3ds Max importer is broken

Questions & Answers
1

Unity has suddenly stopped importing 3ds Max files for me. If I move a .max file into the project, update an existing max file, or right click and select “reimport” the outcome is always the error “Max couldn’t convert the max file to an fbx file! It reached timeout of 3 minutes.”

I checked the previous threads on this and the fixes there do not work here. I do have 3ds Max installed on my computer, max files are associated with the correct program, double clicking the max file in the project window opens the file in 3ds Max without problem, and it WAS working just a couple of weeks ago.

I’ve tried doing a repair install of Max, uninstalling and reinstalling both Max and Unity, and rebooting at every stage. Nothing helped. Unity is still completely unable to import any 3ds Max file and will hang for 3 minutes every time. The windows open briefly showing that 3ds Max is trying to export it to Unity but somehow the process never completes.

I can’t limit myself to fbx files. There’s still a .max file in a project I’m working on that I need to update but Unity is stuck with the version that it was able to import weeks ago, back when the fbx conversion was working.

What is wrong with Unity that it can’t use .max files anymore?

2

Sounds like a bug - but maybe you’ve included something in the Max file that is not convertable by Unity.

Have you tried just a simple 2x2 meter cube in Max, save, then put into a clean Unity scene. Does this import as desired?

Personally I ONLY use fbx export/import process - so I can control the file information included in the fbx, and not rely on Unity converting the file for me, however I agree - it should work as expected.

If you can’t solve be other troubleshooting methods - consider strongly filing a bug report.

3

I finally got it working.

What I did was a repair install of windows (using the Reset Windows feature of Windows 10) and a fresh install of 3ds Max and Unity. I also had to deal with the gray starting screen bug that comes with fresh installs of Unity now, but it all worked in the end.