One of the main reasons our office has not fully moved over to Max9 and Autodesk Architecture 2008 is that we have found seemingly random failures in the File Linking between out ADT models and Max9. It will function normally but then suddenly, for no apparent reason, after various changes to the ADT model, reloading the file linked model into Max9 just doesn’t work. The dialogue box doesn’t appear. It just stops functioning.
We had pinned it down to *complex* (not at all complex really, we’re just talking holes cut out of walls etc) boolean operations that we had performed in our ADT model. The only way we can resolve is to undo in ADT to as far back as we *think* the error may have occurred, re-save and then the file linking starts working again. The problem with this is that many tasks may have occurred since this *complex* boolean op, so these would all need to be re-done! Incidentally, we have found that you cannot simply delete the offending object from the ADT model - you need to actually undo past the point when the operation was performed.
Essentially, due to the major problems this has caused on a number of jobs (including loss of assigned/mapped textures, lighting, cameras and the need to redo all the Max part of our project), we have had to come off the subscription program and stick with Max8 (32bit) as nobody seems to acknowledge this as a problem and therefore there is no solution.
Blimey, this is getting a bit long-winded!
Anyway, I attach a simple file created in AutoCAD Architecture 2008 which seems to exhibit this problem. The drawing consists of a few simple railings, each as a separate element. As it stands, the file links in just fine. However, if you union the elements of the railing, save the file and try and reload, the link fails. Could somebody confirm this is the case and it is not just our office that is having this problem? railings separate elements.zip (70.1 KB)
I’ve just tried your file in Max 9 32 bit and everything works ok, I’ve also opened it in Architucture 2008 and unioned the geometry and it still filelinks ok.
I’ve attached the new file (railings union.dwg) so you can try to link it.
Have you got any service packs/productivity boosters installed on Max 9?
I’ve just tried again and I can still filelink the new unioned railings in both Max 9 32 and 64 bit. Sorry…
Try this:
Open Max 9 x64, then click on FILE > NEW (don’t click reset) then open filelink manager, see if that works.
I’ve done a bit of research on this as we have 10 seats of Architecture 2008 and 3 seats of Max, all on subscription and we use file linking on every project. I’ve come to the conclusion that file linking doen’t work well in 64 bit Max and that includes Max 9 and 2008. Like you’ve found, it works for a bit then breaks. We’re stuck on Max 9 32 for modelling because of this.
There was a possible solution posted today on the Area forum today, someone on there claims that if you install the beta version of Architecture 2009 64 bit (must be the 64 bit version) then file linking starts working in 64 bit max. As I don’t have Architecture 2009 64 bit I can’t confirm this.
I have tried your suggestion (open max/new/file link etc) but it still doesn’t work. Maybe I’ll try installing Max9 32bit - can I have both running on one machine? We’ll see…
(we don’t have any productivity boosters installed as we had cancelled our subscriptions because of all of these problems!)
Yes you can have Max 9 32 and 64 bit working on the same machine just install the same version of VRay on both. You can work in Max 32 then send as 64 bit to the renderfarm so you get most of the benefit of 64 bit working.
and i had it working on two computers for day
either adt or max writes a file that breaks things thou and im back to zero 64bit max seats from being able to import stuff.
ive tried every possible install order and object enabler and no dice
the only work around is to link in 32bit max and save and open max file 64bit
hardly useful i know