Welcome to the 3ds Max 2026.3 Update! You can access the 3ds Max 2026.3 Update from your Autodesk Account.
Read on to learn about the new features and updated workflows you'll find in this release. For technical details including What's Fixed, please see the 3ds Max 2026.3 Update Release Notes.
For more on the evolution of 3ds Max over the years, check out the 3ds Max timeline on Autodesk Area.
What else is new?
This release of 3ds Max also includes the following changes and improvements.
| Slate Material Editor: Improved thumbnail cache |
The Slate Material Editor thumbnail cache has been improved so that it holds unique thumbnails for different color management settings. This eliminates the unnecessary re-rendering of the thumbnails when, for example, the view-transform is changed back and forth. In addition, the Update Browser Samples option in the Slate Material Editor preferences can be turned off to completely eliminate re-rendering the sample swatches in the Material/Map Browser when settings change. This can speed up interaction while working, but the swatches won't be accurate. |
| Biped fixes |
Resolved stability issues that could cause a crash when keyframing Biped elements with twist bones or when setting an IK key with sub-animations enabled. |
| Skin modifier: Remove Zero Area Weight improvement |
Weight changes made using the Remove Zero Weights tool are now properly committed. Previously, these weight adjustments could be unintentionally reverted when selecting other bones in the modifier. |
| Cloth simulation fix |
We fixed an error when running a Cloth simulation in 3ds Max 2026, 2026.1, or 2026.2. Users reported that the simulation results were not similar to what was produced in previous versions of 3ds Max such as 2025 or 2024 using the same data. Beginning with the 3ds Max 2026.3, you will find the same level of success that you had with previous releases of 3ds Max when running your Cloth simulations. |