Issue: 3ds Max crashes when syncing via Datasmith Exporter Direct Link

Development Pipeline & Plugins
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1

Hi everyone,
I’ve run into a strange issue with the Datasmith Exporter Direct Link feature.

When using 3ds Max 2026.3 with Datasmith Exporter version 5.8, 3ds Max crashes immediately after I create basic primitive objects, apply a basic standard material, and click Sync. However, if I add any random texture map to the material, the sync completes successfully. I don’t recall this issue occurring in earlier versions.

I then rolled back Datasmith Exporter to version 5.7, but the crash still happens. After that I rolled 3ds Max back to 2024.2 and kept Datasmith Exporter at 5.8 — the crash still persists when creating basic objects with a basic material and syncing.

Does anyone know what could be causing this?

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Update / Additional Test Results

Thanks for the suggestions. I did some additional version testing, and the results are quite interesting.

I was initially testing:

  • 3ds Max 2026.3 + Datasmith Exporter 5.8
  • Native 3ds Max primitive (Box)
  • No material / Standard Material without any texture
  • Datasmith Direct Link → Synchronize

This consistently causes 3ds Max to crash immediately.

However, adding any texture map to the material allows the synchronization to complete successfully.

I then performed additional version tests to isolate the problem:

3ds Max Datasmith Exporter Native Box / No Texture Result
3ds Max 2024.2 5.4.4 Yes Works
3ds Max 2024.2 5.7 Yes Crash
3ds Max 2024.2 5.8 Yes Crash
3ds Max 2026.x 5.6 Yes Works
3ds Max 2026.3 5.7 Yes Crash
3ds Max 2026.3 5.8 Yes Crash

This changes my initial assumption quite a bit.

The most important result is:

3ds Max 2026 + Datasmith 5.6 → works

while:

3ds Max 2026 + Datasmith 5.7 → crashes

with the same basic native Box and the same material conditions.

I also tested different material/object conditions:

  • Native Box + no material → crash
  • Native Box + Standard Material, no texture → crash
  • Native Box + texture map → synchronization succeeds
  • Converting the Box to Editable Poly does not prevent the crash

Because the problem can be reproduced with a native Box even without a material, I don’t think this is primarily an Arnold or Physical Material issue.

At this point, my current suspicion is a regression or compatibility issue introduced somewhere between Datasmith Exporter 5.6 and 5.7, possibly related to how the exporter processes native 3ds Max objects/material data during Direct Link synchronization.

I have not yet determined whether the crash occurs in the general Datasmith export path or specifically in the Direct Link/Sync path.

The next test I plan to do is to compare:

Datasmith 5.6

  • Export Selected
  • Synchronize

against:

Datasmith 5.7

  • Export Selected
  • Synchronize

using exactly the same native Box and material setup.

Hopefully this can help narrow down whether the issue is in the Datasmith exporter itself or specifically in the Direct Link synchronization path.

If anyone from the Datasmith team can reproduce this with a clean 3ds Max scene containing only a native Box and a Standard Material without a texture, that would be very helpful.

Thanks!