5 Reasons Why Autodesk 3ds Max is THE BEST Archviz Software!

I started off in SketchUp and 8 years ago I thought long and hard about which program to dedicaate myself to. I weighed the pros and cons of both, listenned to opinions, checked which was most needed if I wanted to make a career out of it and decided on 3dsMax (curiously, my first online archviz course was yours on Udemy, with Vray!)....and I thank the past me everyday. My archviz studio (and therefore livelihood) comes from learning this program and the ammount of plugins, models and the workflow developed over the years, made this the program I choose to work on every day. Even if Blender is better now, I guess they both learn from each other so I believe it's a healthy competition and neither will be too far off ahead. Like Vray people and Corona People 😂 (technically, we're all Chaos people now eheh)

Blender archviz , unreal engine

Not just for Archvis, It's the best for Animations too, it's our main software 😊

I love 3ds Max, but not used archviz.

I agree with you

Great points in this video! I have used 3ds Max for a few years now and I'm loving it. This last month I've been getting into VRay and I'm eager to learn more. (Arnold has been good to me, but for Arch Vis there's like a whole ecosystem to using VRay)

100 % truth! But corona = less technical- more creative time. Modelling is more convenient in Maya but here in max as its archviz standard better ready to use library = fast results 😅

Have you ever tried vray fro Rhino? After a past with Corona for 3ds max, coming to clash with it´s complexity on managing scenes(especially with files coming from Rhino) I found this solution very handy when coming to modelling nurbs and have the all-in-one solution ( since you don´t have to pass through an export phase). Now the rhino vray quality got really got up with lightmix, fur and scatter and I think that the "old but good" pipeline shall be open to other newer ways. The only thing that is still to be improved is the import of models made in 3ds max (since some rhino can´t read properly especially if made with modifiers) and the complex mapping which is still behind. Let me know what you think!

Hi! Do you have any newer tutorials on 3ds max? All of them are using 3ds max 2017 or earlier and I am using 2024 version. I find it pretty hard to follow

I use blender and d5, both are free and d5 is fast, easy,has great tools. But ill try 3ds max for the only reason that blender sometimes cant handle very heavy models

As an architect 3ds max has given me a tool that I use to design. It's an efficient tool to develop design elements.

What are softwares that are used in gaming industries?

It's Edit Poly man. Single most important reason why 3ds Max can't be replaced...

I would also mention the possibility to automatize an important part of the workflow thanks to the maxscript. I know that blender uses python for such things but I don't think that it's an equally powerful tool.

If nothing else works, they rely on 3ds Max :)

as a veteran in this industry i absolutely disagree. if i would start out new in the field of archviz my first choice would be blender and ue5. i am still using max mostly because moving huge assets libraries over to a new software takes a lot of time but i am taking steps to move away from max and that actually feels good. i was a big fan of vlado back in the day and my licenses are really old but chaos these days is a totally different company - one reason i am still on vray 3.6. max has really good poly modelling tools and can take huge scenes. that's about it. ah, forgot to mention fstorm - i like it.

feature #1 is Fstorm, which is the best render

Idk but is the archviz industry still active and worth as a career path ? because in my country jordan the 3d industry in general archviz for example is dead and ruined.

Good video, great topic! I've prob been in this game longer than most in this chat... Dammit I'm old! I've watched this industry develop for almost 25 yrs and I can confidently say there's simply no silver bullet or 1 size fits all. Different programs have different strengths and weaknesses and it really depends on what your job role is whether in a design firm or as a freelancer. Example you simply cannot beat Sketchup or even Revit+Sketchup combo for speed of concept design for architectural designs, especially the early stages of a project. Obviously when it comes to fine detail you need a full stack of powerful modeling tools and 3dsMax's non destructive modifier stack is awsm. To me though if you're not balls deep in Twinmotion/Unreal now you're gonna fall behind. The power of Lumen and general interactive lighting in those apps is EVERYTHING... Lighting makes and breaks renders. To me 3ds.Max is the king still for the bulk of work flow but I wish it would have a full top to bottom redesign from scratch. It just feels so heavy and outdated.

I'm a hardcore 3ds max user of 10+ years and I did not know about the indie license. That is such a relief. I payed $1700 last year for my subscription and most of the projects I do that aren't for work are very much small hobby or passion projects so I almost definitely qualify. I think while on it's face the argument of "I already know it and it's the industry standard" sounds very blunt and poor but there really is something to be said about sticking with what works and already has massive adoption. I'm not going to claim or pretend that Autodesk is great about updating or fixing their tools. They definitely aren't. And I see a lot of other software pulling ahead of max in many regards, but every time people tell me "just learn Blender" they spend 10 minutes showing me how to do something in Blender that I can do in 2 seconds in Max. Whether it's because Max has certain plugins or tools that do it better or just simply because I'm proficient in it, either way it's not as easy as you think to just ditch a decade of experience, plugins, hotkeys, and workflows for this powerful yet quirky tool that still does not always mesh super well with standard industry pipelines.

And this is not at all a knock on Blender. I very much support the principal that Blender stands for and love to see the gap between professional and indie software shrinking so quickly. I love that creatives are so empowered by a legitimately robust tool that doesn't break their wallets, but I also see a lot of new 3D artists who are a bit spoiled by the free nature of Blender that they don't understand why so many pro studios and companies struggle to integrate Blender into their pipeline. Interoperability with standard tools and practices that have been around for 20 years is absolutely paramount. Just the FBX compatibility alone is the single thing that absolutely killed it's adoption at more than one studio I've worked at.