Privacy at Machine3D

Machine3D makes plugins for Autodesk 3ds Max. This page says what information our plugins, our M3D Tools (the Tool Manager and the License Server) and our store collect, why, how long we keep it, and how to have it deleted.

Who is responsible: Machine3D LLC, 2644 Alder St., Eugene, Oregon 97405, USA. Contact for anything on this page: support@machine3d.com.

Your scene stays yours

Our plugins never send your models, scenes, file contents, file paths, textures, renders or screenshots anywhere. Nothing is sent from inside 3ds Max at all, except the license check below, which goes to your own License Server on your network.

Buying

Checkout is run by Stripe through Stripe Managed Payments, with Link as the seller of record. They collect your name, email, billing address and payment details under their own privacy notices. We receive your name, email, what you bought and the license period, and we keep them to provide the license, answer support requests and meet tax and accounting law. We keep them for as long as your license is active, and after that for as long as tax and accounting law requires.

The license check

Your License Server (one per studio, on your network) checks your license with our store when it starts, when it renews, and once a day. It sends: your customer number, an anonymous ID of the license-server computer (a one-way hash, not its name), which products and how many seats, the M3D Tools version, and the peak number of seats and render nodes in use since the last check. Our server also sees the internet address it came from. Nothing about your scenes, files or user names is sent. We use it to keep your license working and to stop a license being used by more seats than it covers. We keep these records for 12 months.

About once an hour the License Server also asks our store whether a newer license file exists (for example after a renewal or a seat change). Your workstations and render nodes never contact us themselves.

Your copy carries an identifier

Every copy of a paid plugin we build for you contains an identifier linked to your account. We use it to check that the copy is licensed to you and to trace copies that are shared or leaked without permission. We keep the record of which identifier belongs to which customer for as long as we sell the product, because a leaked copy can surface long after a subscription ends. Free plugins carry no identifier.

Debug logs and crash reports: only when you choose to send one

If a Machine3D plugin crashes 3ds Max, or you turn on a plugin's debug log in the M3D Tool Manager to help us with a problem, a report is kept on your computer. Nothing is sent unless you press Send and confirm. (In the Tool Manager's settings you can choose to send crash reports automatically; debug logs are never sent automatically.) Debug logging is off unless you turn it on, plugin by plugin.

What Machine3D receives when you send one: your name (from your customer account, or nothing for a free plugin without one), your 3ds Max version, the plugin's version, and our own plugin's details: its settings, its license state and the lines it logged about itself; and, with a crash report, where in our code it crashed, plus anonymous facts about the computer: Windows version, graphics card and driver, and memory size. Those computer facts are anonymous: nothing in them names the computer or its user.

What we never receive: your models, scenes, file contents, file paths, textures, renders or screenshots. The plugin cannot write names from your scene into the log, and anything that looks like a file name or path is removed again before sending. Like any upload, our server also sees your internet address; it is used only to stop abuse.

You can read it first. The Tool Manager shows exactly what will be sent, and "Open files to send" puts the exact files in a folder so you can open them in any editor before deciding.

The crash snapshot. A crash can also leave a small crash snapshot (a "minidump": the crashing program's call stack, registers and loaded-module list). Because a call stack can hold fragments of whatever was being worked on, such as an object name or a file path, the snapshot is not sent unless you tick "Also send the crash snapshot". Without it we receive only the facts read out of it on your computer: the type of crash and the positions in our own code.

What we do with it: find and fix the problem. A report is read by Machine3D staff and may be analyzed with automated tools, including AI tools. It is never sold or shared for advertising.

Where it is stored: first on our store's server (hosted by Hostinger in Phoenix, Arizona, USA), only until our own system downloads it, which deletes it from there; then on Machine3D's own computers.

How long: 12 months after we receive it, then deleted.

Delete on request: email support@machine3d.com with your customer number (or, for a free plugin, the date and plugin of the report) and we delete your reports within 30 days and confirm. You can also delete any report or log on your own computer at any time from the Tool Manager (it goes to the Recycle Bin).

Who else handles your data

We use a small number of service providers, each only for the job named here:

• Stripe and Link run checkout and payments.
• Hostinger hosts this website and our store server, in its Phoenix, Arizona data center.
• Titan carries our email, including license emails and support.

Machine3D is based in the United States, so if you live elsewhere your information is transferred to and stored in the United States.

Your rights

Wherever you live, you can ask us what we hold about you, to correct it, or to delete it, at support@machine3d.com. If you are in the EU, the UK or a similar jurisdiction you also have the right to object, to restrict processing, to data portability, and to complain to your data-protection authority. Our lawful bases: performing our contract with you (license, support), legal obligations (tax), and our legitimate interest in fixing our software (crash reports and debug logs you choose to send).

Changes

We will update this page when what we collect changes, with the date below.

Last updated: October 16, 2026