--- title: 3ds Max Design Reviews meta_title: '3ds Max Design Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features | G2' meta_description: Filter 284 reviews by the users' company size, role or industry to find out how 3ds Max Design works for a business like yours. aggregate_rating: rating_value: 4.3 review_count: 284 scale: '5' date_modified: '2026-08-03' parent_category: name: 3D Design url: https://www.g2.com/categories/3d-design --- # 3ds Max Design Reviews **Vendor:** Autodesk **Category:** [3D Modeling Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/3d-modeling) **Average Rating:** 4.3/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 284 ## About 3ds Max Design Autodesk 3ds Max Design is a professional 3D modeling, rendering, and animation software tailored for architects, designers, and visualization specialists. It enables users to create detailed and realistic visualizations of architectural designs, engineering projects, and other complex structures, facilitating effective communication of design intent and exploration of creative concepts. Key Features and Functionality: - Advanced 3D Modeling: Offers an extensive polygon modeling and texturing toolset, including the Graphite toolset for free-form sculpting and advanced polygonal modeling, allowing for the creation of unique forms and detailed designs. - High-Quality Rendering: Equipped with multiple rendering options, including the integrated Arnold renderer, enabling the production of photorealistic images and animations. - Lighting Simulation and Analysis: Features Exposure technology for simulating and analyzing sun, sky, and artificial lighting, assisting in achieving accurate lighting conditions and supporting LEED 8.1 certification. - Interoperability: Provides optimized workflows for aggregating data from various CAD and Building Information Modeling (BIM) file formats, ensuring efficient data continuity throughout the design process. - Animation Tools: Includes advanced animation support with tools like rigging, keyframing, and procedural animation, helping bring designs to life with natural movement. Primary Value and User Solutions: 3ds Max Design addresses the need for high-quality visual communication in design professions. By offering powerful modeling and rendering tools, it enables users to create compelling visualizations that effectively convey design concepts to clients and stakeholders. The software's interoperability with other Autodesk products and support for various file formats streamline workflows, reducing time and effort in the design process. Additionally, its lighting simulation capabilities allow for accurate analysis of environmental lighting conditions, aiding in sustainable design practices and compliance with certification standards. ## 3ds Max Design Pros & Cons **What users like:** - Users highlight the **effective 3D modeling tools** in 3ds Max Design, enabling precise and realistic architectural visualizations. (3 reviews) - Users appreciate the **ease of use** in 3ds Max Design, allowing for seamless and efficient 3D modeling and visualization. (3 reviews) - Users value the **powerful modeling capabilities** of 3ds Max Design, enabling realistic and detailed 3D visualizations effortlessly. (3 reviews) - Users value the **effective 3D visualization tools** of 3ds Max Design, enhancing their architectural and interior design projects. (2 reviews) - Users value the **efficiency** of 3ds Max Design, maximizing productivity with powerful tools for high-quality results. (2 reviews) - Features (2 reviews) - Integrations (2 reviews) - Modeling Capabilities (2 reviews) - Quick Rendering (2 reviews) - Realistic Rendering (2 reviews) **What users dislike:** - Users find the **difficult learning curve** of 3ds Max Design challenging, especially for complete beginners navigating complex tools. (3 reviews) - Users face **high hardware requirements** for 3ds Max Design, leading to slow performance on less powerful systems. (3 reviews) - Users report that 3ds Max Design has **high system requirements** , making it challenging to run on standard PCs efficiently. (3 reviews) - Users experience **slow rendering** times, especially on lower-powered systems, impacting efficiency and workflow during complex projects. (3 reviews) - Users often face **software bugs** that cause crashes and lags, impacting performance during complex projects in 3ds Max Design. (3 reviews) - Users often experience **crashes** and lags with 3ds Max Design, particularly when handling large or complex projects. (2 reviews) - Users find the **steep learning curve** of 3ds Max Design challenging, requiring significant time to master the software. (2 reviews) - Slow Loading (2 reviews) - Steep Learning Curve (2 reviews) - Compatibility Issues (1 reviews) ## 3ds Max Design Reviews ### 1. 3ds Max Design Wonderful Product **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** srinivas j. | Production Desktop 3D Artist, Media Production, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 11, 2016 **What do you like best about 3ds Max Design?** To be franks this is the main software I use on a daily basis, At the start it took me a while but its a never ending learning experience, there is always something new that you might even find out by chance. It is user friendly and can handle a lot of jobs , Like the integration of vray rendering engine into this. **What do you dislike about 3ds Max Design?** sometime it gives up on you, when the load of the job gets high it simply crashes, you may get a recovery file but not always with the latest changes you have made with the model. and sometimes small bugs that i still am trying to understand why, eg one of the views just suddenly says disabled and i cant use it properly unless i restart the software. **Recommendations to others considering 3ds Max Design:** If you want to learn modeling or rendering techniques you will always find great tutorials online for 3ds Max and I consider this software for hardsurface modeling, game art, interior design, photorealistic renders **What problems is 3ds Max Design solving and how is that benefiting you?** Network rendering and using your own max scripts for your convenience, making it much more adaptable to techniques you can generate yourself for modeling or texturing, animating, rendering. ### 2. I have used 3DS Max for the past 20 years. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Sam S. | Equipment Marketing Coordinator, Machinery, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 19, 2016 **What do you like best about 3ds Max Design?** I like the modeling tools the best as I use it the most often. Every iteration they come out with better tools to make my tasks easier. The customizable shortcuts are very good as well. The fact that I can move my interface around to suit my needs is also a plus. The animation tools seems to have improved as well, though I have not used a lot of them in my work it looks better every year. **What do you dislike about 3ds Max Design?** I dislike the renderer that it comes with. They should just integrate Vray right into the software and dump mental ray altogether. I use Vray for all my work and nothing else. **Recommendations to others considering 3ds Max Design:** The learning curve is not hard. There are lots of tutorials for the software, I know because I am self taught. Look at magazines for tutorials and updates. New software, methods and techniques come out each year. **What problems is 3ds Max Design solving and how is that benefiting you?** I don't solve any business problems that I know of. I use the software for my contract and personal work. ### 3. Amazing renders **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Carla José L. | Diseñador Industrial, Design, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 19, 2016 **What do you like best about 3ds Max Design?** It works very good with objects imported from a lot of softwares and the rendering is very realistic. You don't need a lot of skill to make a very good render. It's very easy to create materials, and if you don't want to create them you always can download a material library, there's a lot of resources to download. **What do you dislike about 3ds Max Design?** I dislike the lack of precision when you design something and when you move something. Every time you zoom in a joint corner you see they are not perfectly joined. You need a very good computer to run this software. **Recommendations to others considering 3ds Max Design:** You should have a very powerful computer to run this software comfortably. The render time depends on the capacity of the computer. You can reach amazing 3d renders in short time and very easily. **What problems is 3ds Max Design solving and how is that benefiting you?** This software make amazing 3ds realistic renders in short time and very easy. Helps me to show my clients how their product will look before they manufactured them. ### 4. A Powerful 3D Creation Tool **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Conor L. | Digital Content Producer/Project Manager, Information Technology and Services, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 12, 2016 **What do you like best about 3ds Max Design?** 3DS max is a far more user friendly tool when compared to its counterparts (c4d and maya). The UI is clean and concise, and everything you need is right in front of you. On top of that, I find that the base tools are incredibly powerful, and can be used to create some complex objects with some practice. With physic tools such as Reactor and rendering tools such as Raytrace and Mental Ray - 3DS Max can be a complete tool. **What do you dislike about 3ds Max Design?** There is a steep learning curve to the software. There are also some limitations to polygonal creation that the competitors (namely Maya) do better. Other than that you can't go wrong! **Recommendations to others considering 3ds Max Design:** It really depends on what you're more comfortable with - I was trained on Max first - so I'm more comfortable with it than Maya. **What problems is 3ds Max Design solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use 3DS Max for two purposes, one is to create elements for my films (monsters, background elements, destructive pieces, etc). The other is create models for 3D printing - which are then incorporated into props or miniature designs for pre-productions. ### 5. 3ds Max Review **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Kyryl S. | Architect, Architecture & Planning, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 25, 2016 **What do you like best about 3ds Max Design?** The program has a huge potential. We can make with it almost everything from still images to live videos. It easy to find tutorials online, especially official, that are most useful. It is always updating, and team is moving in correct dirrection, there still a lot of improvments needed, but they are on the good way. **What do you dislike about 3ds Max Design?** I really dont like interface, because it is not sensible, i mean that i dont feel there comfortable, i need to think what and where to find. Also built-in render engines are horrible, i need to spend extra money for other render engines, such as V-Ray or Corona Renderer. **Recommendations to others considering 3ds Max Design:** Just use it, its brilliant, but there is a couple of improvements needed Try to make a lot of studies before working with any program, because, there is a huge problem, that people do bad product just because they dont know program, not the talent or creativity kills product, but bad preparation. **What problems is 3ds Max Design solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am architect, so i am making in 3Ds Max interior and exterior visualizations of buildings. 3Ds Max is more productive than Maya or Unreal Engine or even Cinema 4D for architecture needings, that why our company is using Autodesk products. Plus we are working in Revit, so that it is comfortable to link file directly from one software to another, and work with the latest version of the model. ### 6. Great architectural and industrial design rendering software. **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Suvir H. | Architecture Peer Tutor, Architecture & Planning, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 25, 2016 **What do you like best about 3ds Max Design?** Lighting options - a great variety and customizable. Mental ray rendering of materials simulate close to real life Move tool with axes are helpful in adjusting components in a controlled manner Daylighting, sun and time location very helpful Animations - an interesting feature **What do you dislike about 3ds Max Design?** The time it takes to render. Often one has to test scenes multiple times to get the desired output, however the time involved in carrying the procedure on an i7 intel core processor is still slow. Too many buttons. Unlike AutoCAD where one is enabled to type in commands to model, render, etc, 3ds Max required excessive clicking which can slow down the workflow. Keyboard shortcuts - ctrl +v is copy! **Recommendations to others considering 3ds Max Design:** Analyze Keyshot, Rhino Render as the workflow on these softwares reduce the need for post production softwares such as Adobe Photoshop and After Effects (for videos). **What problems is 3ds Max Design solving and how is that benefiting you?** The modifier tab is one of the software's selling points. While parametric modeling may still not be carried out on a 3ds platform, the modifier command enables minor adjustments. Lighting when cloned as instances and modified save a lot of time using the modifier tab by just selecting one of the clones. While rendering on the cloud is a great feature in the new update, the interface of 3ds Max design has however been a disappointment, with additional commands that occupy more screen space, which are not helpful to me personally. ### 7. Still the leader in Arch-Vis Arena, but others are gaining **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Eric M. | Director, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 24, 2016 **What do you like best about 3ds Max Design?** The strength of 3ds Max is it's modelling tools for architectural visualization, as well as other technical fields. It's integration with tools such as AutoCad, Inventor and other AutoCad products make it hard to beat as far as ability. Combine that with the industries strongest plug-in offering and unmatched 3rd party rendering support (Vray, Mental Ray, Octane) and its no-brainer if you are in the Arch-Vis Industry. For instance, the Populate module (a crowd simulation tool) is easy to use and powerful. It comes with 40,000 elements and is a tremendous time saver if you need to animate your walk-through. There are a variety of model types depending on what you need, from rough ideas with stick figures to more high resolution options. You can also create stationary areas for people to mix in, while being casually animated. Like the animation path, you simply draw the areas where you want them to congregate. There are sliders for things like how dense the crowd is and the gender of the figures, so the crowd types can be managed according to the situation. The most exciting feature Max has had in years is the Max Creation Graph (MCG) which allows users to create their own modifiers, utilities and geometric objects with a node based interface similar to the Slate material editor. MCG alone makes the time and cost investment in 3DS Max 2016 worthwhile **What do you dislike about 3ds Max Design?** The interface has seen better days. The sheer amount of functionality, added throughout the years, has turned the interface into something that requires a much higher learning curve than needed. The command line renderer, allowing one to render without using resources dedicated to managing the UI, needs an overhaul. The UI is just too outdated with no support for hi-DPI displays and constant flickering, user experience design. **Recommendations to others considering 3ds Max Design:** If you need to work in Arch-Vis, then 3ds is the tool for you. It's definitely due for a major overhaul, but it's the standard as far as working with the Product Design, Vis, Architectural, Building, CAD\CAM industry. There are some other tools that have a more modern workflow like Modo, but as long as Autodesk produces it, Max will reign. **What problems is 3ds Max Design solving and how is that benefiting you?** Allowed us to be compatible with almost every architecture firm. We do not use the product in-house anymore as we have transitioned out of Arch-Vis. But when we did, it was a tremendous asset in allowing us to ingest any file. ### 8. inspires creativity **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Hamza H. | 3D Visualizer, Architecture & Planning, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 05, 2016 **What do you like best about 3ds Max Design?** the interface is very user friendly the adaptation of plugins is quite useful since most of the 3rd party software work with it such as {Vray-forest.. etc } the modeling methodology is very easy and straight forward in general using the software feels very fluid and accurate for architectural visualization. **What do you dislike about 3ds Max Design?** creating characters with 3ds max is not as easy as for example " Zbrush " it limits the creativity on that side of design. and the orbiting speed goes down fast with big files. the lack of parametric modeling features integrating REVIT models into 3ds max is quite troublesome , its really hard to link the files and keep the link for a long time, you tend to simply export and import the file over and over instead of simply updating the link. autosave feature is nice but canceling the autosave doesnt always work, sometimes with large files the model gets heavy and when it autosaves it freezes for 10 15 minutes. **Recommendations to others considering 3ds Max Design:** figure out the purpose of the software before committing to it, it takes a while to learn and even longer to perfect the craft, it will be hard to shift to something like zbrush or maya if you find out later that you picked the wrong software for your field. **What problems is 3ds Max Design solving and how is that benefiting you?** architectural visualization 3D printing simply put, the presentation is never complete without 3ds max i v sold many projects thanks to a simple 3D render ### 9. Once the industry Leader **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Games | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 18, 2016 **What do you like best about 3ds Max Design?** 3DS Max is a great 3d modeling tool. It is used in multiple industries, and was once the go to application for game design. It has an easy learning curve. Large community support for tutorials, plug-ins, etc. Ability to convert mesh to poly and back. burn normal, light, and occlusion maps. Create and use procedural maps. **What do you dislike about 3ds Max Design?** Studios are quickly moving to Autodesk other toolset "Maya". making it harder and harder for those that only know 3DS Max, to find work without having to learn a new program. Boolean/Pro Boolean still can cause mesh errors. Needs Maya, and Mudbox builtin all as one application instead of having to switch between tools or another standard toolset. **Recommendations to others considering 3ds Max Design:** Check local industry job/career ads or company careers page to see what tools are used, Autodesk 3DS Max or Maya. best to learn both to cover all options. Suggest learning Maya first, has a larger learning curve than 3DS Max. **What problems is 3ds Max Design solving and how is that benefiting you?** Creating 3d modeling for game design. Fast, easy to learn tools for low poly and high poly modeling and animation. ### 10. Video Games Industry **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Troy K. | Customer Service Advisor, Computer Games, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 01, 2016 **What do you like best about 3ds Max Design?** Its a quick and easy software once learned. Everything is within the right mouse click button in terms of mesh selection. It has such useful tools such as Bridge, Cap hole and Shift + Click and drag being the Extrude tool. The layer editor is pretty cool too!, I like the light bulb and freeze icon's, easily understood and well layed out. Overall the software helps get my 3D work done very quick. I transferred from Maya to 3DS Max, learnt it within 4 weeks, from then on Max is my best friend. **What do you dislike about 3ds Max Design?** I haven't really found the lights useful, maybe I should learn how to use them better. Although they still did a great job!. **Recommendations to others considering 3ds Max Design:** Go ahead, get stuck in and learn, study hard, you'll get there. Once you have 3DS Max in your knowledge, its all upwards from there, cheers. **What problems is 3ds Max Design solving and how is that benefiting you?** Throughout my years applying for Video Games/3D Artist jobs I have felt the bitterness of being rejected and having to limit myself to Maya. Since learning and using 3DS Max, I have widened my 3D experience and can apply for pretty much any job. Lets face it 3DS Max is the 3D industries most common 3D package. ### 11. 3DSMax makes the best quality digital renderings for interiors. **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Giana C. | Director of Interior Design & Project Manager, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 31, 2016 **What do you like best about 3ds Max Design?** The level of detail and materiality in the final renderings is impeccable almost 100% of the time. Using the material editor and its many tools (especially bump maps), make for amazing final renderings when rendered in Vray and/or Mental Ray. **What do you dislike about 3ds Max Design?** I dislike modeling in place because the controls are quite different from other programs which can get tricky to use. I also dislike that in certain renderings, Omni-lights create unsightly glares on certain materials, even if the material's reflectivity is turned down. Rendering time is also quite long, I've had projects take up to 3 1/2 hours while rendering in Mental Ray which makes it hard to show clients fast renderings.. in which case Revit may be a better program to use. **Recommendations to others considering 3ds Max Design:** I would recommend becoming familiar with basic rendering programs and their controls before using 3DS Max. I would also highly recommend using VRAY over Mental Ray when rendering because renderings are completed at a much faster pace. If you have more time, use Mental Ray. **What problems is 3ds Max Design solving and how is that benefiting you?** . I have benefited from knowing how sunlight hits spaces, what materials work/don't work, and how well the space speaks of final designs. ### 12. 3ds Max Design is a powerful 3D program that can do it all **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Civil Engineering | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 02, 2017 **What do you like best about 3ds Max Design?** Professional grade 3D modeling, animation, and visualization program. **What do you dislike about 3ds Max Design?** Steep learning curve. If you don't use it regularly, you will need to take notes to remember how to use tools since some aren't intuitive and easy to remember. **What problems is 3ds Max Design solving and how is that benefiting you?** create compelling and engaging visualizations and animations. ### 13. 3D Studio Max 2016 **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** John A. | CEO & Founder, Ragdoll Studio LLC, Animation, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 30, 2016 **What do you like best about 3ds Max Design?** There is a lot to like about 3D Studio Max. It's modeling tools are some of the best in the business. 3DS Max uses a modifier stack process that functions as layers similar to what you might find in Photoshop. There are a number of methods available for modelers which makes it very versatile. 3DS Max also has a great material editor and some fairly powerful rendering tools. **What do you dislike about 3ds Max Design?** My biggest complaint about 3DS Max is their lack of VFX support. Since Autodesk removed Reactor from the software, there really aren't many great options for visual effects. Particle Flow is great for some basic to mid-range particle rendering, however fluid simulation is completely absent and some basic simulations like rope are difficult and clumsy to achieve. 3DS Max is really behind the eight ball in this regard. **Recommendations to others considering 3ds Max Design:** If you're looking for a great modeling and rendering package, 3DS Max has everything you need. There are better options though for Visual Effects and for Animation tools in general. One other thing to consider. 3DS Max has an annoying glitch in their scaling tools. Non-uniform scaling in the top level or object mode can result in some pretty nasty parenting issues, especially when rigging. Always scale in sub-object mode or make sure to reset your xform after scaling. This is critical if you want to prevent hours of lost production time. **What problems is 3ds Max Design solving and how is that benefiting you?** Our company creates medical and forensic animation and for the most part, 3DS Max solves most of our problems and work s very well. As mentioned before, VFX options are limited and we tend to utilize other software packages like Cinema4D for those solutions. ### 14. I've been working with 3D max for years now **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Grace Stephanie M. | Animator, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 29, 2016 **What do you like best about 3ds Max Design?** I found 3D Max really friendly for modeling and texturing. I've been using it for several years now since i graduated from college, 3D max is the number one 3d software in my country, big and small studios use it for Mobiles games, tv commercials, architectural visualization and short films. It's really easy to learn and is compatible with other commonly used software. I love the easy autosave feature and all the vray renders possibilities. I love the backburner render it's perfect. populates is super easy to use and so fast. **What do you dislike about 3ds Max Design?** Changing files from one version (year) to another needs some extra steps that are really annoying. Some times if you forget, you can't use your files at all, Sometimes the software crashes or the file gets damaged usually with high levels of smooth or with too many modifiers. Sometimes exporting and importing goes wrong, you have to be very careful. **Recommendations to others considering 3ds Max Design:** Practice, a lot, is the only way to master something. Also experiment, you can achieve one model in like 3 differents ways. Always create more than 5 autobacks, sometimes you change your mid or the power goes off. Remember saving a lot of versions of your file, specially if you work with difficult clients. Changing from 3D max to 3D Maax design is not difficult, there some extra things in one than the other doesn't have. **What problems is 3ds Max Design solving and how is that benefiting you?** Every day clients related changes and last minute problems. ### 15. Best Architectural - Visualisation software for modeling and animation **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Riccardo D. | Cg Artist, Architecture & Planning, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 29, 2016 **What do you like best about 3ds Max Design?** After some years of experience i say that: Max is the standard for 3D Arch-Viz projects. Architectural Visualisation is vital for an architect that approach a new building creation. With max i find a solid and efficient workflow to produce architectural images and video starting from the scratch. The main thing about 3d max Design is the huge amount of plug-ins and related software connected. For example even for our courses here in SOA Academy we use 3d max related with plug-ins and scripts like: Forest Pro, Railclone, Grow FX, V-ray, Rendermask, Id tool, Multiscatter, MightyTiles, Bercon Maps, Relink Bitmaps. Another great thing is keyboard shortcut that look really similar with other software like Autodesk Autocad. **What do you dislike about 3ds Max Design?** Maybe the only thing that i dislike is the User interface that looks like a 90's software. **Recommendations to others considering 3ds Max Design:** My best recommendation is save constantly progressive. Is the only way to produce a 3d model without any error. Another tips that i personally recommend is try to use scene saved without any crash, for example avoid the use of autoback files. **What problems is 3ds Max Design solving and how is that benefiting you?** Basically i use max from 6 years and i use a workflow that allows me to produce images and animation in a simple way. When i use max i feel like i'm in a Tank. It's stable and solid maybe for now the only choice in the Arch-viz world. Even if look inside my personal works you will see that i use Max for every new project. https://www.behance.net/gallery/25591469/Tower-Project Inside that one for example I personally designed the entire 3d tower with 3dmax and railclone pro. ### 16. Great tool to produce realistic renderings **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Paula C. | Architect, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 25, 2016 **What do you like best about 3ds Max Design?** I usually use 3ds Max combined to other render plug-ins to produce realistic scenes for my Architecture projects. The interface is not difficult to understand and I can create materials, textures really fast. Another great feature of this software is the possibility to work with Revit, change the model on Revit and see it updated on 3ds Max. It save a lot of time. **What do you dislike about 3ds Max Design?** About the interface: I wish it could have smaller icons to save more space in my window. If you have 2 big screen to work with 3ds Max, that is dream. Another important point is that you need a good computer configuration to use it. I spent some money buying new computer parts to improve my machine and the result is great. **Recommendations to others considering 3ds Max Design:** If you want a software to model or just render scenes of your project, 3ds Max is a great choice. You can create realistic scenes, materials, textures using it or combine it to other plugins to get even better results. **What problems is 3ds Max Design solving and how is that benefiting you?** Using 3ds Max I could produce realistic scenes for projects for the first time. It helped me improve the quality of my presentations in college and also in an architectural firm as summer intern. Using this software you also can set up many machines to render the images any time you like. I did my animation project using 3ds Max. The best benefit to me is the quality of the results. ### 17. 3ds Max: The Bread & Butter of 3d Software **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Rafael B. | 3D Graphics Artist, Writing and Editing, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 28, 2016 **What do you like best about 3ds Max Design?** I like 3ds Max for its all-around versatility. Being an industry standard when it comes to 3d work, you can use it for almost any kind of 3d work imaginable. In addition to that, the program supports hundreds of plug-ins which add to its already loaded features. **What do you dislike about 3ds Max Design?** Aside from its wide variety of useful features and capabilities, 3ds Max also has obsolete features included within it to aid in backwards compatibility with older versions. These obsolete features, I would consider, merely clutter up the workspace and would probably be better if they were updated in new versions or removed altogether. **Recommendations to others considering 3ds Max Design:** 3ds Max is one of the oldest 3d software in the world; its history goes back in the 1980s. This means that its interface is modeled based on a tried and tested design, which might not fit in with the preferences of people who are accustomed to newer 3d software with more streamlined interfaces. I would recommend to prospecting users of this program to learn the interface first and foremost. **What problems is 3ds Max Design solving and how is that benefiting you?** The main business problem I'm currently trying to solve is figuring out what area in the 3d industry to focus on. 3ds Max has a wide variety of capabilities which means its users, like me, have a wide variety of options in the 3d industry to choose from. ### 18. Good software for soft and natural shapes **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Antoine G. | Training footwear designer intern, Sporting Goods, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 25, 2016 **What do you like best about 3ds Max Design?** The software is one of the most complete. A lot of functionnalities and very powerfull ! You are very free and can do a lot with it, from modeling to rendering. I like animations with it, when you get to know it you can do really good animations quite easily and fast ! **What do you dislike about 3ds Max Design?** The interface is very old, it didn't evolved a lot from the beggining and it is really not intuitive. You have to pass several long hours on it in order to be a bit fluent with the interface. It is really a big problem with it. Everything is not natural and learning is very hard. Sometime the software is so advanced that you dont know what some options are made for. **Recommendations to others considering 3ds Max Design:** If you are not affraid to waste time and want good renders, create animations or make free shapes, try it! **What problems is 3ds Max Design solving and how is that benefiting you?** I really improved the quality of my renderings with 3Dsmax and Vray. Natural and organic shapes are really Easy to do with it and help me on several projects. ### 19. 3DS Max **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Aaron J. | BIM Manager, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 16, 2016 **What do you like best about 3ds Max Design?** I have been using 3D Studio Max for a long time and Autodesk has continued to develop and grow the program. This program is very powerful and can great wonderful animations. **What do you dislike about 3ds Max Design?** Like many of the 3D animation software that is available, it takes a pretty high learning curve to understand all the parts and pieces. If you combine that with the updates that take place every year, you can quickly find yourself lost in the program. **Recommendations to others considering 3ds Max Design:** Take you time and (if possible) get professional training. It will really pay off in the long run. **What problems is 3ds Max Design solving and how is that benefiting you?** We find that it works very well with our graphic arts and rendering purposes. We can make images look much better if combined with the power in 3D Studio Max. ### 20. 3DS Max **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Amit P. | Creative Director, Design, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 24, 2016 **What do you like best about 3ds Max Design?** A great tool for data visualization for non-programmers is my favorite part. The Max Creation Graph can be used to animate simulation data in CFD, .CSV, or OpenVDB formats. I love that more and more formats for export capabilities are supported now. Makes the tool much more versatile. The ability to apply rendering styles, and CFD velocity fields, and animate airflow splines to make accurate data is pretty handy as well. In my personal opinion, 3DS Max is by far the best tool for scientific and engineering applications. **What do you dislike about 3ds Max Design?** It is often marketed as a creative tool for the gaming, characters and film markets, in which case I prefer Maya over 3DS Max. I find it lacking a ton of features when it comes to creative applications. Maya is the industry leader on that front. **What problems is 3ds Max Design solving and how is that benefiting you?** As mentioned earlier for data visualization, scientific and engineering applications 3DS Max is an excellent tool. One of the other key elements (recently added to the latest version of 3DS Max 2016) is the Max Creation Graph capability. I simply love this new node-based tool and content creation environment. ### 21. 3ds max 2014 **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Javier W. | Artista 3D, Architecture & Planning, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 01, 2016 **What do you like best about 3ds Max Design?** Is very powerful, It has hidden tools that are usually very effective. In general, all programs, plugins and 3D models are based in 3ds max. Also, it is lately adding plugins that are quite effective. It's good the possibility of changing the toolbars. Splines management, and also vertices is very interesting. **What do you dislike about 3ds Max Design?** It is not friendly, is not has an interface easy to understand (like another 3D programs). I struggled to learn some things, and configuration of the program is somewhat complex. You should have a better graphical configuration with older video boards. Asset tracking should be reviewed, is pretty hard to understand right. A major problem still unresolved, are the constant "crashes" of the program, the bugs. Usually it closes without notice and without save it anything. **Recommendations to others considering 3ds Max Design:** Take your time and patience to learn it. **What problems is 3ds Max Design solving and how is that benefiting you?** I solve 3D visualization for architects and designers. ### 22. The amazing Max **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Carlos D. | Freelance Concept Artist, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 26, 2016 **What do you like best about 3ds Max Design?** This is the first 3d software that i learned, was complicated but is just amazing, is like the photoshop of the 3D, you have plugins for everything!. I'm more focused on 3d modeling like characters, environments and props for videogames or film, and the experience with this software is great, is fun to use and there's a lot of resources, tools and plugins. Max have one of the best render engines, the amazing Vray, the UVTool set is amazing, i really like to do uv's in this software, the modeling tools are great have a pretty fast workflow so you'll not have any problem with this, and the shader creation nodes are just amazing and fast to use. **What do you dislike about 3ds Max Design?** The price, is really expensive. More flexible UI **Recommendations to others considering 3ds Max Design:** 3dsmax is essential in your toolkit if you're creating a shortfilm, videogame or archviz, this software will help you a lot. And if you're a beginner you can try it for free at their website, and if you have an student email you can get a 3 year (non-commercial) license for free to learn and create your portfolio. **What problems is 3ds Max Design solving and how is that benefiting you?** Well I was using this software since 8 years ago, creating characters, and a lot of stuff, the benefits are amazing, You can create any 3d - 2d'ish related content here without touch any other software. ### 23. Excellent 3D structural design software **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Daniel A. | Jefe, Graphic Design, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 25, 2016 **What do you like best about 3ds Max Design?** It is very good software 3D design for all that is creating structural parts, freedom of work and interface are quite dynamic and simple, which gradually can be discovering tools that help in creating parts more precision and speed, is very complete in general If you want to create good models, animations, images, special effects and all kinds of things with 3D Max you can do all this in a very good way. **What do you dislike about 3ds Max Design?** The program is usually too heavy, and supports very few nodes, most of the time is closed or stuck to process information, as to the design that can be performed within this program should always be kept simple, and make adjustments visual only to improve design quality. That takes time to generate high quality designs where other programs can be more automated, or advance a simple workflow where the laborious part of the design is done faster. **Recommendations to others considering 3ds Max Design:** For the creation of parts for animations or video games is excellent tool, and structural surveys for renderings. The workflow can be very simple and dynamic once the project is to realize it is clear, and has made a prior investigation of the tools the program provides for what is planned. **What problems is 3ds Max Design solving and how is that benefiting you?** 80% for the reproduction of parts with prototyping printers, all about 3D surveys purely structural parts, for conducting organic pieces becomes somewhat tedious. For playback of three-dimensional prototypes it is excellent, if properly constructed model reproduction of the piece is usually perfect. ### 24. Excellent 3D software **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 03, 2016 **What do you like best about 3ds Max Design?** 3ds Max is the first 3D software I learnt for modelling, animation and rendering. I have to say it has very powerful modelling tools allowing me to create complex 3D models. It also has simple and intuitive interface making it very user friendly to use for beginners and learners. **What do you dislike about 3ds Max Design?** 3ds Max is only available on Windows and not available for Mac OS or Linux users. This is a big downside for those users especially when Mac OS users are so popular already. **Recommendations to others considering 3ds Max Design:** It is very suitable for someone who just started learning 3D modelling because of it's user friendly interface. It is also suitable for project that involves complex modelling and architectural visualisation. **What problems is 3ds Max Design solving and how is that benefiting you?** I have been using it on school projects and small contract projects. It's easy to use and very user friendly. ### 25. very good Reliably product **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ahmed E. | manager, Design, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 31, 2016 **What do you like best about 3ds Max Design?** program stability, no crashes, loosing work is not possible anymore also the populate feature added in 2014 is really helpful in heavy animation scenes. ability to use vray and corona is also very helpful. the distributed rendering in vray plugin is an amazing feature for designers who would like to render scenes faster. **What do you dislike about 3ds Max Design?** exporting files in fbx or 3ds. it usually exported with problems or damaged. the exported file always missing materials, so i have to use max standard extension to avoid such issues. in the populate features you can't add sitting people in 2014 version. **Recommendations to others considering 3ds Max Design:** just use it. it's stability and its performance makes you feel like a powerful designer **What problems is 3ds Max Design solving and how is that benefiting you?** i'm an interior designer so i'm using 3ds max design to present design ideas for clients. that's how to make deals with clients. ### 26. Its my daily bread and butter software **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Derek D. | Cg Artist, Animation, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 28, 2016 **What do you like best about 3ds Max Design?** The amount of freedom and options it has to offer in terms of workflow and quality, and the vast compatibility with various world class plugins. **What do you dislike about 3ds Max Design?** Somethings have become very cumbersome with the new updates and at times the, responsiveness is very bad compared to the other softwares. very sluggish in handling CAD. **Recommendations to others considering 3ds Max Design:** It is a very good piece of software out of the box, though i would recommend getting an external renderer. I use Vray a my primary renderer, though Iray is very good, ive just been comfortable using Vray over the last half decade. **What problems is 3ds Max Design solving and how is that benefiting you?** Scalability is fantastic!! Also the community of users is huge so its easier to work around with artists globally in our company and otherwise also. ### 27. amazing **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Architecture & Planning | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 12, 2016 **What do you like best about 3ds Max Design?** The best 3ds max feature is that with it you can do whatever you want. Its versatility is its strength. It is a very powerful tool for anyone working in the field of architecture and design as me. The results obtained with the 3d modeling and rendering using this program you do not get with any other program in my opinion. The user experience for 3ds max is absolutely high quality and can reach very high professional objectives. You can model the smallest part of something as well as an entire neighbourood. I strengly recomend this pc program for all those professionals that want to reach the highrst quality in their works. **What do you dislike about 3ds Max Design?** if I have to find a weakness in 3ds max, I can say that it takes a long time to learn to use the many tools that provides. my idea is that it is not a program that you learn on your own. at least a few hours of training is required held by some professionals to learn at least the basics. 3ds max is not a difficult program to use, but since it has many features and possibilities requires a period of training before you can use professionally. **Recommendations to others considering 3ds Max Design:** take your time to learn this program, and it worth it **What problems is 3ds Max Design solving and how is that benefiting you?** thanks to 3ds max I could start my own business as a professional 3d modeler. Customers are very satisfied with the quality of the work that I propose. It also allowed me to become part of a community of professionals who use this program, in which we exchange ideas, we help solve problems and we also exchange models. ### 28. 3ds Max Architectural presentation **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Karim Elnabawy, L. | LEED Coordinator/Architect - Arabtec TAV JV - Bahrain International Airport, Construction, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 25, 2016 **What do you like best about 3ds Max Design?** Variety of tools that the software includes, also the ability to integrate render engines like vray and Brazil, while the most important feature is the support and advancement of each version. 3ds max exterior lighting is really easy and impressive, i usually add vray render engine to have more and better quality renders, easy modeling after the rippon added features, also editable poly is improving much that makes it easier to model any shape and form that the designer will imagine. **What do you dislike about 3ds Max Design?** difficult lighting settings, as sometimes, it's really hard to finalize the scene properly without having the proper physics knowledge, as most people don't have the knowledge of cameras and how surfaces react to lighting and shadows, also the acoustics is really hard to set-up as it requires more studying. The rigging is not easy to learn, it can be really wonderful to start creating characters and add rigged forms, but it can take a while to understand the concepts of rigging. i really hate how reactor works with other 3ds max tools and interfaces, i find it not actually compatible with other features, **Recommendations to others considering 3ds Max Design:** i highly recommend using 3ds max in architectural presentations, it gives high realistic models that visualize the client ideas. **What problems is 3ds Max Design solving and how is that benefiting you?** architectural presentation and visualizations, as it's mainly my scope of work, to produce architectural designs and present it with max, and to show the client how the building will look like in the future. ### 29. Review **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Design | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 27, 2016 **What do you like best about 3ds Max Design?** I like the integration with Vray, it is nice. **What do you dislike about 3ds Max Design?** The user interface feels clunky and dated. Adjusting camera angles and positions is a bit confusing. **Recommendations to others considering 3ds Max Design:** If you are using it primarily for visualization, it can be overwhelming to see through the complex interface to the handful of tools you really need. Once you get past that, I would say it is pretty usable. **What problems is 3ds Max Design solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use it to visualize my products, and to create animations. The full power I get from using it in combination with Vray is second to none when compared with other software suites. ### 30. AWESOME!! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Leandro L. | Junior Interior Designer, Design, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 09, 2016 **What do you like best about 3ds Max Design?** Everything. Its the most that I used at work. Honestly, for me is the best software for 3d modeling and rendering. It has a lot of stuff, I'm working with 3ds max since 9 version, and still learning everyday. **What do you dislike about 3ds Max Design?** Like other designers, I hate when the program close without the possibility of a backup. Specially when you are working with a close deadline. Also when you have all the user paths lose and want to add a new one, it still saying that "X" quantity of paths are invalid, and don't let you press OK, so don't let you add the new path either **Recommendations to others considering 3ds Max Design:** Best of the best to render interior scenes, and modeling furniture **What problems is 3ds Max Design solving and how is that benefiting you?** Modeling and visualizing interior designs scenes for commercial and residential buildings. ### 31. Not so easy to use but very effective software **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Architecture & Planning | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 05, 2016 **What do you like best about 3ds Max Design?** How easy it is to take materials from different sources and change them depending on the needs of the project and not being limited to the program's material library. To create new materials from zero using just the program settings is quite easy too. The compatibility with other programs like AutoCAD is quite good (AutoCAD - 3D Max, I didn't try the other way around) **What do you dislike about 3ds Max Design?** Because it's a program used in so many fields, there are so many menus that it's easy to get lost (menus that I am not going to use and I don't even know how). To master the program it's quite difficult without help or instructions, would be helpful to be able to limit the menus or adapt them a little bit more to my needs. **What problems is 3ds Max Design solving and how is that benefiting you?** The possibility of showing to the client the proposed final result in 3D, since not everyone understands plans and 2D drawings and mood boards, being able to change things before actually building it. Although is more difficult to use than other programs, it is more exact and the results are quite realistic. ### 32. My best friend in work :) **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Sérgio M. | CEO & Founder | Lead 3D Artist, Architecture & Planning, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 01, 2016 **What do you like best about 3ds Max Design?** I use 3DS Max from my 16 years old! my first experience with was the 3ds DOS version! So I have a huge experience using this great software that in my opinion is the best we can use for 3d rendering! What I must like of it is the versatility and scripting capacity and available plug ins that it allow us to have a huge set of tools to use in our daily pipeline. **What do you dislike about 3ds Max Design?** All the 3d softwares have a set of things that we don´t like and 3ds max is not diferent! My big dislike is regular crashes they can do and in most of the cases the software goes down with a simple task! this is very annoying sometimes but every 3ds max user that use this software at few years knows that we must do CTRL+S often:) other thing that I dont like the old interface that the software have I think is time to Autodesk can get us a more clear and friendly interface design. **What problems is 3ds Max Design solving and how is that benefiting you?** We use it here in Studio to produce 3d visualizations for clients around the world is our main software that allows us to create amazing 3d renders as services it help me and the team a lot. ### 33. 3ds Max has been my software of choice for more than five years doing animation and design. **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Xavi S. | 3D Modeler, Design, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 31, 2016 **What do you like best about 3ds Max Design?** For me, the best features of 3ds Max are: polygonal modeling, the amount of stackable modifiers and the compatibility with render engines like V-Ray or Corona, which gives you the realism that the industry requires nowadays. It is also a very robust package with all the options that you may need (useful for doing video-game assets, animations, product designs or architectural renders) and in many countries this is the software used by big companies. Finally, the last version of the software comes with the Max Creation Graph that allows you to create plugins and scripts using a visual node-based workflow (so, no programming knowledge is needed). **What do you dislike about 3ds Max Design?** Although 3ds Max is a very complete software, it is very common to use other software for some tasks like: UV unwrapping (especially for complex models), texture painting, organic modeling, retopology and post-production. Also, the software comes with Mental Ray, which has evolved a lot during the last years, but you will probably have to use more powerful render engines like V-Ray or Corona. With that in mind, you are going to use 3ds Max in addition to third parties software, which means more licenses to buy, and that could be a problem if you are starting your own business. **Recommendations to others considering 3ds Max Design:** It is very difficult to learn how to use the software with Autodesk manuals or online tutorials, so it is highly recommended to do a course (at least to know the basic features). And if you are going to do industrial designs for product manufacturing there are other options in the market that are more focused on this task. **What problems is 3ds Max Design solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am mostly doing product and advertising designs. The benefits of using 3ds Max are that it covers all my needs for those kind of projects and it allows me to do them fast with excellent results. ### 34. Endless power **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Martini R. | Interactive Designer, Marketing and Advertising, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 31, 2016 **What do you like best about 3ds Max Design?** I've had tried a lot of 3d Packages but 3ds max's graphite modelling tools are incredible powerful, also the particle view and the slate material composer are just amazing. Also there are so many plugins and almost every render engines are compatible. Once you get used to the interface and tools, the workflow is quite fast. There is a bunch of options and modifiers. **What do you dislike about 3ds Max Design?** Is just for Windows, some tools are outdated, also the "built-in" help is sometimes poor. The interface is a little confusing some of the times. The scanline render is just awfau. but is it ok for testing. **Recommendations to others considering 3ds Max Design:** Is a very powerful tool, if you are looknig for modeling this is your softwere. **What problems is 3ds Max Design solving and how is that benefiting you?** I found the metrics very precise, you can build 3d models and print them out with incredible ease. On the other hand the built in iRay GPU render you can achieve photorealistic results in minutes without any external plugin. ### 35. Game Development and ArchViz in 3DS Max **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Games | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 30, 2016 **What do you like best about 3ds Max Design?** Oh man it have a lot of features I really like from ribbon tools to modifier list. We are using an old Max at company I currently work with. It's 2009 edition, but personally my favourite one is 2016. I really like Nitro in 3ds max it boost up workflow. It may hold a lot of triangles like no other software. Overall feeling when you are using this product is pretty ok, but in many cases It could be improved. **What do you dislike about 3ds Max Design?** I dont like policy to not support saving to older version of .max. What I mean by that is if u have max 2016 u supposse to be allow to save files for max 2009. Some tools has nonsense like downgrading quallity of textures at viewport by default. And Compability with old version of plugins, allmost every plugin and script need to be rewrite with each iteration of new max. And It's not that open like Maya to scripting and moding. That's why mu current employer want to switch to maya. UI looks pretty too archaic. Still need to xform everything It's annoying especially when it corrupting your files. **Recommendations to others considering 3ds Max Design:** It will gave you a lot of freedom and planty of tools to work with. **What problems is 3ds Max Design solving and how is that benefiting you?** I'm environment artist and I'm working with games environment assets. But I'm archviz hobbist, so I'm playing with vray and max to get as much realism as I can. For fun and portfolio purposes I still using student version. ### 36. A powerful and complete tool for Arch Viz, Film, and Game modelling **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Oisin A. | Frontend Developer, Information Technology and Services, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 30, 2016 **What do you like best about 3ds Max Design?** 3DS Max is an incredibly advanced tool, and no doubt an industry leader when it comes to 3D modelling and rendering. The interface and tools are quite intuitive, and while there is a bit of a learning curve, there are so many resources available online that you can quickly find help achieving even some of the most complicated tasks you might encounter. It's strong points are how complete the product is, providing tools for modelling, animation, particle and physics simulation, and physically accurate rendering for materials and lighting, something very important in my field. The extensibility of 3DS max through plugins and scripts also means you have endless possibilities with what you can achieve with the software. **What do you dislike about 3ds Max Design?** All good things come at a price, and the price for 3DS Max is very high, especially when there are completely free packages like Blender which have a surprisingly complete feature set even when compared directly to 3DS Max **Recommendations to others considering 3ds Max Design:** If you are a student you can get a student license for free that allows you to use the product for more than a year. It is a great way to start off with 3DS Max and get familiar with tools and user interface. For those looking to switch to 3DS Max, it is very powerful but be prepared to spend a lot of time re-learning some of the concepts you may be familiar with in your current CAD software **What problems is 3ds Max Design solving and how is that benefiting you?** I have used 3DS Max for physically accurate lighting simulations using photometric data for light sources and modelling the physical attributes of materials such that they behave as close to the real world as possible. Coupled with the physically accurate camera and renderer, we have been able to create these simulations to help clients visualise interior spaces and choose the appropriate type of lights and layout for the desired lighting effect. ### 37. Overall, a great experience. Max has it made it possible to realise projects stuck in my head **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Sven J N. | Director / Founder, Design, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 30, 2016 **What do you like best about 3ds Max Design?** The utter complexity and power that 3Ds Max provides. The ability to realise ideas and forms often in multiple ways. I also prefer the fact that it provides the option to work with units which as far as i'm aware is not possible with Maya. **What do you dislike about 3ds Max Design?** The User Interface is a bit of a disaster but I perfectly understand why in a way. 25 years of features are packed into that UI, most of which have been added on over the years as patches and new features with each release. Sometimes it can feel a bit clunky and nightmare to navigate. It's good in a way though as it discourages amateurs and those looking for a quick fix solution. I find the animation system in genera very confusing and clunky. **Recommendations to others considering 3ds Max Design:** Be prepared to have patience with the daunting interface and realise that there is 25s years of stuff packed in Max and it will take years to master everything, something I'm still aiming at :) **What problems is 3ds Max Design solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use 3Ds Max for a broad range of uses which have helped me assist clients from a broad range of industries and goals: architectural vizualisation and rendering, product and furniture design game environments film sets 3D printing ### 38. In love with 3ds Max **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Federico C. | Architect/ 3D Visualizer, Architecture & Planning, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 29, 2016 **What do you like best about 3ds Max Design?** I love this program, I use it everyday and for me is ike a second hand. What I like the most? I think when we use 3d program what every artist seek is freedom in all the way possible, and 3ds max is very flexible, the best of many other 3d program I ever tried. **What do you dislike about 3ds Max Design?** What I dislike? as I said before, 3ds max give lot of freedome, and to do this it has many and many tools, this encrease the confusion when you use it, I think the developers should try to simplify the program by removing, or hiding, the less used tools. Another aspect that could be encrease is the parametric tools, by now the world of architeture is going everyday towards more organic shapes, and simply additions could give us an easier life, for example encreasing the the possibility of use of the soft selection tool in edit poly, just to say it ones. And if I can ask more, an encreasing of the graphite modelling tools would be much appreciated, especially about paint sculpting, with adding simply tools most of us could avoid using program like zbrush or similar. **What problems is 3ds Max Design solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use it for architectural/design purpose, it is very efficient, also to model furniture is very handly. ### 39. imprecisely easy-going engineering **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Anh Tuan N. | Intern, Architecture & Planning, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 31, 2016 **What do you like best about 3ds Max Design?** It works well with v-ray and comparable with many other 2d software **What do you dislike about 3ds Max Design?** It can't control the exact information of a shape which is not what an engineer expect afterward **Recommendations to others considering 3ds Max Design:** In the era that all the 3d softwares are benefiting from Vray rendering, 3ds max still has its role when it comes down to quality and realistic appearance of the out come. It is supper good for undetermined shape designing but that's all it can offer. if you consider yourself more than an artist or rendering man, you would need something more than 3dsmax or something powerful to go with it. **What problems is 3ds Max Design solving and how is that benefiting you?** I'm working on architectural design and I am looking for a software or a series of softwares that have tight relation to produce technical drawing as well as presentation form beginning to the end. This industry is benefiting big time from the software companies like autodesk and many others. ### 40. I have been using this program for over 10 years **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Hussain A. | Senior Designer, Marketing and Advertising, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 29, 2016 **What do you like best about 3ds Max Design?** The interface is great and easy to use, 3D max has countless amount of tools, and many that can be imported, it is truly a world of its own. **What do you dislike about 3ds Max Design?** Can't handle heavy scenes sometimes with high poly's, It gets better when you manage your scene properly, but can get a bit frustrating too by just crashing. But I guess computer limitations also play a role. **Recommendations to others considering 3ds Max Design:** If you are getting started then I recommend taking a look at other programs and see exactly what you need, eventually you can do the same thing in every program, but the experience and UI/UX also play a role. C4D has been gaining a lot of traction lately with motion graphics, and 3D max is trying to catch up in that area. Other than that I think it's an amazing program, with a lot of tools and a lot of power. **What problems is 3ds Max Design solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am a product designer and have found the tools very useful, I have a lot of control and flexibility on what I want to achieve which is great. ### 41. Quite good **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Filip M. | Freelance 3D Designer, Architecture & Planning, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 28, 2016 **What do you like best about 3ds Max Design?** The best what I like in 3ds max is the large quantity of great rendering engines, tutorials, plugins, scipts etc. Also 3ds max is a great performance tool where you can produce high quality renderings. Another great thing in 3ds max is that it has good compatibility with other software. **What do you dislike about 3ds Max Design?** I don't like that it's not stable and crashes sometimes destroying the files. Simple box modeling is a bit too complicated in that program. For example in sketchup you can make some simple things much faster. Another thing that I don't like is the price. I think that for that kind of money it should be flawless so in my opinion it's a bit overpriced. **Recommendations to others considering 3ds Max Design:** Despite price 3ds max is a great tool. It is great performance and quite easy to learn, because of the large number of tutorials on the Internet. **What problems is 3ds Max Design solving and how is that benefiting you?** I'm mainly creating architectural visualisations. Also sometimes I do some packshots rendering. ### 42. Modelise Products **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Research | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 27, 2016 **What do you like best about 3ds Max Design?** I like the infinit possibility that offers this software. You can do different step of the 3D process, from The modelisation, to the animation and the rendering. As a lot of professional use it since decades, you can find a lot of very interesting plug in, and lots of videos to explain you how to do different things. **What do you dislike about 3ds Max Design?** It is very difficult to get use to the interface. It seems that no updates of the interface has been done since years. In addition to that, it regularly crashes so you better save your files regularly. **Recommendations to others considering 3ds Max Design:** It is a very good and complete software. However you generally only need 5% of it's capacity so you should think before using it what you really need to achieve. Despite it is a very complex software, the comunity using this sofware is huge and you can easily find tutorials and forum where you can ask your questions. **What problems is 3ds Max Design solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am modelising, texturing, animating and rendering 3D products in a scene. As you can do everything inside the same software, you can have a good workflow. This prevent you from using 4softwares. Other professional of the same fields are using this software, making the file exchange in case of collaboration much easier (even if files support exporting and importing is also quite good) ### 43. 3Ds Max Architectural Visualization **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ahmed F. | Architecture Visualizer - Post Production Artist, Graphic Design, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 27, 2016 **What do you like best about 3ds Max Design?** One of the major things that makes me us use 3d Max in our company how easy it is .. how you can generate tons of scripts that make everything pretty easy to do .. also in general it's easy to use compare to other 3d software. **What do you dislike about 3ds Max Design?** First thing it's price .. too much to pay .. also some times - with large file - become kinda unstable and crash .. you could loose important files if you didn't pay attention for that. **What problems is 3ds Max Design solving and how is that benefiting you?** Mainly we are working with Animation and CGIs .. we offer these services for real state companies and design studios .. Animation is too easy to be done in 3d max in aid of some plugins and scripts. 3d max native renderer is very hard to deal with actually , so we always looking for another like vray or corona .. these renders save too much time in rendering and give a great quality within short time ### 44. Awesome Solution for Architectural Design **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Sayani M. | UI & Graphic Designer, Design, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 06, 2016 **What do you like best about 3ds Max Design?** The flawless features of 3ds Max. Everything is just at its place. I has every tool needed for modeling, texturing and lighting hard surface 3D scenes. It's dynamics is awesome and provide real life effects. **What do you dislike about 3ds Max Design?** I don't particularly like its lack of good animation tools. It should be more effective so that we don't have to switch to another software just for the sake of animating. **Recommendations to others considering 3ds Max Design:** I totally recommend it to other users who are in the 3D design field, whether engineering, architectural or product design. **What problems is 3ds Max Design solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am look for architectural visualization solutions. 3Ds Max empower me with every tool to realize the solutions. ### 45. Using 3ds max more than decade... **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Stanislav K. | Designer, Design, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 28, 2016 **What do you like best about 3ds Max Design?** Solid work horse for some tasks. Pretty much ready for complex tasks "out of box". Wide array of renderers for any task. #1 tool for architects and "still" artists. Quick and simply tool for rendering objects or scenes, has some tools (mostly 3rd party) than other packages does not have. **What do you dislike about 3ds Max Design?** Lag in development in other areas than architecture visualization. Overcomplicated in the particles area, lacks "Mograph" like SIMPLY tool. Drop in stability on later releases. Born as a industry standard in the CG, somehow dropped the pace of innovations and took wrong turn with "arch rendering" field **Recommendations to others considering 3ds Max Design:** This software lacks in the fields of "tricks" like Cinema 4D or procedural stuff like Maya or Hudini, but still a solid player in the fields of CG graphics. **What problems is 3ds Max Design solving and how is that benefiting you?** Broadcast design mostly, branding in the fields of broadcast and some 3d visualization stuff. Nice way of managing layers through Render States. ### 46. One software, all possibilities **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Martin D. | Owner, Design, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 28, 2016 **What do you like best about 3ds Max Design?** Versatility is something I really like. It is a very comprehensive program with which you can make all kinds of content. In my case, it is for art, motion and advertisign. Being such a popular program, you can find all types of content, tutorials, resources and plugings. **What do you dislike about 3ds Max Design?** The program design is a bit complicated in the beginning. You need someone to help you understand what does each panel, and where it is located. **Recommendations to others considering 3ds Max Design:** When you have knowledge in 3d, i recommend Max. It is a software that allows everything. **What problems is 3ds Max Design solving and how is that benefiting you?** When I can not solve with photo shoot, or when I need an animation. With practice, one gets amazing results. ### 47. Excellent software for architects and designers **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Tika S. | Founder, CEO, Design, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 28, 2016 **What do you like best about 3ds Max Design?** i am interior designer , so i'm using 3ds max for modelling and renderings, it helps me to create realistic scenes for projects with details ,create excellent visualizations.using this software, you can create high quality projects, 3ds max is also great for modelling and video tours ,which are very important for architects and designers. **What do you dislike about 3ds Max Design?** mostly , i'm very contented with 3ds max , i really don't have negative estimations, of course there are some problems sometimes , but i think it depends on your knowledge and experience with this program.One thing that i don't like is that it's really hard to work in this software , 3ds max really don''t belongs to the easy-to-learn programs. **What problems is 3ds Max Design solving and how is that benefiting you?** 3ds max gives you possibility to show your work in high quality , create realistic projects and all of this ,of course ,makes good impressions on customers. ### 48. A complete tool **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Wagner d. | Freelance 3D Artist, Design, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 28, 2016 **What do you like best about 3ds Max Design?** The software is one of the most complete softwares in the market. Its a powerfull tool that has a infinite possibilities to do whatever you want. The interface is very organized, and you can work with a lot of polygons on the viewport without crash or slowdown. **What do you dislike about 3ds Max Design?** It's not an easy software to learning, but if you learn how the 3D works, you can do a lot of things that other softwares can't do. Also, work with precision is a negative point , mainly if you are working with Splines, and would be nice if we could set up a render size/aspect by camera. **Recommendations to others considering 3ds Max Design:** Learn it! Its a professional software! **What problems is 3ds Max Design solving and how is that benefiting you?** Well, this software is compatible with almost other softwares, so if I need to use some tool or resource of another software I just need use the Import/Export tool and it's ok. ### 49. Great for 3D Modelling **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Architecture & Planning | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 26, 2016 **What do you like best about 3ds Max Design?** It has a lot of great features for 3D modelling. Much better than other available programs such as Maya. **What do you dislike about 3ds Max Design?** The downside is that it is very similar to a lot of other programs that are also available (Maya, Softimage, Blender). It has a lot of good features that other programs do not have and it is missing a number of features that other programs do have. It does not feel worth the price tag for all these different 3D packages which ideally should have all of their features rolled into one larger package. **What problems is 3ds Max Design solving and how is that benefiting you?** We use this program occasionally for high-quality renders and for 3D work that Sketch-Up is not capable of accomplishing. It is nice to render a scene with the incredible freedom you get with a full 3D package like this and makes it easy to sell projects when the customer can see exactly what they are going to get. ### 50. Animation and Gaming Modeling **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Derdeicea V. | Lead Graphic Designer, Information Technology and Services, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 31, 2016 **What do you like best about 3ds Max Design?** 3Ds Max is a great all around tool, you can create beautiful interior design, character rigging, animations and beautiful renderings. Most of the time we've used 3Ds Max for gaming, environment design and modeling. We've started working with it back in the days where there was 3Ds Max 7 (Catalyst) on interior design with all sorts of rendering engines, from Vray to MentalRay and others. **What do you dislike about 3ds Max Design?** We don't really dislike the product, but somehow find the interface a bit difficult to work with. Autodesk has definitely improved the elements and the views along the way. For newcomers it can look really scary, but once you learn the basics of it you can have a lot of fun. **What problems is 3ds Max Design solving and how is that benefiting you?** With 3Ds Max we've really made some great graphics, it helped up a lot on making renderings and creating our vision into environments. ## 3ds Max Design Discussions - [I need a 3d max exterior design](https://www.g2.com/discussions/i-need-a-3d-max-exterior-design) - 2 comments, 1 upvote - [When will you implement TyFLow definitively?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/quando-implementerete-tyflow-definitavmente) - 1 comment, 1 upvote - [How do I learn python with 3ds max](https://www.g2.com/discussions/how-do-i-learn-python-with-3ds-max) - 1 comment, 1 upvote - [What is 3ds Max Design used for?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-3ds-max-design-used-for) - 2 comments - [What is the difference between 3ds Max and 3ds Max Design?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-the-difference-between-3ds-max-and-3ds-max-design) - 2 comments - [View 3ds Max Design pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/3ds-max-design/reviews?page=4§ion=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-08-03+14%3A57%3A42+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=5f575c07-0f48-433e-bc38-2834491c4c96&secure%5Btoken%5D=754a31bed44ada2f32093db650ccd1824fd8325f298264de511571c8524373b1&format=llm_user) ## 3ds Max Design Integrations - [Adobe Photoshop](https://www.g2.com/products/adobe-photoshop/reviews) - [AutoCAD](https://www.g2.com/products/autocad/reviews) - [Chaos Corona](https://www.g2.com/products/chaos-corona/reviews) ## 3ds Max Design Features **Design** - Sculpting - Topology - Drawing - Brush Variety - Effects **Generative AI** - AI Text-to-Image - AI Text-to-Video - AI Text-to-3D **Generative AI** - AI Image-to-Text - AI Text-to-3D **Move** - Animate - Render - Views **Agentic AI - Animation** - Multi-step Planning - Cross-system Integration **Store & Manage** - Pipeline - Controls - Template library **Generative AI** - AI Text-to-Image - AI Text-to-3D ## Top 3ds Max Design Alternatives - [Unity](https://www.g2.com/products/unity/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (353 reviews) - [Blender](https://www.g2.com/products/blender/reviews) - 4.6/5.0 (310 reviews) - [Cinema 4D](https://www.g2.com/products/cinema-4d/reviews) - 4.6/5.0 (137 reviews)