3dsMax Wackiness Caused by SME Buttons?

[Mike Truly]

Windows10, 3dsmax 2020/2021, 3DxWare 10.7.1.3280.

I have a workstation which is a dual-boot system... Windows 7 and Windows10. In either OS, I can choose to boot the system with various amounts of cores... up to 40 cores. MAX2020 and MAX2021 are installed on both OS.

I had installed the SME drivers on Win10 several weeks ago and used MAX2020 and MAX2021 multiple times and the SME was working fine. I have been working in Win7 for several weeks on a project and haven't booted into Win10. But now in Win10... when using MAX2020 or MAX2021... I am getting severe wackiness caused by the SME.


For example...

I open MAX2020 and create a box and a teapot. I can use all the standard MAX tools to select and move the objects or select and rotate the objects, etc... all works as expected. I can even use the knob of the SME to orbit about the objects.

But the moment I touch one of the SME keys (say for example the Select and Move function which is programmed to button1 or the Select and Rotate function which is programmed to button2)... things go wacky.

The mouse cursor in MAX changes to a white arrow with a minus sign next to it. If I had an object selected before hitting the SME button... it now will not move or rotate, etc. with the transform tools. When you try to pick a different object... it will not be selected. Many other oddities. Basically, MAX is totally non-functional at this point and I must close and reopen MAX. If I touch any SME key again... the wackiness starts again.


I have tried uninstalling the SME driver and then reinstalling but this fixes nothing. I tried booting into less cores (sometimes the 40 cores can cause issues with some older apps) but this fixed nothing.

Did a Win10 update cause the problem? It's the only thing I can think of since the driver had been working fine several weeks ago.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

[Mike Truly]

OK... it gets weirder. Much weirder.

Yesterday when I was troubleshooting this problem, I was in Win10 and the SpaceMouse Enterprise was corrupting MAX sessions in MAX2020 and MAX2021. (The SME on Win10 uses the 10.7.1 driver)

After I was finished troubleshooting this HUGE UNRESOLVED PROBLEM... I booted into Win7 and worked in MAX2014 all day with no problems with the SME... all worked fine. (The SME on Win7 uses the 10.6.4 driver).


But today, I booted into Win7 and started working in MAX2014 and immediately, the SME is corrupting the MAX session in the same way it does in Win10!!!! So now, the SME is totally unuseable in all versions of MAX and on all OS I have.


Any ideas?

How to I do a total/clean uninstall of all 3D Connexxion registry keys, etc?

Is 3DxWare corrupted with CIA malware?

What the hell is going on?


Thanks.

[Mike Truly]

I should also note...

When any key on the SpaceMouse Enterprise is pressed, the current MAX session is corrupted and doesn't work properly.

But if I change the focus to another app (say for example a text editing app or whatever) and then return the focus back to MAX... MAX functions totally fine until any key is pressed on the SME again, then MAX is corrupted again and doesn't work right. The knob on the SME works fine but the buttons on the SME break MAX.

Thanks!

[Mike Truly]

OK, I finally got it working properly again... not sure exactly what was wrong but it's working.

When MAX got corrupted by pressing any SME button, the cursor changed to a white arrow with a minus sign next to it. That is the cursor for 'unselecting' an object which is ALT+click or ALT+drag.

When I realized what the cursor was... I then pressed and held the ALT button on the SME and dragged out a selection rectangle to de-select objects several times. When I did this, something was reset and and the arrow with minus disappeared and everything started working normally again. I then tested in different versions of MAX and it works fine.

Weird, I know.

Anyway, it's working again and that's what matters.

Thanks!