ValTerra for Autodesk 3ds Max

City context, sun and drone camera match. This page gets you from install to a first import. The full reference of every control is the function reference (PDF).

1. Open the panel

After installation, start 3ds Max and choose ValTerra from the ValTerra menu or its toolbar button. Nothing else has to be copied or registered. ValTerra runs on 3ds Max 2024 to 2027.

2. Paste a mapping credential

The globe draws with a mapping credential of your own. Paste a Cesium ion token or your own Google Maps Platform key into the field at the top of the right-hand column and press Save. Two links under the field open the pages where each provider issues one. The credential stays on this machine, you use it under your own account and agreement with that provider, and that provider's terms apply to what you import. Read them before client work.

3. Select an area and import

  1. Type an address or place into the globe's search bar and press Enter.
  2. Press Select area and drag across the area on the globe.
  3. Choose what the rectangle becomes under Import as: a textured 3D model from imagery, the schematic city from OpenStreetMap, road splines, terrain relief from open elevation data, or a combination of the last three.
  4. Press Import. The line above the import form reports progress and, for the schematic city, every assumption the import had to make.

In the scene, the schematic city is filed in one layer called OSM, inside the ValTerra layer: one eye on OSM hides all of it, and the layers inside it (OSM MODEL, OSM ROADS, OSM TREES and so on) hide a part. The photorealistic model is on PHOTOREAL MODEL and the terrain relief on TERRAIN, each with its own eye. A layer of your own called OSM is left alone, and the group is then named ValTerra OSM.

With the trial or a license, an OpenStreetMap import takes an area of any size; ValTerra Lite takes up to 4 km². A selection over 4 km² is downloaded in parts of up to 4 km² each, one after another, and joined into one model. For such a selection the line above the import form gives an estimate: how many parts, and for a dense city centre the download size, the time to download and build, and the memory 3ds Max takes on. Over 50 km², or an estimated 1 GB of download, Import first asks whether to go ahead and names OpenStreetMap’s fair-use guideline: overpass-api.de, the public server ValTerra asks, wants each user to stay within about 1 GB of downloads a day. While a schematic builds, the panel and 3ds Max stay usable; the viewports catch up when it is done. Cancel import, beside the progress bar on every tab, or Esc in the panel outside the globe stops the download or the build at any point: the parts already downloaded are kept for 7 days, so importing the same area again continues from there, and anything the import had built is taken away, so that Undo afterwards does not bring it back.

4. Trial, Lite and a license

ValTerra starts as a 30-day trial with every feature enabled, no card and no watermark. When the trial ends it continues as ValTerra Lite, free: photorealistic imports and captures at reduced fidelity, OpenStreetMap imports of up to 4 km² at a time, and the Autodesk 3ds Max Daylight system in place of the ValTerra Sun. A license is bought on getvalterra.com/pricing; paste the key from the email into the panel; each key activates online once, on the machine that will use it.

5. Updates

When a newer version exists, the panel says so and its button opens the listing where you downloaded ValTerra. Nothing is downloaded or installed without you.

License, privacy and credits

Support

Write to hello@getvalterra.com or use the contact page. We answer on working days, Kyiv time.

Removing ValTerra

Uninstall it from Windows Settings, Apps, like any other application. Scenes, captures and imported models you made stay where they are, and your ValTerra settings and 3ds Max interface customizations are kept.

ValTerra is an independent product by Shall We Art and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Autodesk, Inc. or Google LLC. Autodesk and 3ds Max are registered trademarks of Autodesk, Inc. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).