Octo for 3ds Max
Octo can write, test and run the scripts that process 3ds Max scenes through 3ds Max Batch, without opening the interface: export to FBX, inventory objects, render frames. You approve the plan and each batch; it prepares the script, the result and a report of what failed for your team to review.
Six possible deliverables, drawn from the research. In all of them, Octo proposes the approach, writes the script and tests it on a sample before the batch.
Writes a MAXScript that runs in 3ds Max Batch, takes the scene in -sceneFile and the destination in -mxsString, exports with no dialog using a pinned FBX exporter and exits with its own codes: one for a missing argument, another for a failed export.
Writes a Python script with pymxs that opens the scene without the interface and writes a JSON with each object: name, class and position. Handles the catches in moving from MAXScript to Python, such as indexes starting at 0 instead of 1.
Builds a batch that calls 3dsmaxcmd.exe for each .max in the folder: PNG at 1920×1080, without the frame window, moving on to the next scene when one fails. Creates the output folder first, because the renderer doesn't create it.
Turns on the Listener log, which is off by default, and maximum verbosity in every batch. Turns on the Dialog Monitor to close plug-in dialogs. The batch reads Batch's exit code and fails when it isn't zero, so the queue or continuous integration (CI) knows.
Deliverable: batch with log and checked exit codeWhen the script depends on the viewport or the interface, it runs through 3dsmax.exe -silent, which suppresses dialogs. Since 3ds Max doesn't close by itself in that mode, the script ends with quitMAX #noPrompt. For a short, throwaway command, it uses -mxs.
For an in-house farm, it submits jobs to Backburner through 3dsmaxcmd -submit or compares with Deadline; each node needs the same version and the same plug-ins. Without Windows, the same automation runs in Design Automation for 3ds Max, called through an API.
The same Octo cycle, applied to 3ds Max. Each arm has a narrow role; the decisions are made by a person at your company.
Which version of 3ds Max, which plug-ins and which renderer the scene uses, how many .max files there are. Runs 3dsmaxbatch.exe -help and 3dsmaxcmd -? to read the options for your version.
The name and folder of each FBX and each image, the fields of the inventory JSON, where each log goes. Which arguments the script takes from the command line.
Reads the subscription terms before any farm or cloud setup. Checks the Arnold license for batch, without which the image comes out watermarked, and the node license for third-party renderers.
3ds Max Batch when possible; 3dsmax.exe -silent when the script requires the interface; 3dsmaxcmd.exe for rendering; Backburner or Deadline for a farm; Design Automation when there's no Windows.
Reads the arguments from maxOps.mxsCmdLineArgs, exports with #noPrompt and exits with quitMAX and its own code. In Python, replaces the max commands that pymxs doesn't expose with rt.execute.
Runs a few scenes with the Listener log on and verbosity 5, and checks the result: the FBX exists, the JSON has the objects, the image was written. Missing plug-ins and xrefs show up in the console.
With your OK, it runs the whole folder and checks the exit code and the generated file scene by scene, without taking a success message as proof.
Version, paths and the options verified on your installation, including those for command-line rendering. The next batch starts from this record.
Nothing runs in batch before your OK. No farm goes up without the license checked.
The criteria Octo uses to choose. 3ds Max Batch first; the interface only when there's no other way.
| Task | Recommended path | Alternative |
|---|---|---|
| Convert or export scenes in batch (FBX, OBJ, cleanup) | 3dsmaxbatch.exe script.ms -sceneFile x.max | 3dsmax.exe -silent -U MAXScript (the pre-Batch approach) |
| Python script with no interface | 3dsmaxbatch.exe script.py (pymxs) | 3dsmax.exe -silent -U PythonHost |
| Script that needs the interface (viewport, UI) | 3dsmax.exe -silent -U MAXScript script.ms | — |
| Short, throwaway command | 3dsmax.exe -silent -mxs "..." scene.max | — |
| Render a scene locally | 3dsmaxcmd.exe -o:... -start: -end: scene.max | -batchRender with the scene's Batch Render tasks |
| Render on an in-house farm | 3dsmaxcmd -submit:<manager> + Backburner | Deadline, a commercial render farm or Azure Batch |
| Run without a Windows machine | Design Automation for 3ds Max | — |
| Integrate with the production pipeline (CI, queue) | 3dsmaxbatch + -listenerlog + check %ERRORLEVEL% | — |
Three steps. Each one only makes sense after the previous one has shown results in your operation.
A proposal, not a promise
On a Windows machine with 3ds Max, you ask in business terms and get the proposed batch, to approve before it runs.
.ms + batchThe batch stops being a request and runs integrated with the queue or continuous integration, and rendering is spread across the company's machines.
The same routines in Design Automation for 3ds Max, on Autodesk's servers, called through the APS API, with no local Windows or 3ds Max.
3dsmaxbatch as in the previous stepsEach point below has a source published by the vendor, the project or the responsible agency. The sources are in the next section.
3
points with a published source, each with its reference alongside.
Octo prepares everything, but doesn't sign. The document of record stays with whoever is accountable for it.
Surveys, calculates, organizes and generates the documents: spreadsheets, reports, drawings and drafts.
Deliverable: material ready to checkThe licensed professional checks what Octo delivered before signing. If something doesn't add up, it goes back to Octo with the correction.
Step: review by the signerOcto does not sign. Designs, technical reports, ART/RRT (Brazil's professional responsibility records), accountability reports and any official document are still signed by the company's or agency's licensed professional: here, the designer or the engineer responsible for the project.
Sign-off: designer or responsible engineerDocumentation used on this page, almost all of it published by Autodesk.
The assessment starts by reading your scenes and your 3ds Max installation, without changing anything. You get a map of what can be automated and decide with it in hand.