Layers Toolbar screws up - any experts in MAX UI?

[xgarcia]

Ok....lately Max has been giving me a little irritating problem. I've done two fresh installs and it happened everytime.

 

I'm using Max5.1 with service pack1, design extensions. Eveytime I load the layers toolbar, everything is normal and there is a drop down for the layers just like autocad. BUT when I save the custom UI and close / reopen Max I get this:

 

 

and the drop down layer list

 

 

has disappearred. Any ideas how to get it back? I use the drop down a lot for changing objects layers - it's quick and easy. Any clue why this happens? If it matters I'm using Win2K pro with service pack4 (I dont think that matters because this is inside Max's UI).

 

Xavier

 

[ July 20, 2003, 10:04 AM: Message edited by: xgarcia ]

[Cesar R]

I have had this problem before. Load another UI exit MAX. Open it again and load the default UI and this usually has fixed my problem. what I would like to know is what causes this to happen.

 

Let me know if it helped.

[xgarcia]

Nope it didnt work. I load the default UI and turn on my layer toolbar (layer drop down list shows) and then save the UI as soemthing else. Exit Max. Restart Max - drop down is gone. This is really annyoing me. Anyone else? Alexander?

 

Xavier

[Paulcalif]

This is a common, rediculous, problem with Max.

 

Loading the max4defaut UI file usually fixes it for me.

 

If that doesn't work, there is a post on discreet's Max support forum about how to fix it:

 

http://support.discreet.com

 

Do a search for 'layer dropdown' . I would find the post for you, but the forum is down right now...

 

Paul

[xgarcia]

I've posted twice at the Discreet forums and still no one knows what causes this annoying bug.

 

Max 6? fix the 5.1 bugs first please. Give us 5.2

[Cesar R]

Hey xavier have you used Rhino before?

[xgarcia]

Nope Cesar. I got a demo once but I only played with it a couple hours. Couldn't get used to it. I hear it's great for curvy stuff though. Check out Suurland.com, he uses Rhino to model and exports to Max. He has a couple of screenshots in Rhino that look interesting.

 

Xavier

 

PS....como van los estudios? Yo estoy en mi ultima clase de verana y me graduo el 9 de Agosto finalmente con my bachelors! later cesar.

[Cesar R]

Javier,

 

Los estudios van bien, yo tambien estoy terminando las clases de verano. The cuento que voy a cambiar the unversidad. Luego de habler con el director de archictectura de FIU, me comunicaron que la universidad no tiene cupo para estudiantes en las clases de diseno y not pueden garantizar nada a nadie. So tomorrow Im going to FAU and see what is the story there. De lo contrario me quedo sin design 3 y pierdo un .. year... de estudio.

 

Suurland is the bomb, I wish we would write back sometime!

 

alrite dude, CONGRATS be sure to invite me to the party. by the way, where are you going to get your 5th year?

[recon]

Originally posted by xgarcia:

I've posted twice at the Discreet forums and still no one knows what causes this annoying bug.

 

Max 6? fix the 5.1 bugs first please. Give us 5.2

TRy this solution that JKJ posted on the discreet forums...

 

_____________________________________________

 

DROPDOWN COMBOBOX MISSING FROM LAYERS TOOLBAR

 

The Layer list dropdown is missing from my Layers toolbar. This makes layers pretty useless. How can I get this working?

 

 

- One way to fix it is to reinstall Max, but that is a bit drastic and you lose your customization.

 

Try editing your MaxStart.cui file.

 

1) Close Max first

2) Open MaxStart.cui in Notepad

3) Search for the "[Layers]" section

4) Insert this line in the item list:

Item2=5|240|240|50502|0|19|2|1344276755|ComboBox|

This should leave you with 12 items in the list, numbered 0 through 11.

5) Change the ItemCount parameter just above the list to ItemCount=12

 

I don't think it really matters where the line goes in the item list, but I think the original location was the third Item. I think you can leave the other items numbered as is, or renumber them, starting with '0' - I'm not sure it matters.

 

If this works, make a backup copy of the MaxStart.cui to restore it if it happens again.

 

__________

 

 

john manning

[xgarcia]

recon:

 

Yes I followed that solution when I read it but I came up with me own. I place a shortcut to my maxstart.cui on my desktop. Every time I exit MAX, I run the shortcut which opens the cui file, and I delete out the garbage ASCII characters that were added by MAX (Item2 / combox line). Also when I saved my custom UI (lots of custom keyboard shortcuts I prefer), I closed MAX, edited out the garbage code, and backed it up to a folder in the UI folder. That way I have a clean copy. In fact, I figured out that MAX messes up the custom UI when you save it and it also messes up the maxstart.cui when you close MAX. So for the time being I simply open the maxstart.cui file and edit the problem line. It's extremely annoying to say the least. This is what is really bothering me about Discreet. They still have buggy software in MAX 5.1 and already they announce MAX6 (coincidentally at SIGGGRAPH). How about fixing and making the software stable before making a new and "improved" release. You can go hear tons of bug rants at CGTalk.com MAX6 discussion or even the discreet MAX5 forums.

 

Cesar:

 

I'm holding off grad. school so my wife can head back to her design classes. She'll be going back to her third year so I will be at least two years before I go to get my masters. This will give me time to work and get my portfolio together (something I've negelected thus far). Most likely I will stay at UF or head to USF Tampa. OK...buena suerte Cesar.