The MAXScript language is specifically designed to complement 3ds max. It has many special features and constructs such as coordinate system contexts, object primitives and materials that mirror high-level concepts in the 3ds max user-interface. It has an animation mode with automatic keyframing and access to scene objects using hierarchical path names that match the 3ds max object hierarchy.
The language syntax is simple enough for non-programmers, as it includes minimal punctuation and formatting rules. Coupled with the use of the command-line Listener window, the ability to install scripts as toolbar buttons, and the recording of user actions as MAXScript commands, MAXScript can be employed casually by the user while working in the 3ds max point-and-click user interface.
MAXScript is also rich enough to enable sophisticated programming tasks, with capabilities such as 3D vector, matrix, and quaternion algebra. MAXScript is well suited to working with large collections of objects; for example, making complex procedural selections, constructing random star fields, or placing objects in numerically precise patterns.
MAXScript allows scripts to be packaged as Utility panel rollouts, as modeless windows, and as 3ds max toolbar buttons. MAXScript can also be used to extend or replace the user interface for objects, modifiers, materials, textures, render effects, and atmospheric effects; or to create custom mesh objects, modifiers, and render effects. This allows job-specific tools to be scripted by the technical department and made available to artists and animators through standard 3ds max point-and-click user interfaces.
MAXScript supports formatted text I/O, so it is possible to produce asset reports directly from 3ds max scene files and read files containing scene layout, naming, texture details, and so on, exported from other project management software.
MAXScript can also be used as a high-level scene import utility. By outputting MAXScript scripts containing object creation commands, it is possible for other programs and packages to export directly using any of the high-level 3ds max constructs.