    McGreed polycounter lvl 15
    Take all the good things from XSI...

    No really, it got so many good things. These I would like in 3DS Max:

    - Start rectangle select and then scroll the viewport when reaching the edge. :P
    - Ray paint selection
    - Quick custom pivot for selection
    - Passes
    - Unified File manage dialogs WITH favorite links to folders

    At least thats some of the ones I can come up with right now.
  • Tokusei
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    Tokusei polycounter lvl 10
    most have been mentioned, i'd love to see a rework of the viewport canvas so it's similar to the texturing tools in mudbox, stuff like the projection/stencil tools and the abillity paint with those tools directly in the UV view not just the viewport would be sick

    I find the way mudbox has it set up really intuitive, since you have multiple paint layers and you define which part of the shader each layer is used for (diff/normal/spec etc)

    also a create polygon tool, maya has one but so far all I've found in max is polydraw which doesnt really give the same functionality. just adding a "polygon" button under the primitives menu would be ideal
  • Farfarer
    Modeless/universal tools & shortcuts.
    Especially across Edit Poly and UV Editor. I hate that half the stuff from the main UI works in UV Editor but the other stuff does nothing. It's an entirely separate toolset that doesn't need to be.

    UV Editor as a viewport...
    ...rather than a mode. Like modo has it, where its simply another modelling window except it shows UV rather than 3D coords. Same tools and selection working across both of them.

    Cleanup
    Just strip out all the legacy stuff older than, what, 5 years? It's bloated to hell.

    Tabbed UI.
    I hate all this scrolling up/down and opening/closing rollers. It's too fiddly and they always end up rearranging themselves.

    Keep my sodding defaults.
    Whatever settings I used last are whatever settings should come up again. I can't count how often I have to reset my relax and stitch settings for UV editor every day.

    Dynamic Viewport Clipping Planes
    The more I zoom in, the more it should reduce the near and far clipping planes of the viewport. I hate working on objects smaller than a metre and having to work on a tiny zoomed out version because zooming closer means the bits I'm trying to edit are clipped by the viewport camera.
  • McGreed
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    McGreed polycounter lvl 15
    Talon wrote: »
    Dynamic Viewport Clipping Planes
    The more I zoom in, the more it should reduce the near and far clipping planes of the viewport. I hate working on objects smaller than a metre and having to work on a tiny zoomed out version because zooming closer means the bits I'm trying to edit are clipped by the viewport camera.

    Ugh, tell me about it, often I just end up group everything and scale it 500% , which is kinda annoying.
  • JamesWild
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    JamesWild polycounter lvl 8
    Here's a specific annoyance that should have been removed years ago:
    The texture size limiter that defaults to a max of 128x128. Just what the bloody hell is that for!? Why is my setting to remove the limit never remembered?
  • vik
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    vik polycounter lvl 13
    Just one thing? Ok, here it is: stop bringing out new version every year, concentrate instead on making what we got stable, fast and bug free. Each new version introduces new bugs and crappier performance and tools I don`t need. And I have to put up with it every day at work. A lightweight, game specific max with fast performance and no major bugs is what I dream of every night after I cried myself into sleep.
  • Rick Stirling
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    Rick Stirling polycounter lvl 18
    All these good ideas? Go and post them here: http://area.autodesk.com/blogs/ken/announcing_3ds_max_community_wishlist

    Get people to vote, hopefully some of the requests will get added. I know that several things that I voted on got added to Max 2013
  • Quack!
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    Quack! polycounter lvl 17
    I see lots of suggestion for more plugins. The number one complaint about new versions of Max...that all autodesk does is add plugins to releases.
  • Decency
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    Decency polycounter lvl 10
    I hope everyone here is posting these requests in the Uservoice forum linked above or voting for the entries already there. They really do look at this when deciding which things to tackle next.
  • coldside
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    coldside polycounter lvl 10
    Decency wrote: »
    I hope everyone here is posting these requests in the Uservoice forum linked above or voting for the entries already there. They really do look at this when deciding which things to tackle next.

    Just thought I would show some stats I posted in the announcment thread at cgtalk:

    Out of the hundreds of highly voted suggestions, they stand as follows:

    Public General Feature Requests- 13 total marked completed, 11 completed in 2012/2012 SAP or older, 2 completed in Max 2013

    Public Default Settings- 4 total marked Completed, 4 completed in 2012/2012 SAP or older, 0 completed in Max 2013

    Public Small Annoying Things- 18 total marked Completed, 4 completed in 2012/2012 SAP or older, 16 completed in Max 2013

    Public General Feature Requests- There are 23 other suggestions with higher votes than the top voted 2013 Completed suggestion. There are a further 50 suggestions with higher votes than the lowest voted 2013 Completed suggestion.

    Public Default Settings- As stated above, 0 were completed for Max 2013 which leaves 93 suggestions ignored in 2013.

    Public Small Annoying Things- There are 3 suggestions with higher votes than the top voted 2013 Completed suggestion, and a further 66 suggestions with higher votes than the lowest voted 2013 Completed suggestion.

    After a year, that is all we get from UserVoice? Especially considering there are 26 Small Annoying Things under review, and these are meant to be small things that can be fixed quickly and easily (in fact, Autodesk closes or moves requests it feels are beyond the scope of SAT's)

    So while it is a good idea, it really is just false hope if Autodesk don't listen.
  • bugo
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    bugo polycounter lvl 17
    [HP] wrote: »
    That pretty much sums up my points as well.

    - Outliner
    - Quad-Chanfer
    - UV-Editor as a mode, not a modifier.
    - More intuitive and easy to use snap tool
    - Ability to detach a viewport to use on a seperate monitor.
    - Polyboost like UI for the Graphite Modeling Tools, or just a better UI overall for that horrible bar.
    - Sort out the tangent space baker/render problem!!

    That's it from the top of my mind anyway.

    But that's just what Maya has ;)

    - What about the ability of having Max on a Mac like Maya does?
  • Justin Meisse
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    Justin Meisse polycounter lvl 18
    Just like Adobe, we probably aren't a large percentage of their customer base. AutoCAD is where they make the majority of their money so I'm sure they focus on keeping those customers the happiest.
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