3ds Max 2016 and STEP data import via ATF

[Art48]

Hi,

We got a rather serious problem here. Recently the ATF for importing STEP/IGES data kind of messed itself up?
When I tried on my personal computer at home, the (at 26MB relatively lightweight data) imported in about 30 seconds. Here at Work on two seperate PCs running the same Max version I left it running for the whole night and the ATF importer was just stuck at 8% CPU, same amount of RAM, etc. doing nothing.

It seems to have degraded over a period of weeks from firstly taking a longer time then usual, then only working after a max or PC restart, to now not working at all.

Do any of you have similar experiences and/or a fix? I'd like to avoid reinstalling max for pipeline reasons.

[thablanch]

What we have is different import times depending on the 'exporter'. Some of our clients exports from different packages, with different options, and this is a variable that we can not control, and greatly influences import times.
Are your imports done on the same kind of files ?

[Art48]

That's an interesting aspect, it could indeed be related, I'll have to have an eye on this. What irritates me the most tho is that the imports work fine on my home computer.

[Deflaminis]

First thing to try is to reset your user settings, fixes weird problems most of the time. If you just rename your settings folder instead of deleting it, you can always rename it back if that doesn't help. Then I would start to look at security software or settings. Lastly, windows profiles do get corrupted from time to time, trying logging in as someone else and see if it helps.

Reinstalling Max is almost never necessary. If Max starts and is doing ok in other areas, it's likely not your installation files. A lot of people don't realize it, but reinstalling leaves the old user settings which is why I suggest trying to reset them first.

[Art48]

I just reset the settings and it's still showing the same behaviour. It's like the import process doesn't even start. That little progress bar on the bottom of the max window doesn't even show up initially at all. It's just the "atf_converter.exe" process sitting there at 8% CPU load and minimal to none memory changes forever.

Edit: Disabling Firewall and AntiVirus software didn't help either.

[Art48]

FYI I posted this issue on the AD forums:

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/3ds-m...b/td-p/7332467

[pokoy]

The only thing why it would suddenly stop working on more than one PC is a Max update - did you by any chance install a Product Update on the PCs in your office that you didn't install at home?

[Art48]

I only updated their app management software, but only after things stopped working since I thought maybe it is related.

[Art48]

UPDATE:

I found a solution involving deleting the MCG Folder as described here:

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/3ds-m.../false#M145074

[Deflaminis]

I will log this with QA and development. Thank you for posting that.

[Art48]

Semi-bad News. While on the PC I didn't reinstall Max at this fix worked, on the other one it didn't.
The one where I reinstalled max and discovered the fix, it worked until I reset the PC via image restore from two weeks ago. When I then tried to apply the same fix, it didn't work anymore.

I am tired of it though, so one PC works with said fix so it's fine for me at this moment.