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To access the Maxwell for Bonzai3d community forum:

Select the Extensions > Maxwell Render > Forum from within Bonzai3d.
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On the forum web page, click on 'Start a New Thread' if you need to post an inquiry. Paste the system info provided into your post.

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Troubleshooting

Problem: The Maxwell display menu item is "greyed-out" and cannot be selected

Your file is most likely opening with the active window set to a 2-point perspective view type. This projection is not supported by Maxwell, so the it's menu item will be dimmed. (If you need a 2-point perspective type, investigate Shift Lens)

Solution:

Select View>Axonometric or View>3-Point Perspective from the main menubar. Maxwell should then be available.

Problem: Auto-translated Materials are too glossy

The plugin attempts to translate Bonzai3d "Shaded" materials as faithfully as possible with the Closest Match and Realistic Match material hints. By default, Bonzai3d's materials are quite glossy.

Solutions:

Decrease the "Shaded" representation Specular Factor, increase the Specular Roughness, or both.

OR

Select the Matte material hint.

Problem: The plugin exports an MXS scene, but Maxwell (or Studio) is not launched to render it. (OSX only)

The MXS file type may not be associated with your current version of Maxwell Render.

Solution:

1. Quit Maxwell & Studio if they are running.
2. Select any MXS file and 'Get Info' with the Finder.
3. Set "Open With" to your current version of Maxwell
4. Click the "Change All" button.

Problem: Maxwell can’t find the textures in my MXMs

Solution:

Use the Resource Manager to set up a search path to the folder containing the textures.

Problem: Export fails; Log indicates that a bitmap from an auto-translated material cannot be found or read

Bonzai3d sometimes does not report correct paths to the plugin if the 'Keep Textures' project-level setting is enabled. We recommend that 'Keep Textures' be disabled permanently in Bonzai3d Preferences > Project > Project Files.

Solution:

In File > Project Preferences, 'Project Files' Tab, disable 'Keep Textures.' Note that it may be necessary to manually reload the affected texture(s) after this step.

Problem: When Network Rendering, scenes are sometimes overwritten

Solution:

Use Automatic filepaths, and enable the Timestamp option. See Bonzai3d | Render Options | File

Problem: Rendered scene is extremely dark (or black)

Solutions:

Confirm that your camera's exposure is correct; a real camera model is in effect. You are not in RenderZone anymore.
Maxwell’s emitters behave according to real-world conditions. Confirm that the Emitter power is sufficient. Don't forget efficacy for watt-based emitters.
Confirm that your scene scale is realistic. 100W spread out over 100 sq. meters will result in a very dim scene.
Check the Log to determine if the plugin is finding all HDRIs, IESs, and MXM emitter materials. If not, add a search path to the library containing these dependencies using the Resource Manager.

Problem: Export process is slow

Solutions:

Avoid face-level materials assignment on complex objects. This makes the translation of the object take significantly longer.
Reduce the display resolution of smooth (ACIS) objects.
Make use of References. See Bonzai3d | MXS Reference
Use Bonzai3d's Join tool to merge entourage with many similar elements

Problem: Maxwell rendering is slow

Solutions:

For test renders, set the Scale parameter in Render Options>Image to a value less than 100%.
Disable Dispersion or Refractions (Render Options>Scene)
For test renderings, temporarily disable non-critical features such as Grass or References (Render Options>Scene)
Reduce the number of lights in the scene.
Merge like emitter-mapped objects into a single object using Bonzai3d's Join tool.
Use simpler MXM materials. Matte hint materials (100% rough) will render very quickly; materials with complex IORs, translucency, and subsurface scattering take longer to clear noise.

Problem: Rendering exhibits triangulation artifacts

Maxwell Render works with triangulated, facetted objects only. When Bonzai3d’s mathematically-defined ACIS (smooth) objects are encountered, the plugin will use the facetted representation of the ACIS object. This is the same representation that the Shaded render mode uses.

Solution:

Adjust the Display Resolution Facet Density option. Increasing the facet density will usually resolve this issue, but will also result in longer export times. Use the minimum value that produces acceptable results, especially on complex objects.

Problem: Error 'There is no MAXWELL3_ROOT environment variable on this machine'

Solution:

This issue occurs on Windows systems only. If you encounter this error when attempting to load the plugin, it means that either:

Maxwell Render is not installed on the machine. Download and install Maxwell Render to fix the problem.
Maxwell Render is incorrectly installed on the machine. Uninstall/re-install Maxwell Render to fix the problem.

If this does not solve the issue. A System Environment Variable is a value that is available to every application on your computer. As such, the MAXWELL3_ROOT variable points to Maxwell's home directory, and provides the ability for any application that wishes to locate Maxwell to be able to do so. So, it is very important that it is correctly set when you install Maxwell. Usually this is no problem, but there are always cases where installation is not completely successful, and it is possible that you may need to manually create the variable. Note that you should proceed with caution when accessing Environment Variables. If you alter Environment Variables without having very specific reasons, you may encounter problems with the applications that rely on them. To view and edit your System's Environment Variables, go to: Start > right-click My Computer > Properties > Advanced > Environment variables. If Maxwell Render is installed correctly, there should be a MAXWELL3_ROOT variable present.

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