Configuring 3ds Max 2012 to use local help

Now Autodesk products are pre-configured to use online version of help. But for some of you it is sometimes impossible to use online versions because of unavailability of internet. You'd like to download the 3ds Max 2012 help and configure 3ds Max to use this instead of the help from the Autodesk website.

Open the 3ds Max 2012 and go to Customize >Preferences >Help

Click on Download button which will open internet browser and takes you to

At the bottom of that page it lists the available help files, currently the help is available in the following languages only

• English

• Deutsch

• French

• Japanese

• Chinese 

• Korean

Click on English. The download is of 250Mb and takes up to 360Mb on disk once installed. Download and run that file. By default the files get installed in 

• C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Help\3dsmax 2012\en_us\ (on windows 32bi)
• C:\Program Files (x86)\Autodesk\Help\3dsmax 2012\en_us\ (on windows 64bit)

In 3ds Max preferences settings change the help location from "Autodesk Web Site" to "Local Computer/Network".

The 'Browse...' button is now active, browse to where the help is installed (don't forget to add the \3dsmax2012\en_us bit!).

Test that it works, click OK in Preferences Settings to commit the changes and Press F1 for help. if you selected the wrong path you get the option to revert back to the online version.

 Thats it. Enjoy.