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This is a minor inconvenience, but thought I would bring it up. I like to use "." (periods) in my filenames because they're less phonetic and make a better classifier than "-" (dashes) or "_" (underscores). When I export objects from 3ds Max as ".mxs" files and include periods in the filename, it drops the ".mxs" extension and I have to manually add it in Windows explorer.

I know that it used be problematic to use periods in filenames on Windows systems, but I don't think it's as much of an issue anymore. Linux & Unix do it all the time. If using periods is still considered a bad practice, then this request can be dismissed.

Thanks!

It's not that it's bad practice, the problem is that the extension is added automatically by the "save as" dialog. If you have a dot in the file name, it thinks you've already added the extension, so it doesn't append ".mxs" to the file name. The exporter code uses whatever file name it gets from the dialog, without doing any further changes to it.

We can change it to always add .mxs if it's not there. This will prevent people from using custom extensions, but that's probably not a big issue.

Interesting! I hadn't considered Max's custom file creation dialogs (it has several).

I'm assuming the following if the extension was forced onto the file:

The exporter code uses whatever file name it gets from the dialog, without doing any further changes to it.

1.) The file extension check will be specific to the Maxwell plugin. More specifically, it would only effect the MXS export functionality.
2.) This wouldn't be a global adjustment that effects Max's general "Save As" dialog.

I can't think of a single reason why someone would want an MXS file with a different extension. The engine won't use that, will it? Before I become "that guy" who made a suggestion that broke the workflow of others, let's see if we can get some feedback on the use of custom extensions for MXS encoded files. I'll pop the question in a new thread and link back to this.

Thanks Mihnea!

Hey Mihnea,
I popped the custom file extension question two weeks ago and haven't heard anything.

http://www.maxwellrender.com/forum/view ... 35&t=42812

I would say it's safe to assume there's no reason to export an MXS file as a separate extension from 3ds Max. If you could patch the plugin to always add ".mxs" to filenames where they didn't exist, it shouldn't disrupt anyone's workflow and would make my life ever so slightly smoother

Thanks Mihnea!