What I personally have thought max has needed for a while now, which I’m not sure if you can do with maxscript, or even the sdk, is some kind of tabbed interface, so that you can have multiple files open in one instance of max. Also having the ability to copy and paste nodes or geometry in between the open files would be awesome, which would be pretty easy, by having a clipboard max file.
xref scenes, containers… you can copy/paste between containers, and merge nodes from xref scene to the current one.
But, to be fair, using containers is like heading to the Amsterdam red light district – exciting, full of wonder, and almost definitely going to give you a disease. You’ll be running back to your trusty old XRef’s before the sun comes up!
containers are not safe and shouldn’t be used just for pleasure
but containers is the easiest way to copy/paste everything (objetcs and their transforms, modifiers, materials, etc.) across files.
There are easy ways to do this type of stuff. We have in house productions tools I’ve created for copying and pasting animation across multiple instances of running max’s.
Yeah I know there are easy ways of copy and pasting. The main thing I want is multiple files open in one instance of max. I hate having to open multiple sessions. I know load times are faster once you open max for the first time, but I still feel like its a pain. Most applications nowadays for windows can load multiple files, it seems like max needs to catch up on this.
What other 3D package allows for tabbed files to be open? besides referencing files in? Comparing 3D packages to let’s say the ability of notepad ++ to open multiple files and then say “they do it why cant max!” doesn’t really work.
Off the top of my head I really can’t think of any, AutoCad does I think. Autodesk has made max look like MS Office anyways, why not grab something else from it? What doesn’t work? Its a request for something, max doesn’t have, for something I could use. What’s wrong with asking for a feature that would make things a lot easier for me? Its something I think max has needed for a long time, like fully supporting multiple cores and multiple gpus. In my opinion, its not that big of a request.
It is an insanely huge request. So much of the 3dsmax core will have to be rewritten, not to mention 3rd party plugins.
Regarding ‘multiple cores’ – it is a very fuzzy concept. Not all tasks can be processed in parallel, and not all tasks would benefit from being processed in parallel, but I agree that parallel scene graph processing and things like skin could greatly benefit from it.
as a softimage Fan , i love to see something like softimage ICE on max
for max it will be like writing some functions on node based system
–
for now until one day we have that.
here is a small tool on ice for fast Retopology
http://vimeo.com/24730266
http://vimeo.com/43532240
idea is simple enough on ICE but not sure about giving it a try on maxscript.
I think it can be done by skinwrap but it will have problems this way for sure ,it need to be done the long way
here is the compound for softimage for checking it up
http://shaterstudio.blogspot.com/2013/04/softimage-retopology-ice-compounds.html
Nice and simple, I have forgotten Save Nodes.
I hate CAT and another wishes would be adding some features to Character Studio like: spline spine, auto clavicle, ground detector, bone squash stretch, muscles and everything that we always build in custom rigs.
Do you have any reference or examples for using containers in mxs?
Actually I can think of a tabbed system that could work, it would be a hack but it would give the impression of working in a tabbed application… I shall repost when I’ve made something.
I’m not sure what hack this program is using but would be cool if this could be invoked from within max… just add another session and make it tabbed.
Wouldn’t that just replace the 3dsmax instances in the task bar with tabs? I mean, you’d still need to open a new 3dsmax process if you want to add a tab, right?
Yep, but it will looked tabbed! Another way would be to use some elaborate hold/fetch system that hold and fetches different scenes when tabs are selected but that’s not very fast I guess.
Personally I don’t mind having multiple instances of max open (A fast SSD and 32GB does make it a smooth experience) … I can c/p between them with some simple scripting and if one crashes it doesn’t take all the other ones down as well.
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=98&t=1102403
I find I have a billion things open on my start bar so all my max’s end up grouped. I know it’s more UI real estate taken up but hey I thought it’d be fun!
Has anyone heavily modified the UI of max?
To the point where you remove controls or menu items so artists can only do certain tasks within max?
Example: I’d love run a version of max removing all the save icons and save shortcuts and only allow max to save using custom buttons.
I’d love to know how you went about doing that. I’ve been looking at trying to do this for some time and have been unsuccessful.
YEAH THAT would be great. I appreciate it.
– Load your custome cui for hotkeys and colors
MaxRibbon.ShowRibbon False
ViewCubeOps.Visibility =False
cui.commandPanelOpen= false
ComponentManager = (dotnetclass “Autodesk.Windows.ComponentManager”)
qatbar = ComponentManager.QuickAccessToolBar
qatbar.IsVisible = false
qatbar.IsMenuBarVisible = false
ComponentManager.InfoCenterToolBar.MaxWidth = 0
ComponentManager.InfoCenterToolBar.MinWidth = 0
–just little icon top-left will remain, create a little rollout and pin rollout to top of that icon.