Over the last few years, I’ve helped several studios improve their production pipelines by developing custom tools tailored to their real 3D workflows. Each project came with different challenges, but all of them had the same purpose: to eliminate repetitive work, reduce errors, and let artists focus on creativity instead of manual tasks.

Many ArchViz studios and 3D teams still spend countless hours performing actions that could easily be automated. When a workflow depends on repeating the same steps across dozens—or hundreds—of assets, custom 3ds Max scripting can make an enormous difference. These three real-world examples show how bespoke tools can dramatically boost efficiency inside a production environment.

Aspace (Australia): Automating Material Replacement

Aspace, an Australian manufacturer of outdoor playgrounds, uses a pipeline where detailed structures are created in Autodesk Inventor and then brought into 3ds Max for rendering. The workflow was solid—but one major issue slowed everything down: every imported material from Inventor arrived as a placeholder, and the artist had to manually replace them with the correct VRay materials.

With more than ten projects per week, this repetitive task consumed an enormous amount of time.

To solve this, I developed a custom script that automatically identifies each imported material and replaces it with the proper VRay counterpart from their internal library. The process became instantaneous, consistent and error-free.

The outcome was significant: the studio saved over 20 hours of manual work every single week, allowing their artist to spend more time improving the quality of the final renders instead of handling repetitive setup tasks.

Star Event (Malaysia): A CAD-Inspired Measurement Tool

Star Event, a multi-award-winning event marketing agency, needed a way to take accurate measurements inside complex 3ds Max scenes. They were looking for something intuitive and reliable—similar to SketchUp’s measurement workflow and the clarity of CAD annotations—but fully integrated into their 3ds Max environment.

They also needed to export all measurements to a spreadsheet (Excel or CSV) and include the dimensions directly in the final 3D renders for documentation and client presentations.

I developed a custom tool that allows users to take precise point-to-point measurements with snapping support, automatically generate readable TextPlus-based distance labels in the viewport, and manage everything from a dedicated interface. Measurements could be renamed, organized, exported and rendered directly within the scene.

This project eventually evolved into 3D Measure Master, a commercial plugin now used by hundreds of 3ds Max professionals worldwide—a great example of how a custom script can grow into a full-featured production tool.

Beiga (Poland): Automating RenderStacks Workflows

Beiga, a studio specializing in photorealistic furniture visualization, often works with multiple furniture groups, material variations and both regular and transparent-background render versions. Setting up all these combinations manually inside RenderStacks(*) made their workflow slow and difficult to maintain across projects.

To streamline this, I developed a custom tool that automatically builds the entire RenderStacks structure needed for the project—creating and organizing layers, preparing cameras, setting up visibility rules and generating all required passes. Instead of manually configuring dozens of options, the user simply selects the furniture groups and cameras, chooses the material variations, and the entire render setup is generated in seconds.

RenderStacks provides deep automation capabilities through its Maxscript API, but making full use of it required studying and testing its functions thoroughly. I also consulted with RenderStacks support, who helped me work with a few advanced, undocumented functions. This made it possible to deliver a tailored and efficient solution that the studio could reuse across multiple projects.

(*) RenderStacks is a 3ds Max plugin used to manage complex multi-pass render setups. It allows artists and TDs to build structured, modular render trees, and provides a Maxscript API for workflow automation.

What All These Projects Have in Common

Although each case was unique, all of them demonstrate how custom scripting can reshape a studio’s workflow. Every tool significantly reduced manual labor, minimized the risk of human error and adapted 3ds Max to the exact needs of the production pipeline instead of forcing artists to work around limitations. Most importantly, these solutions allowed teams to shift their time from repetitive tasks to creative work—where it truly makes a difference.

Want to Improve Your 3ds Max Workflow?

If your studio could benefit from workflow automation, custom tools or pipeline optimization in 3ds Max, you can learn more about our Custom 3ds Max Script Development Services.