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3ds Max Developer Help Center

Welcome to the 3ds Max Developer Help Center. This portal contains online help and resources for all 3ds Max programming and scripting environments. If you can't find an answer to a question here, please feel free to contact our community on the programming forum.

C++

3ds Max SDK

The C++ SDK is used to create all plug-in types and utilities for 3ds Max. It provides the lowest-level access, and produces the fastest code.
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MAXScript

MAXScript is the native scripting language for 3ds Max, and can be used to create scripted utilities and some plug-in types.
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Python

Python is used to create cross-application pipeline tools. Use the pymxs API to access 3ds Max functionality, and Python extension modules to extend Python, for example to work with databases, data analysis, and image processing.
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Procedural Programming

Procedural programming frameworks can create plug-ins (MCG), custom modifers (DCM) and shaders (OSL).