MAX 2013 - problems opening files made in 2012

[PIXELBOX_SRO]

Hi guys,
today i made a post on AREA describing problems we have with MAX 2013 which we had to cross over to.

http://area.autodesk.com/forum/autod...--please-help/

i need every brain to try to find a solution, so if you get a chance and possibly know a solution to this, PLEASE let me know.

We are literally FUCxxx if we dont make it work :-///

Basically TRIAL versions on render nodes (which did not run out of the 30 day grace period) of MAX 2013 open the MAX 2012 files OK, but the activated versions DONT :-O

Thanks for any possible hint

[Donald2B]

What kind of plug-ins are used?

So far, we have had zero problems opening 2012 files in 2013.

Could you send me a sample file that exhibits the problem and I could try on some machines here?

[Neilg]

Did you save the 2012 scenes with compression turned on? We had a problem with this recently where some machines were breaking compressed files, and after turning it off and re-saving they all started working again.

[PIXELBOX_SRO]

Troy:
pretty much classic plugs:
Forest Pack, Multiscatter, Bercon, Multitexture, colorcorrect, coloredge, quadchamfer, turbosmooth pro, railclone, grow efex, vray

I am awaiting a response from AD support at the moment.
We have managed to make one seat working with activated max, we will see tomorrow what happens once we do a fresh reinstal on another seat and go active.
That woudl be two seats used. If they work, we are saved.
I am still convinced it might have been the extra licence i made active in the office and which was meant for home use (i like to install all the comps in one room)
If it dowent work, i will be happy to send you the scene for inspection...it will have to be full scene with textures probably so we can properly debug Thanks for your offer!

Cubicle:
thanks for the tip, i will have a look into that!

[Morne]

Please keep us up to date on this issue. I havent experienced this issue, but curious to see what's the cause of the problem.

[Donald2B]

Yeah, that's a few plug-ins!

Cubicle has a good point regarding the compression. I still use it, but I know it has caused some problems in the past. Mainly leading to extremely long opening times.

[PIXELBOX_SRO]

checked it this morning, all files uncompressed so it should no be the cause.
Still waiting for the answer from AD.
What a ridiculous support...totally not worth the money!

Will keep you updated guys.

So far my main workstation works great but i am on trial ...too scared to activate
Colleagues freshly installed machine is activated and runs nicely (we did completete reinstall including the HDD format - curious was that we were not able to run trial on this fresh install and the MAX required key from the previous MAX instal we did before HDD formating. It looks like a lot of change in AD activation procedure and technique. In 2012, you were able to run a TRIAL version on newly installed PC always.

[Donald2B]

That behavior regarding the Trial has been that way for many years, at least back to Max 9. Essentially, AD puts the information in an area of the HDD that remains even after formatting the HDD. The only I stumbled across a work around was doing a low level format on the HDD.

Anyways, can you recreate this behavior easily?
Can you create a file in 2012 and slowly add different plug-ins until it breaks?

I still think it has something to do with a plug-in not playing nice with 2013. :/

[PIXELBOX_SRO]

nope it cant be cos of plugin really i suspect the reason being that:
1. The TRIAL versions all have the same plugs installed as the activated versions.
2. The only difference is the soft being ACTIVATED and TRIAL

Its absolutelly weird (being very polite here)
I am already in contact with my reseller, he is helping me to get support form AD which is not coming ))

[Donald2B]

That's strange. Usually when I contact Autodesk directly (NOT throught the Area) for support, it's usually a pretty quick turn-around. I hope your reseller can get things going for you.

I have to admit, that this is very strange!

[PIXELBOX_SRO]

right....we have got quite in depth support from Ad in the end.
Basically its all about proper MAX instalation and troubleshooting when the licencing goes apeshit.

So far it all looks like the MAJOR problem was actually on the side of "great" MS WINDOWS not having the the most up to date actualisation!!!
This is crazy.
So since we have installed TRIALS on the already actualised rendernodes and we installed MAX 2013 on the woekstation which had only actualisations lower than SP1 (since they have just been freshly installed) - believe it or not, MAX 2013 had problems running on such systems.

So please guys next time you instale whatever from AD, make sure your WINDOWS are properly updated otherwise youre doomed for a week until you solve this miserable issue.

Never thought this could be the issue....never had before such problem with windows not being updated all the way.

M

[alexyork]

Interesting problem and solution!

[Donald2B]

Glad you got things sorted out!

That would not have been something I would have thought would be the culprit.

[PIXELBOX_SRO]

Thanks guys!
Yeah i ve been through huge pile of mess trying to solve this...still testing though so fingers crossed !

[ior=0]

I've also had a similar problem, but I believe this is caused by 2012 created Containers trying to be opened in 2013 - total crash on open or merge. Exclude the containers and it'll merge....brilliant tech AD!!
So that may be another reason