I just became interested in this as well, and after a quick search a few days ago, I came across this bit of code. I can’t remember where I saved it from, so if you know who wrote it, chime it. ( :

This script exports the currently selected models height, width, and length to a .csv file.

 -------------------------------------------
 -- ExportAsCVS.ms
 -- exports the currently selected models
 -- height, width, length (in that order)
 -------------------------------------------
 global theFileStream
 fn exportAs fileName = (
 -- create file
 theFileStream = createFile fileName;
 
 if theFileStream != undefined then (
 -- file ok to write
 selection = getCurrentSelection()
 
 if selection.count > 0 then (
 -- write header
 printToFile ("x, y, z, Pieces, Name")
 -- write data
 for obj in selection do (
 _name = obj.name
 _height = floorToNDecimals(obj.height) as string
 _width = floorToNDecimals(obj.width) as string
 _length = floorToNDecimals(obj.length) as string
 -- assuming pieces is always 1
 _pieces = "1"
 -- write to file
 printToFile (_length+","+_width+","+_height+","+_pieces+","+_name)
 )
 ) else (
 -- error
 printToFile ("Error: Nothing Selected!")
 )
 )
 printToFile ("Yeah!")
 
 -- close
 close theFileStream;
 )
 
 fn printToFile theString t:0 = (
 -- auto tab (empty string)
 tabString = " ";
 tabString = substring tabString 1 (t*4);
 -- print
 format "%%
" tabString theString to:theFileStream;
 )
 
 fn floorToNDecimals theNumber N:2 = (
 return floor( ((pow 10 N) * theNumber) ) / (pow 10 N)
 )
 
 exportAs("Test2.csv");
 

Loading in the values can be done thru the ‘stringStream’ thingy in maxscript. Check the help.

Hi Garrik,

thank you very much, i will try that.

mfg
hot chip

f=createFile ((getDir #scripts)+"myFileName.txt")
format "data: %" "some thing to put in the file" to:f
close f

If you have all your text in array before writing I find that

(dotnetClass "System.IO.File").WriteAllLines <filename> <string array>

works much faster

Oh guys,

thank you very much. I will try the codes.

mfg
hot chip

So this is faster then format? I’ll have to give it a try. Thanks.if you’re interested in speed, my guess would be that formatting everything to a stringstream and then formatting the resulting stringstream to a file would be faster (and safer than regular formatting to a file too). My reasoning is that the array of mxs strings wouldnt need to be converted to a dotnet string array before the WriteAllLines function can execute which i dont think scales as well as the stringstream method for large outputs. Please note that my thoughts have not been benchmarked…

I would second that, XML would be perfect for the sort of thing you are trying to store. My thinking – Is performance really an issue for strings of this length? I wouldn’t think so.

(I don’t mean to hijack this thread, and I think this relates closely with creating an external file)
I’m writing data to an external file, then trying to load that data back in. This is the code so far:

    f=createFile "test.objekt"
    format "line1:%" "data1
" to:f
    format "line2:%" "data2" to:f
    close f
    o=openFile "test.objekt" mode:"r+"
    myData = readDelimitedString o "line2:"
    print myData
     

 Gives error: Unable to convert: <File:C:.../test.objekt> to type: String

I’m sure I’m missing something obvious, a syntax error. Or perhaps I’m not loading the data in? Hmm

I’m not sure you can write to a file without supplying a full path. Is the file actually being created, and if so, where?