doh. meant to put this in the 'Computer' thread…

scheiß ~ makes Max look like quite the misfit now doesn't it?

Not really surprised, Max has been slow at many things for a long, long time. However, it remains the most compatible and that is worth a lot.

i recently installed the MAX Design demo and realized that I actually miss working in MAX…

how different is 3d max design from 3d max.?
I know 3d max design is what replaced Viz..

well, the interface (from what I can tell) is basically the same. I think the only real differences is that "design" has some lighting analysis/simulation tools that MAX doesn't. I haven't found a good comparison of the two to give a better sense of the differences. I don't think there really are many differences beyond that (other than the parametric architectural tools; though I think those were added to MAX with a service release); the animation tools are supposedly the same and it appears that Design has the particle and dynamics tools as well (the tabs look the same, but I haven't tried them out yet). It's really like two flavors of MAX rather than MAX and "MAX Lite" like what VIZ was.