In Autodesk 3ds Max I had a user that received an error like so:

[Arnold]: [osl] C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2021\<buffer>:1: error: error: could not find include file: C:\Users
eil\AppData\Local\Temp/e69e-363f-eb4c-0e90
[MAXtoA]: Failed to set parameter 'param_horizon_height' of type 04 on node '/Physical_Sun___Sky_Environment'.

The problem is the username is Neil and in programming terms a /n mean press enter so it should read as C:\Users\neil\AppData\Local\Temp/e69e-363f-eb4c-0e90

If you program is updated and you still have this issue then you can use this work around:

What you will need:

cd C:\IT
start "" psexec.exe -i -d -u .\owner -p Pass123456789 "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2021\3dsmax.exe"

Example Content:

  • Problem User account: Neil
  • Example new account to create: owner
  • Example password: Pass123456789 (I recommend avoiding special characters. Meet password complexity requirements by having upper case, lower case and numbers in the password)
  • Example Directory: C:\IT

Skip to step 2 if you know how to create a user account already

Step 1 Create a local user account

  • Right click the windows icon and click Settings

  • Click Accounts

  • Click Other Users and click the plus next to Add someone else to this PC

  • Click I don’t have this person’s sign-in information

  • Click Add a user without a Microsoft Account

  • Fill in the required information and click Next(DON’T USE AN ACCOUNT NAME THAT STARTS WITH THE LETTER N)

  • Click on the new user and select Change account type

  • Under Account Type select Administrator and click Ok

Step 2 Login to the new account and get profile ready

  • Login as owner

  • Open Autodesk
  • Once open you can close it (That needed to be done to create the appdata files for this user)
  • Open Windows File Explorer and right click Desktop folder
  • Go to properties and select the Location tab
  • Change the path to your main account (for my example I will change owner to neil and then click Apply)

  • You will get a warning message. Click Yes. and when done click OK.

  • Repeat the above for each profile folder in this list (e.g. Right click Downloads and go to properties and change the location, ect.)

Technical Note: I am doing this because if I am using Autodesk and click File>Open and go to Documents I want to access MY account documents NOT the owner’s documents folder. The Owner’s documents folder will be empty. By changing the location to my profile when I click documents or desktop folder in Autodesk when using this script it will be linked to my files.

Step 3 Login to your main account and execute script

  • For my example I will login to the Neil account

  • Copy psexec.exe and the autodesk.bat file you made from the code above into C:\IT

  • Create a shortcut to autodesk.bat for quick use if you like. Double click it and it should open Autodesk 3ds max in the owner environment but you can still see your files
  • I don’t have autodesk on my test computer so here is an example of opening internet explorer on the owner account using the batch script above

  • In Task manager I can see that Internet Explorer is opened as my username and I have another instance opened as owner and can interact with both on my Anthony account, pretty sweet.