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 | Minimum .NET Framework | Qt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 (24.0) | Windows 10 x64 | 2022 | Microsoft Visual Studio 2017, Platform Toolset v141, Windows SDK 10.0.17134.0 | .NET 4.8 | Qt 5.15.1 |
| 2021 (23.0) |
|
2020 | Microsoft Visual Studio 2017, Platform Toolset v141, Windows SDK 10.0.17134.0 | .NET 4.7.2 or 4.8 | Qt 5.12.5 Qt VS Tools 2.4.3 or higher |
| 2020 (22.0) |
|
2020 | Microsoft Visual Studio 2017, Platform Toolset v141, Windows SDK 10.0.17134.0 | .NET 4.7 | Qt 5.11.2 |
| 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. |
Microsoft ships several editions of the Visual Studio development environment: Community, Professional, and Enterprise. Any of these versions can be used to develop plug-ins for 3ds Max. More details about the various editions of Visual Studio and Visual C++ can be found at Compare Visual Studio Editions.
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. 3ds Max uses the LGPL version of Qt.
Qt can be downloaded at: https://www.qt.io/download
The customized source code of Qt used by 3ds Max can be found here. These may be useful for debugging, as the source will exactly match the code used by 3ds Max.
Various "howto" and "sample" projects require third party SDKs to compile.
Some projects require the DirectX SDK June 2010.
If you have an existing Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable installed, you may receive an "S1023" error when you install the DirectX SDK. This issue is resolved by uninstalling the MSVC++ 2010 Redistributable. See this article for more information.
The Point Cache modifier requires the FBX SDK to compile.
Version 2016.1 VS2015 or newer is required, but it is recommended to use the latest versions (2020.2 VS2015 or 2020.2 VS2017), since those versions fix some security issues.
The FBX SDK can be found at www.autodesk.com/fbx
After installing, create two environment variables called FBX_SDK_INC_DIR and FBX_SDK_LIB_DIR that point to the include and library directories of the installed sdk, respectively. For example:
FBX_SDK_INC_DIR=C:\Program Files\Autodesk\FBX\FBX SDK\2020.2\include
FBX_SDK_LIB_DIR=C:\Program Files\Autodesk\FBX\FBX SDK\2020.2\lib\vs2017
The uvwunwrap (maxsdk\samples\modifiers\uvwunwrap\uvwunwrap) and skinwrap (maxsdk\samples\modifiers\SkinWrap) sample plug-ins require Intel TBB to compile.
TBB Version 2017 Update 5 is required. This can be downloaded at:
https://github.com/oneapi-src/oneTBB/releases/tag/2017_U5
Note the licensing restrictions described at https://https://github.com/oneapi-src/oneTBB
After installing, create an environment variable called TBB_DIR that points to the installed sdk. For example:
TBB_DIR=H:\tbb2017_20170226oss
The tif image library in the sdk samples (maxsdk\samples\images\tif) previously required a customized version of zlib that was included as part of the 3ds Max install as zlibdll.dll. This sample now requires zlib 1.2.11 headers and libraries.
3ds Max has moved 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 required zlib 1.2.11 headers and libs 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.
The png (maxsdk\samples\images\png) sample plug-in requires libpng 1.6.37 to compile.
The required libpng 1.6.37 headers and libs are packaged in a zip file available on the Autodesk Developer Network here: 3ds Max Developer Center.
After installing, create an environment variable called LIBPNG_SDK_DIR that points to the installed libpng header and lib files. For example:
LIBPNG_SDK_DIR=H:\libpng.
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.
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.