.MAX

Introduction

A MAX file is a scene saved by Autodesk 3ds Max, the Windows modelling, animation and rendering program that followed the DOS 3D Studio (whose own format was 3DS). It holds everything in the scene: objects with their full modifier stacks, materials, lights, cameras, animation and render settings, along with the data of any plugins used.

The format is proprietary and undocumented. A file usually opens only in the same or a newer version of 3ds Max, and only when the plugins it uses are installed. Other programs exchange 3ds Max scenes through FBX, OBJ or Alembic instead.

Structure

A MAX file is a Microsoft compound file, the container also used by old Office documents, and starts with the bytes D0 CF 11 E0 A1 B1 1A E1. Inside are several streams. The ordinary document summary streams hold the title, author and a thumbnail, which Windows Explorer can show. The streams that hold the scene itself use Autodesk’s own undocumented encoding.

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