How can I share my model support files? - 3ds Max

Question

When sending my file to someone else, they see a dialog box that states images, bitmaps, and materials are missing. When they render the materials are gone. How can I share my model successfully without losing these materials?

Answer

There are two answers to this, the 1st is based on 2 people sharing an office location and the 2nd is someone external. Internally it is always good practice to have the materials on a central location (such as a server) that both machines can access using the same address. The main reason for this (apart from the issue) is that if you network render you will need the other machine to access them. For external sharing of the file there is a tool called ‘Archive’ this can be found under ‘file’. This will zip the file and all associated files with it. When extracted at its destination it will put the files in the correct location, which will prevent the ‘files missing’ dialog box.