The 3ds Max window is the main interface to the program.
- Quick Access toolbar: Provides file handling and undo/redo commands, plus a drop-down list for switching among different workspace interfaces.
- Main toolbar: Provides many of the most commonly used commands in 3ds Max.
- The Ribbon: Contains an array of tools for modeling, painting into the scene, and adding people.
- Scene Explorer: For viewing, sorting, filtering, and selecting objects in 3ds Max, as well as renaming, deleting, hiding, and freezing objects, creating and modifying object hierarchies, and editing object properties en masse.
- Viewport Layouts: This is a special tab bar for switching quickly between different viewport configurations. You can use the default layouts provided, or create your own custom layouts.
- Status Bar controls: Displays prompts and status information about your scene and the active command. The coordinate display fields to the right of the prompt let you enter transform values manually.
- Viewport label menus: The viewport labels are menus that let you change what each viewport displays, including the point of view (POV) and shading style.
- Quad menu: When you click the right mouse button anywhere in an active viewport, except on the viewport label, a quad menu is displayed. The options available in the quad menu depend on the selection.
- Time Slider: Lets you navigate along the timeline and jump to any animation frame in your scene. You can quickly set position and rotation or scale keys by right-clicking the time slider and choosing the desired key from the Create Key dialog.
- Viewports: Display your scene from multiple angles and can preview lighting, shadows, depth of field, and other effects.
- Command Panel: Gives you access to tools for creating and modifying geometry, adding lights, controlling animation, and so on. The Modify panel, in particular, has a wealth of tools for adding complexity to geometry.
- Animation controls: Let you create animation and play back animation within viewports.
- Viewport Navigation: Use these buttons to navigate your scene within the active viewport.
- Slate Material Editor: Provides functions to create and edit materials and maps. Materials are assigned to objects and create greater realism in a scene by using different maps.
- Rendered Frame Window: Displays a rendering of your scene and enables easy re-rendering. Other controls here let you change render presets, lock rendering to a specific viewport, render regions for faster feedback, and change mental ray settings.