Floating Toolbars at startup

[Roest]

I got this very annoying problem everytime i startup 3ds max 2010 and 2009. There are about 9 toolbars floating across the screen. If i want to move them they disappear and sometimes when i move my cursor at the location of the toolbar you still see a part of it. (see attachment) If i start max again they are all back again!

The second thing is, max reset the position of, for example; a render dialog or material editor, so if i move it to my second screen and then i close the dialog, and open it again it opens in the center of the primary screen...

 

Changing defaultUI or delete the max.ini file doesnt seem to solve the problem.

 

The floating toolbars problem is gone when i switch my driver from 3Direct to OpenGL but the other thing still there.

 

 

I hoped the problem was away by installing max2010 but it doesnt!

Are there people with the same problem?

Is there a solution?

(i've contacted the distributor but after a month still no answers)

Edited September 21, 2009 by Roest

[SandmanNinja]

Start with an empty scene. Move the toolbars where you want them. Save the empty scene as MAXSTART.MAX Then RESET your scene. They should 'remember' where to live now.

[Roest]

Thanks for the reply Sandmanninja.

This makes it a bit less annoying, i have 6 toolbars which i don't use on my second screen now. But still if i open a material editor, a renderdialog, or anything else it opens in the center of my screen.

 

I don't know what causes this...

The other odd thing is i don't see much topics about this problem while here at the office it happens to three people now. The only solution now is formatting desktop and reinstall windows (only a reinstall won't work)

 

More input is more then welcome

 

(we use xp 64bit)

[SandmanNinja]

how about deleting/renaming the 3dsmax.ini file? I think it's under their profile on a networked computer. Max will make a new 3dsmax.ini file and (hopefully) the stray menu bars will go away.

 

So you mean to say that you close the stray menu bars, save the empty, toolbar-less scene to 3dsmax.ini, and the menu toolbars come back when you reset the scene?

[Roest]

how about deleting/renaming the 3dsmax.ini file? I think it's under their profile on a networked computer. Max will make a new 3dsmax.ini file and (hopefully) the stray menu bars will go away.

 

So you mean to say that you close the stray menu bars, save the empty, toolbar-less scene to 3dsmax.ini, and the menu toolbars come back when you reset the scene?

 

Exactly!

[Roest]

Ok i got some answers from the contributor / autodesk:

 

1}

If they don’t want to create a new user: what you could try is to remove anything 3ds Max or if they don’t have other Autodesk products, anything Autodesk related that you can find under the user:

 

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk

 

C:\Documents and Settings\\Application Data\Autodesk

 

C:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Application Data\Autodesk.”

 

2)

About the issue with the toolbars: this is most likely a setting in the graphics driver about remembering window positions. I’ve also seen this with Ati cards. The solution is to disable the option that the driver remembers the window position (which conflicts with 3ds Max remembering the window position).

 

 

1) Didn’t work, i will try making a new account later.

 

2) This sounds like a reasonable solution, at the moment i cannot find an option with windows position but its a good direction to seek for a solution.

 

For the information; i work on a FireGL V7700

I will update when i’ve tried those options

[Roest]

The solution:

 

It was all caused by the Ati drivers.

There was an option in the catalyst control center which repositioned the dialogs every time.

 

Hydravision --> Desktop manager --> unthick the Enable Dialog Repositioning

 

Thanks for the support!

[SandmanNinja]

Thanks for letting us know.

 

I'm a nVidia fanboy, so maybe that's why I've never run up against this problem before.

 

Glad it got resolved for you and thanks again for posting the answer.

I'm sure your answer will help someone else in the future.