For some time I’ve been experiencing a lot of problems with 3ds max design 2009; 8 out of 10 times when I was panning or zooming, max was crashing and I was losing more time waiting for it to restart than I was spending on the actual work.

The first thing that crossed my mind was that it might have been a hardware problem; either the ram memory or the video card. However, it couldn’t have been a hardware malfunction since I had the same problem with all the 5 workstations (identical configurations) in our office. I have updated the drivers with the latest versions, but nothing seemed to solve the problem.

Today when I was talking to a friend of mine this subject came up and he told me that he had been having the same problem, but unlike me he managed to solve it. Apparently it all had to do with the “view cube” and after disabling it, max doesn’t crash every 15 seconds.
I checked this out first thing when I got back to the office, and to my surprise, it did the trick.

Therefore if you are using 3ds max 2009 and the software crashes when zooming or panning in the viewports, than the solution to your problem is to disable the viewcube.
You can do this by renaming the file called “AutoCamMax.gup” located in “program files, autodesk, 3ds max 2009, stdplugs”. (You can delete it as well, but just in case for some reason you decide you want this back, renaming it is the way to go).

Have you wondered why an image looks different from one monitor to another? In the past, when everybody was using crt monitors this was not
such a big issue (since in most cases the differences were minor), but in the lcd era, if you are a pro graphic designer or an illustrator, you need to make sure that what you see on the monitor will match the print that your client will use in his campaign.
Therefore, the most important factor when working in 3d graphics (and computer graphics in general, as a matter of fact) is color reproduction.

A little bit of tech stuff
The most important part of a monitor is the panel. It is the first thing that you should be interested in when buying an lcd monitor.

TN panels
-these have the main advantage of being cheap. Furthermore, the response time is faster, compare to the other types. These makes them perfect for gamers and for people that just use the computer to surf the net or use only office applications.
However, the downside is that they color reproduction is unacceptable for visualization artists and graphic designers. Due to the fact that they are only 6 bit panels, they can not reproduce 16.7 million colors. Some of these can “fake” them using dithering, but the result looks desaturated and it lacks contrast.
Another disadvantage is that the viewing angles are the worst of all types of panles.

In conclusion, if intend to use a lcd for computer graphics, stay away from TN panels.

S-IPS
S-IPS panels are the best when it comes to color reproduction accuracy and viewing angles, which makes them the best solution for people that earn a living by working with images. The response time is not as good as the TN panels, but still acceptable.
The price may be a little prohibitive for some, though.

S-PVA
These are somewhere in the middle of the other two, but closer to the S-IPS from a designer’s point of view. Color reproduction accuracy and viewing angles are quite close to the previous ones and the contrast ratio is even higher.
The price range is also somewhere between the other two.

As a conclusion, when you buy a lcd monitor think about the panel first and don’t look  just at the size and the price.
If budget is not a problem I would go for an S-IPS panel. Personally I own NEC MultiSync 20WGX monitors and I am quite happy with them.
Another good choice would be Dell2007Wfp (with a samsung S-pva panel or an Lg S-ips panel)

The reason for making this post has to do with the fact that I have received a few emails from some of the readers, regarding the models that I provide on the free 3d models page on this blog. More specifically, the people who sent those emails pointed out that they have seen the same 3d models for sale on sites like turbosquid.com and the3dstudio.com and they were worried about the fact that somebody might have downloaded the 3d models for free from my blog, and put them up for sale.

I appreciate the heads-up guys, but there is nothing to worry about; no one is selling my 3d models, except me. That’s right, some of the models that I have been selling for some time, including my “best-seller” (the 3d motorbike), are available for free here, and they still will be. More than that, in the near future I will start updating that section with 3-5 models per week. I don’t know exactly when it will happen, but it will definitely happen soon, so before buying something, take a quick visit to cgdigest maybe you can get it for free

Anyway, thanks again to the people who emailed me about this issue. I really appreciate it. And by the way, if you see someone re-distributing the 3d models from here who’s id is not “ripple” or “ripple design” please let me know.