Converting 3DS Max 2009 to older versions

[Alexander Coulombe]

Is there any way to keep materials, animation, etc. in 3ds max 2009 file and make it so it will open in 3ds max 9? I notice I can open Rhino 4.0 files in Rhino 3.0...

thanks!

[Joel C.]

no

[Joseph Skowron]

The only thing you can try to do is Export you model as a 3DS file and then import it into Max9. Everything won't be attached as far as animation keys, but your model will open.

[_ _]

its pain in the ass
death to autodesk

[Brian Kitts]

death to autodesk

Can we burn her?

[Jonas Callewaert]

what would this kind of anti-consumer action be called?

it baffles me why after all these years of continued abuse and not being listened to that people still use autodesk products. I feel like i learned my lesson back when NT4 and MAX first came out.

[Joel C.]

As a former programmer and systems analyst, I can understand SOME of the non-backwards compatibility. You'd have to figure out what new things were not compatible with the old version. If there was a work-around, great. If not, then what do you do? If the 3ds file is a static file then no big dramas. But what if the scene is an animation with new aspects of mental ray lights that didn't exist 2 versions ago?

3ds has retained some backwards compatibility. How many people use anything other than PF Source for particles? All new tutorials since Max 8 teach PF Source, but they left the other stuff in.

Maybe if there could be an area where the user could say, "I don't care about the following items when I'm saving older versions of this scene" and then go through a series of tick boxes? The boxes could be pre-filled with features that autodesk knows not to be supported.

But I agree - they should really work on their interversion compatibility issues. 1 Version should be a no-brainer (2009 -> 2008). There were a lot of changes tho from max 8 to max 9, and max 9 to 2008.