3ds Max 2026 Help | Data Channel Interface

Display rollout

Use the Display rollout to customize how data is displayed in the viewports.

Float Data Display: Displays float data as either tick marks or shaded colors.
Point 3 Data Display: Displays point 3 data (vectors) as either position ticks, color ticks, vectors, or shaded colors.
Color Info: Sets the color display to visualize minimum to maximum values of data. Click a color swatch to change the associated color.
Tip: If you set Min and Max to black, and Mid to white, you can visualize the data of an object's contours in grayscale.
Tick Size: Changes the tick mark size to either small, medium or large.
Normalize Display: Applies a normalize operation to smooth out displayed data.
Show Numeric: Shows the actual numeric data, overriding all other visualizations.

Parameters rollout

Use the Parameters rollout to add operators, save and load presets, and enable the visual display of data in the viewports.

Presets

From the drop-down menu, choose from the list of preset operator stacks, including:

Angle Mask
Auto Edge Crease Weights
Delta Mush
Dirt Map
Edge Wear Mask
Explode Elements
Map to Soft Selection
Random Element Color
Smooth Push
- Invert Soft Selection: inverts the soft selection input.
- Select Border Edges of Selected Polygons: converts the selected Polygon face data input into the DCM to a selection of border edges.
- Select Hard Edges By Smoothing Group: selects the "hard" edges of your geometric data as defined by the Smoothing Group borders.
- Select Open Edges: chooses open edges on your geometric data.
- Select Open Edge Verts: chooses only the vertices of open edges.
- Select UV Seam Edges: chooses the edges in your geometric data that are also UV seams.
- Select Top: selects the vertices that are facing the +Z direction. You can alter the Scale operator to adjust the falloff angle.
- Select Polygon by Elements : converts a polygon face selection input into the DCM to select all contiguous faces that form an element.
- Convert Face VC to Vertex VC: converts per Face-based Vertex Color data into per Vertex Color data.
- Convert Material ID to Smoothing Group: converts Material ID assignments into Smoothing Groups.

Click to load a selected preset.
Click to save the current stack as a preset. When saving a preset, you specify a name and an optional tooltip to show while hovering over the name in the list.
Click to delete the selected preset.

The presets are stored in 3ds Max <version>\en-US\plugcfg\DataChannelPresets.

Operator Stack

Shows the currently-added operators in the process stack. Drag and drop operators to reorder them. Right-click operators to open the context menu.

Tip:

Use the resizer handle to adjust the stack height, which is preserved when the modified object is deselected and reselected or 3ds Max is closed and restarted.

Add Operator

Click to open the Add Operator dialog.

Enable Display

Click to enable the visual display of data in the viewport.

Add Operator dialog

Use the Add Operators dialog to add input, process, and output operators to the stack.

Operator List: Shows a list of available operators and their channel type, either edge, face, or vertex.
Add Operator button: Adds operators to the process stack. You can also drag and drop operators from the list to a desired position in the stack.
Operator Info: Shows a brief description of the currently selected operator.

Context menu

Right-clicking an operator displays the context menu, when available. Use this menu to freeze operators and change blending mode.

Note: The context menu does not appear for output operators. In addition, all Input operators placed at the top of a stack must be set to Replace otherwise an error will appear; input operators placed elsewhere in the stack may use other blending modes however.

Delete: Deletes the selected operator.
Freeze: Freezes the operator so values do not update, capturing the state of the input at the frame at which frozen. Frozen operators are shown in blue in the stack.

Replace: Replaces existing values with new values.
Add: Adds values to existing values.
Subtract: Subtracts values from existing values.
Multiply: Multiplies values with existing values.
Divide: Divides values with existing values.
DotProd: Provides a float value based on the dot product between the existing and input vectors.
CrossProd: Provides a vector based on the cross product between the existing and input vectors.

Curve Editor

Use the curve editor to customize the following operator parameters using function curves:

Operator:	Parameters:
Decay	Custom Decay Curve
Curve	Curve Control
Node Influence	Falloff Shape, Strength Over Time, Radius Over Time

Main toolbar

Use these icons to add, delete, move and scale control points.

Tip: You can Ctrl-click or drag a region box to select multiple control points at once.

Move icons

Enable to move control points on the curve.

From the drop-down menu, choose one of the following:

Move XY to move control points freely. You can also right-click a point and choose Move > XY.
Move X to move control points horizontally only. You can also right-click a point and choose Move > X.
Move Y to move control points vertically only. You can also right-click a point and choose Move > Y.

Scale icon

Enable to scale selected control points up and down.

Add Point icons

Enable to add points to the curve.

From the drop-down menu, choose one of the following:

Add Corner Point to add fixed control points.
Add Bezier Point to add control points with adjustable tangent handles.

You can also right-click a point and choose Corner (no tangent handles), Bezier-Smooth (tangent handles move together), or Bezier-Corner (tangent handles move independently) to change the interpolation mode.

Delete Point icon

Enable to delete control points from the curve.

Navigation toolbar

Use these icons to pan and zoom in the editor window.

Pan icon: Enable and drag to pan the view.
Zoom Extents icon: Fits all control points in the edit window.
Zoom Horizontal Extents icon: Fits all control points horizontally in the window.
Zoom Vertical Extents icon: Fits all control points vertically in the window.
Zoom Horizontally icon: Enable and drag to zoom horizontally.
Zoom Vertically icon: Enable and drag to zoom vertically.
Zoom icon: Enable and drag to zoom in and out.
Zoom Region icon: Enable and drag to zoom into a specific region.