Autodesk releases 3ds Max 2026.3
Autodesk has released 3ds Max 2026.3, the latest version of its 3D modeling and animation software for architectural visualization, motion graphics and VFX.
It’s another fairly small update – although not as small as 3ds Max 2026.2 – with changes to the Conform Modifier, Material Switcher, and the USD and Arnold plugins.
3D modeling: more control options for the Conform modifier
The Conform modifer, used to wrap one mesh onto the surface of another, gets new controls for distance and falloff to adjust the results.
Materials: new animated material index in the Material Switcher
The Material Switcher, used to manage the display of variant materials for assets, gets an animated material index, making it possible to swap dynamically between up to 9,999 materials.
USD for 3ds Max: new Asset Resolver troubleshoots asset loading
USD for 3ds Max, 3ds Max’s Universal Scene Description plugin, gets a number of workflow improvements, including the option to [Shift]-drag prims in the viewport to duplicate them.
It is also now possible to rename, delete and reparent prims.
Other changes in USD for 3ds Max 0.13 include a new Asset Resolver, intended to reduce errors when loading assets by making it possible to set custom search paths and tokens.
In addition, the USD Importer now supports MaterialX materials referenced in USD files, and the USD Exporter now supports Shell materials.
Arnold for 3ds Max: new Inference imager for stylizing rendered output
3ds Max’s integration plugin for Autodesk’s Arnold renderer has also been updated, with MAXtoA 5.8.3.2 introducing support for the Arnold 7.4.3 core.
Key changes include a new Inference imager, making it possible to apply image-to-image machine learning models using the ONNX framework, to stylize rendered output.
There are also performance improvements to global light sampling and volume rendering: you can find more details in our story on Arnold 7.4.3 itself.
Price and system requirements
3ds Max 2026.3 is compatible with Windows 10+. It is rental-only. Subscriptions cost $255/month or $2,010/year.
In many countries, artists earning under $100,000/year and working on projects valued at under $100,000/year qualify for Indie subscriptions, which now cost $330/year.
Read a full list of new features in 3ds Max 2026.3 in the online documentation
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