In 3ds Max 2012, if you try to add a hidden object from the “add…” dialog with the hidden objects filter on, the object isnt’ added to the Frost object.

Thank you for your report! I added this to our bug/ticket system, but I don’t see an easy way to fix this.

This may be a 3ds Max issue – I couldn’t find anything that handles this properly. If you know of anything that does, please let me know.

If we show frozen and hidden objects when the dialog opens, like the “Unhide by Name…” dialog does, then we can pick hidden objects as expected, but I don’t think this is the right answer.

Actually, it might be the right answer.
In MAXScript, if I call

selectByName showHidden:true

I will get all objects including hidden ones, and I can pick any.
If I would UNCHECK the Show Hidden icon, I would get only the visible objects and I can pick only them.
So now I have the ability to do both, with the only drawback of defaulting to the more verbose output.

I would say let’s default to Show Hidden ON and let the user hide the hidden if he does NOT want them.

I will make that change. (I wish we could select hidden nodes while defaulting to the less verbose list.)

Bobo, it appears Krakatoa Prt volume suffers from this same bug.

Everything in Max suffers from the same bug. Try making a Boolean and try clicking the “Pick Operand B” button and picking a hidden object… I tried just to confirm.

So it is a Max bug. The main difference is that Frost has an Add… button that pops up the Select By Name dialog via our even handling, while PRT Volume has a pick button and hitting H, while triggering the same Select By Name dialog, is not under our control. It would require Autodesk to fix this generally for all pick buttons before PRT Volume starts doing it right, unless we add an Add… button to it. That’s unlikely at this time since we are just days from release.