Autodesk has released 3DS Max 2020.1 adding the ability to tear off viewports, a new hotkey editor, chamfer modifier improvements and more. Tear-off viewports, in particular, is an often-requested improvement for Max. The new feature allows the user to float up to 3 viewport windows across multiple monitors, each of which is fully functional with its own configuration settings.
Also in this release is a new hotkey editor that makes it easier for the user to view and change keyboard shortcuts as well as save and load custom hotkey sets. The editor allows the user to search for actions by either keyword or current hotkey assignment and filter actions by current customization status and by group.
The recently introduced Chamfer modifier has been improved with a new By Weight chamfer amount type that allows the user to apply an absolute weight to an edge rather than interpolating between vertices. Chamfer depth can also now be set on a per-edge basis and a Radius Bias parameter blends the chamfer size to the radius amount to help handle sharp corners. To make creating procedural workflows easier using the Chamfer Modifier, Edge Weight and Edge Depth are now available as inputs and outputs in the Data Channel modifier.
Several smaller improvements are also included in this release: autocomplete is now on by default in the MAXScript editor and the MAXScript API now makes it easier for users to enable autocomplete for MAXScript in 3rd party editors; performance-wise the Command panel is at least 70% faster with switching between sub-object modes in Edit Poly editing. On the subject of poly editing, it is now possible to double-click to select all contiguous faces, vertices, segments, etc. This will also work with Editable Spline objects and EditSpline and EditPoly modifiers, as well as with the Unwrap UVW modifier.
Find our more on the Autodesk Blog and documentation.