Noob Question: I Can't Find Arch And Design!

[geoffparker88]

Hey everone, I'm new to this forum, and still pretty new to 3ds Max and the world of 3d modeling as a whole. I have what I imagine is a very basic, and potentially stupid question, and I wish I didn't have to ask it, but I've been searching for post after post and tutorial after tutorial including the entire FAQ of this site, and I have not found a single one that answers my question.

 

Okay, I'm following a tutorial (right here: http://www.character...map-chain-mail/) on how to make chain mail in 3ds Max using a displacement map and Mental Ray. (Again, as I'm new to 3ds Max and 3d modeling, prior to trying to follow this tutorial, I had never even looked or messed around with either a displacement map or Mental Ray.) I'm stuck on the step where I need to setup an Arch and Design shader.

 

The problem is, I CAN NOT, for the life of me, figure out how to do that. I have been searching and searching in my 3ds Max 2012 64-bit program, but to almost no avail. When I go to the material editor (which I have in the slate mode) and look under the Materials that are on the left side of the screen, the closest thing I can find is Architectural. There is nothing that says Arch & Design.

 

And before I finish this post, I should clarify. Last night, I was messing around with seemingly everything in the material editor, and I just happened to come across the elusive Arch & Design. I have NO idea how I came across it, but I now know that it's there, somewhere. I have tried for hours now to come across it again today, but I just can't find it.

 

My experience in this area is absolutely zero. So please, when you post your answers, just assume that I'm a clueless caveman using a computer for the first time... so no jargon or abbreviations or short speak that more advanced users would know about but which I am oblivious to. Thank you very much for your help!

[AubreyM]

When you choose to get the material it should be under the Mental Ray tab as far as I can remember.

I don't use the slate material editor and I am on 2011. If you are using 2012 and they changed something I can't be much help.

[geoffparker88]

Wow, thanks for such a quick reply AubreyM!

 

When you speak of the Mental Ray tab, are you talking about bottom most tab of the compact material editor called the Mental Ray Connection? Because when I expand that tab, I don't see anything that says Arch and Design.

[AubreyM]

This is from 2011. If yours is different then I can't help.

[marius e]

Firstly set Mental ray as your renderer in the common tab (render setup). Then material editor-Get material-mental ray-Arch & design.

[y-vis]

Hi Geoff,

First you have to assign renderer: F10>Production>mental ray Renderer. Then open material editor, and after hitting Get Material tab, voila! there's Arch and Design, right on the top.

[geoffparker88]

Guys, thank you SO SO SO very much! It worked! I have no idea how this would be common knowledge to a new 3ds max user, and it still confuses me why there wasn't any documentation anywhere on the internet on how to solve this problem -- which I'm sure that many would have. Perhaps it's because there are less max users than say, Photoshop users, and thus less tutorials? I dunno. Anyway, hopefully others who have my same issue will stumble across this thread in the future. Again, thanks guys!