Hi,
is it possible to display a file browser window within a maxscript rollout? The file browser should be navigable and a file should be selectable (and the selection should then be given to the mxs rollout).
On opening the rollout with the browser window I would like to display a specific location in the browser and be able to change that location based on events within the rollout.
Is that possible, maybe with .net? Could someone point me to where to look for this?
Thanx!
Can you post some code of what you are doing?
Well, there is not much code yet to show and I don’t have access to Max right now. It is basically a simple rollout with some checkboxes and dropdown lists and I want to add a window which shows a file browser like the windows explorer. Based on the selection the user makes with the option boxes in the rollout, the file browser should jump to that position within the file tree. The position where we are in the file explorer should update if the user changes any of the option boxes in the rollout. Furthermore the user should be able to select a file in the explorer.
The general idea is to guide and to automate the opening of a max file.
Any ideas?
‘fraid that the standard .NET doesn’t have a one-does-it-all ‘windows explorer’-type control… you’ve basically got two options…
A. Grab a (third party) assembly that offers such a control, or components for such a control – Microsoft themselves offer two components that would help in building such a control the Visual Basic .NET Power Pack:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa289491.aspx
B. Build your own using a treeview and a listview – ouch.
Based on what you seem to need – you might be able to use just a treeview… sounds like the user would have limited options (user presses a button and the treeview selection changes to the correct branch) and interaction needs (user selects a leaf (file) from the treeview branch). That’s nowhere near a full ‘windows explorer’-type thing, but if that’s all you’d need…
The Power Pack looks pretty promising. But I have no clue on how I would use the package with MXS. Is that complicated?
eh… it looked promising-ish to me as well, but just finding a download for the thing is a mess.
This should have had the link:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa289491.aspx
And it does, but it points to:
http://www.gotdotnet.com/Community/Workspaces/workspace.aspx?id=167542e0-e435-4585-ae4f-c111fe60ed58
And GotDotNet? is of course deader-than-dead-dead… and if you think Microsoft at least relocated all that knowledge and data somewhere else…
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!
Anyway – that quote is from the following thread, where a helpful fellow did post a URL for an alternate location to get the pack:
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/Vsexpressvb/thread/dea6136b-042b-4f76-8cd1-b637285ff367/
But keep in mind that this is a third party offering the package, etc. etc.
=====================
Back on-topic… if/when you do download a library of .NET controls and such, using it is pretty simply… first you load the library:
dna = dotNet.loadAssembly "c:\\3dsmax11\\VbPowerPack.dll"
dotNetObject:System.Reflection.Assembly
And then you’re basically done. Check the documentation for how to use the thing… I haven’t, so all I’m getting is the icons of my machine’s ‘root’ displayed with this:
rollout test "test" width:800 height:600 (
dotnetcontrol dnc_fileviewer "VbPowerPack.FileViewer" width:750 height:550
)
createDialog test
That “VbPowerPack.FileViewer” should be in the documentation, I just leeched it from poking about at the results of:
print (dna.GetExportedTypes())
Again, though, see if using a fancy control may actually be overkill for what you need.
Even more basic would be having a listbox with functions to display stuff from the folders:) Really hacky, might not be the best way visually, but it is pretty fast, faster then the windows explorer, and you can control what you want to display and even have previews of what is in each folder (i.e. Looking for Max files).
looks like a few useful nibbles in there Rich, I’ll have to take a look at that.
not tried any, but codeproject also has a few .net directory browsers that could be used in the same way mentioned previously.
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/cpp/VbNetExpTree.aspx
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/miscctrl/FileBrowser.aspx
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/cs/my_explorer.aspx
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/tree/FileSystemTreeView.aspx
Thanks Richard for explaining how to use a .net library and for finding that link to the package…
As the task description for my script got one more time changed and the file browsing option for the rollout got more simplified I think I will stick to a .net treeview or a mxs listview. Even though those file browsers from all the different libraries that were mentioned look much cooler...;-)
Once again, thanks a lot for your insights!