Max looking for maps...

[Tommy L]

Is there a way to force max not to look for lost maps? Ive recently reconfigured my network and if I import a peice of geometry from an old file and it carries a material with it, max just hangs for ages. I dont know why, Ive not had this problem before.

 

SO....can I tell max not to look for missing maps in the material editor and viewport? Or does it need to look just to know that theyre missing?

[Tommy L]

Any help on this one? If I open an old file, it takes forever. I quite often open old files to pick out stuff for current projects.

EVERYTHING is taking forever as max look for old locations.

Surely theres a way around this.

Any help much appreciated

[dinhtuan]

try disconnect from network when you open that old files

[Tommy L]

Thanks Dinh, its a nice work-around, but Id rather not as I have the same problem with my model library.

The only fix I can think of is to rename my new server tha same as the old one and reconfiure all my paths to match the old drive. Seems a bit backward though. I thought I would be able to force Max to look in one location then give up when it doesnt find the required maps.

[Tommy L]

Im going to re-iterate this problem as I havent found a solution, any help much appreciated:

 

I have recently changed my network. I have 9 machines all running winXP 64 bit pro. They are a workgroup, not a domain. They are finding files on other machines using ‘shared folders’ (network places). NOTE: Im not very good at networking.

 

The problem:

When I try to bring in a model from my model library (or open/edit and old file) Max 2008 is looking for the maps on the network. The location of the map storage has changed. This means Max hangs (...and hangs....) whilst looking for the files in a non-existent location. This happens at every turn (file open, asset manager, bitmap manager, material editor everything).

 

Possible solution??:

1: I can rename the server with maps on it to replicate the old drive. However, the old drive was a mapped network dive and since re-installing my network, it doesnt want to let me do that(?) so Im forced to have ‘shared folder’ in the drive path. So I cant make the path the same.

 

2: (PREFERABLE) Force Max to only look in one location for maps and then give up. Then when I open an old file I can just relocate the maps in the asset manager. So eventually all my library will be remapped. Is this possible?

 

3: Something I havent thought of. Thats what you guys are for...

 

Thanks, Im getting desperate, workflow is seriously interrupted!

 

Tom.

[Chad Warner]

What about the asset tracker? (on the file menu) I'm not sure, but I think you can strip paths in there, or re-direct them all at once.

[Tommy L]

Thanks Chad, but it doesnt help. When I open the file it takes forever. When I open AsTr it takes forever, then when I try and right click on a element in asset tracker, it hangs again. It is possible to do in AT, but the process takes longer than remodeling the object!

grrrrr.....

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

Building on what you said before, .....why don't you temporarily put all of your maps in one directory. Then under Config User Paths, set this to be the only directory. This way when it doen'ts find the server name, it will only check one directory before opening. Or at least that is what I am thinking it will do.

 

Then once opened, run Blur Scripts script called 'Change Bitmaps' to modify the server name it is looking for the textures on. Then save the file so it is saved with the proper mapping.

 

Edit:

 

We recently changed server locations also. At teh same time we enabled DFS pathing to use instead of UNC pathing. This means that we can move the asset library around in the futre, and the path will always stay intact.

 

At the same time, I ran the Blur Script on the files I opened to update the pathing on the textures. It saved a lot of time.

 

DFS is short for Distributed File System, and works much the same way UNC pathing does, but allows us to set a permement path name. So far it has worked flawlessly with network rendering.

Edited October 24, 2008 by Crazy Homeless Guy

[SandmanNinja]

I've seen files in the same directory as the max file - it's named Maxfiles.txt or something like that, and it's a list. texture/filename and then the path to it.

I don't know what makes it, but it's very easy to edit that file and make it looks for textures elsewhere.

[Tommy L]

OK, Im going to bump this.

 

I have decided that a solution in max is not possible. So I am going to simulate the old map location. However, Im running into a problem in Windows.

 

My problem is quite simple. I recently stripped everything to re-install windows on the workstation and have a clean-up. When setting up the network, I used shared folders instead of Map Network Drive.

 

 

Problem is, when I go into Tools>Map Network Drive.....it only lets me see the shared folders. I cant get to a hard drive and use that location. I need to create a mapped network drive with EXACTLY the same location name and path as before or I cant access any of my library of work. I cant do that with a shared folder, because the path always contains 'shared folder'.

 

Does that make sense?

I really would appreciate any help anyone can give me.

Thanks,

Tom.

[Chad Warner]

Could it be you need to turn off "simple file sharing" in the folder options? (under tools, folder options, then view, all the way at the bottom)

 

I know that was the root of a problem we had a while back.