This topic provides information about the platform requirements for building plug-ins in different versions of 3ds Max.
The following table shows the supported operating systems, compatible 3ds Max SDK, supported C++ compiler, .NET Framework and Qt versions, for each 3ds Max version.
| 3ds Max | Target Operating Systems | Compatible 3ds Max SDK | C++ Compiler | .NET Framework | Qt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 (21.0) |
|
2019 | Microsoft Visual Studio 2015 Update 3, Platform Toolset v140, Windows SDK 10.0.10586 | .NET 4.7 | Qt 5.6.3 or 5.6.2 |
| 2018 (20.0) |
|
2018 | Microsoft Visual Studio 2015 Update 3, Platform Toolset v140, Windows SDK 10.0.10586 | .NET 4.6 | Qt 5.6.2 |
| 2017 (19.0) |
|
2017 | Microsoft Visual Studio 2015 Update 3, Platform Toolset v140 | .NET 4.6 | Autodesk patched Qt 4.8.5. Download binaries. Download sources. |
Note: Older SDK requirements can be found in SDK Requirements Archive.
Microsoft ships several editions of the Visual Studio development environment: Team, Professional, Standard, and Express. Although, Visual Studio Standard Edition is the recommended base tool to develop plug-ins for 3ds Max, the Professional or Team editions can also be used. More details about the various editions of Visual Studio and Visual C++ can be found at http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio.
You need the Microsoft Platform SDK to develop plug-ins for 3ds Max. The Platform SDK is included with Visual Studio.
Starting with 3ds Max 2017, you can use the popular cross-platform development package Qt to create the user interface for your 3ds Max plug-in. See Using Qt with 3ds Max Plug-ins for more information.
Qt can be downloaded at: www.qt.io/download/
Various "howto" and "sample" projects require third party SDKs to compile.
Some projects require the DirectX SDK June 2010.
The Point Cache modifier requires the FBX SDK to compile.
Version 2016.1 VS2015 or newer is required.
The FBX SDK can be found at www.autodesk.com/fbx
After installing, create an environment variable called FBX_SDK_DIR that points to the installed sdk. For example:
FBX_SDK_DIR=C:\Program Files\Autodesk\FBX\FBX SDK\2016.1
The uvwunwrap plugin (maxsdk\samples\modifiers\uvwunwrap\uvwunwrap) requires Intel TBB to compile.
TBB Version 2017 Update 5 is required. This can be downloaded at:
https://github.com/01org/tbb/releases/tag/2017_U5
Note the licensing restrictions described at https://www.threadingbuildingblocks.org/licensing
After installing, create an environment variable called TBB_DIR that points to the installed sdk. For example:
TBB_DIR=H:\tbb2017_20170226oss
Note: 3ds Max itself uses TBB 4.4.2, but other versions of the tbb.dll may be used by other processes that 3ds Max launches.
The png and tif image libraries in the sdk samples (maxsdk\samples\images\png\libpng and maxsdk\samples\images\tif) previously required a customized version of zlib that was included as part of the 3ds Max install as zlibdll.dll. These samples now require zlib 1.2.11 headers and libraries.
Note: 3ds Max is moving to zlib 1.2.11 from a customized version of zlibdll used internally. zlib supports files larger than 4GB and fixes some security issues. For this reason, we recommend that you use zlib for your own plug-ins rather than the customized version used by the sdk samples. The zlib 1.2.11 headers and libs required to build the sample plug-ins are packaged in a zip file available on the Autodesk Developer Network here: 3ds Max Developer Center.
After installing, create an environment variable called ZLIB_SDK_DIR that points to the installed zlib header and lib files. For example: ZLIB_SDK_DIR=H:\zlib-1.2.11.
It is recommended that you use the same version of Windows for development as the operating system used by the targeted version of 3ds Max.
Note: Although a 64-bit version of Microsoft Windows is not required to build a 64-bit compatible plug-in, a 64-bit Microsoft Windows operating system is required to run the compiled plug-in.
Hardware configurations that can run 3ds Max are sufficient to develop plug-ins. See the 3ds Max user documentation for minimum hardware configurations necessary to run 3ds Max.