3ds Max Pricing, Features, Reviews and Alternatives

At first, I was just learning to start making projects for video games and interior rendering and so, but then I started liking how the interface is simple yet professional and detailed. It has a very large data of tutorials for beginners, and anyone can work in it since there are lots of tutorials provided by the company or on the internet.

It's true that anyone can use it but that defers for one to one for as it is known for those who've tried it; it has a very stiff learning curve, And unless you have a student license, you'd have to pay a generous sum plus fees for online courses if you want to learn quickly. And it really consumes your PC so you'd wanna have a decent setup.

I personally used 3ds max while working with a 3D architectural visualization company, and I used the software for this purpose. I find this software very adaptive to architectural modeling. It is very easy to integrate your autoCAD files containing your buildings plan, and you can easily model the construction with accuracy. As for texturing, the UV unwrap tools are very helpful and easy to use so you can achieve the desired results without spending so much time on it. The most known render engines are compatible with 3ds max, which gives you a wide choice of renderers to choose that will give you realistic results.

I find that the modeling in 3ds max is not very smooth, so when modeling cartoon or stylized models I use other softwares. Although the animation interface is very friendly and helpful, but I find that you can get to better results in animations with less time using other softwares.

The main Pro of this one is that big companies still use it but other than that this one feels like using a Windows XP in today's time, it may be useful for some architects but that's it

On it's on it lacks a lot of features that you would need to speed up your process that you may find in Maya and Blender for example. So if you get it today be ready to pay even more for extra plugin to get what you want out of it.

I like about 3ds Max that it's easy to use, friendly interface and comprehensive official tutorials. You can go from sketch to finish even on professional projects like triple A games, and even in movie industry.

The interface lacks antialiasing, it lags sometimes on low-poly objects and the shading viewport model could use some work.

From the point of view of a 3d printer hobbyist, the pros of course are ease to create parts and being able to try them in virtual models. This software allows you to check if the part will collide with another part in the model when it is moving, simulate the movement of a complete system, and so on. Basically you're able to create the whole project as a 3d model, check how it fits, how it behaves and then you can export each one of the parts to STL models to be printed. About modeling, it provides tens of tools to create parts in any shape needed. And the learning curve if you come as me from software like Blender, is not steep at all.

The main con of this software is its price. Paying a monthly fee of more than 200 USD is prohibitive for most users unless they're professionals on the area. In my case I just purchased a suscription for a year, since I need to use it for a project I need to finish ASAP and Blender is, although capable to do anything, slowing me in some aspects. But definitely for personal use and if development time is not an issue, I would consider Blender over this one.