[Closed] Move ojbects in a group to a specified layer

Okay, I think I’m halfway there, I have a code that will open a group and select it’s components as well as opening nested groups till there are no closed groups and all the objects in that group are selected;

Selection = #()
GroupedObj = #()
for s = 1 to Selection.count do (if isGroupMember Selection[s] then (append GroupedObj Selection[s]) else false)
for GroupedObj in Selection where isGroupMember GroupedObj AND (NOT isOpenGroupMember GroupedObj) do setGroupOpen GroupedObj.parent true

This seems to work for the first part of the problem. Does anyone know how to get a selection assigned to a specific layer (ideally, to give a pop-up that lets you select a layer to place the selection into)?

I’ll preface this response by saying I realize I’m not necessarily being helpful and it’s just a workaround…

but it seems to me like you’re looking to create a dialog that would display available layers and then pick one of those to assign your current selection to, which is basically what the layer manager already does, if i were in your situation (which I halfway am because I deal with this same issue, moving all group members to a new layer, all the time) I’d just use what you have already written to open/select the group members properly, then I’d just press the “add selected objects to highlighted layer” button.

is there a reason, besides just wanting to learn how to script it, not to do it that way?

SnipeyX – Yeah, part of this is just me wanting to know how to do it as I am learning (I’ve used Max for years but am just getting into scripting).

I’m basing the requirements of the script on what one of my bosses wants… basically shortening the process by a step or two without changing which layer is active or which is the highlighted layer. He wants to select a group that has objects in different layers and move them all to a specified layer and then continue on right where he left off originally with as few extra steps as possible. This will work, but he will be happier if I can automate the whole process.

I’ve been messing around with the addNode method, but my understanding of the logic of the scripting language is lacking, so I’m not using it correctly (getting lots of errors).

In an older post on this forum, I found this code;

LayerManager.newLayerFromName “testLayer”;
addNodesToLayer “testLayer” (selection as array);

Which should create a layer and add the selection to the layer, but as yet I have not been able to get that to work. If I can make that work, I’d like to at least be able to assign the new layer name manually, but the best option would be to have a pop-up menu that I could choose the destination layer from.

Okay, one more update…I’ve tried it with the selection collection as well…

This will basically scan the selection for all the group heads, open the groups, scan the selection again, moving all the “group members” to the target layer.

This has the interesting effect of moving the sub-groups head node to the target layer, but not the main groups…thought that was kinda cool, but not sure if that is what you want…

(
 
 	local lstGrpHeads = #()
 
 	-- Scan all objects for the group heads in the scene
 	-- You might need to change this to match your selection...	
 	for node in selection do (
 	
 		if (isGroupHead node) then (
 		
 			append lstGrpHeads node
 		
 		)
 	
 	)
 
 	-- Open all the group heads
 	for gHead in lstGrpHeads do (	
 	
 		format "Openning %
" gHead
 		setGroupOpen gHead true
 		
 	)
 	
 	-- Locate our target layer...
 	local target = LayerManager.getLayerFromName "Layer05"
 	-- Depending on what you need, you will need to
 	-- change the reference to the "objects" collection
 	for node in selection do (
 	
 		if (isGroupMember node) then (
 			-- Add all the objects in the scene to the target layer
 			target.addNode node
 		)
 	
 	)
 
 	-- Re-close the heads...	
 	for gHead in lstGrpHeads do (	
 	
 		setGroupOpen gHead false
 		
 	)
 )

So, if you want to move “everything” in the selection to the new layer…you could do

	for node in selection do (
  	
  		if (isGroupMember node) or (isGroupHead node)then (
  			-- Add all the objects in the scene to the target layer
  			target.addNode node
  		)
  	
  	)

Else, if you only wanted to move the physical objects and NOT effect the group nodes…

	for node in selection do (
   	
   		if (isGroupMember node) and not (isGroupHead node) then (
   			-- Add all the objects in the scene to the target layer
   			target.addNode node
   		)
   	
   	)

Should work.

I hope that gives you some ideas…

Shane

ps I’m using max9

First off, I really appreciate the help. I’ve tried several combinations of code like you’ve listed and I’m just not getting things to work right (most likely because I’m not sure how MaxScript needs to be worded).

I either get an error stating “– Syntax error: at ), expected <factor>”
or “– Unknown property: “addNode” in undefined”

I really need some help with knowing what I’m looking at and why it works the way it does.
(Also Using Max9)

Edit:
Okay… what am I doing wrong here?

Here’s what I’ve got so far;

ActiveSelection = #()
GroupedObj = #()
for s = 1 to ActiveSelection.count do (if isGroupMember Selection[s] then (append GroupedObj ActiveSelection[s]) else false)
for GroupedObj in Selection where isGroupMember GroupedObj AND (NOT isOpenGroupMember GroupedObj) do setGroupOpen GroupedObj.parent true
function addNodesToLayer str_layerName inputNodes =
   	(
   	if str_layerName == undefined or inputNodes == undefined then return undefined;
   	if (classof inputNodes) != array then inputNodes = #(inputNodes);
   	
   	local inputLayer = (LayerManager.getLayerFromName str_layerName);
   	
   	for eachObj in inputNodes do
   		(
   		inputLayer.addnode eachObj;
   		);
   	);
LayerManager.newLayerFromName "New Layer"; addNodesToLayer "New Layer" (selection as array);

If I run just the first part of the code that says;

ActiveSelection = #()
GroupedObj = #()
for s = 1 to ActiveSelection.count do (if isGroupMember Selection[s] then (append GroupedObj ActiveSelection[s]) else false)
for GroupedObj in Selection where isGroupMember GroupedObj AND (NOT isOpenGroupMember GroupedObj) do setGroupOpen GroupedObj.parent true

I get my group and all nested groups to open and I retain all of it as a selection.

When I add the rest of the script, it does generate a new layer, but the group stays closed and nothing gets added to the new layer. I also get an error that says;

<MixinInterface:LayerProperties>
-- Type error: Call needs function or class, got: undefined

I new enough to scripting that I’m probably missing something that’s glaringly obvious, but I have no idea what it is.

This is a complete pain to track down, cause you need to count all the brackets in your script and determine which one you’ve missed…pain

 or "-- Unknown property: "addNode" in undefined"

This would suggest that the layer you’ve specified does not exist. In your “addNodesToLayer” function you should add a check:

   if inputLayer != undefined then (
     -- Continue adding nodes to the layer
   ) else (
     -- Handle the error in what ever way you see fit...I like throwing an exception
   )
   

I run your script, as you presented, and it worked fine for me ... I even tried and empty selection and it worked fine...

I might suggest adding some additional brackets around your where statement, eg:

 for GroupedObj in Selection where [b](isGroupMember GroupedObj)[/b] AND (NOT isOpenGroupMember GroupedObj) do setGroupOpen GroupedObj.parent true
 

But otherwise I did not have any problems…

I new enough to scripting that I’m probably missing something that’s glaringly obvious, but I have no idea what it is.
We’re all noods at some level

Shane

edt: I’m using max 9 64, I need to reinstall the 32bit to test, but it shouldn’t make any difference…do you have a test scene I might be able to work against?!

I run your script, once again, but I took out the pre-amble about openning the group and it works fine…

I spread a series of objects over a number of layers, grouped them and run

function addNodesToLayer str_layerName inputNodes =
	   (
	   if str_layerName == undefined or inputNodes == undefined then return undefined;
	   if (classof inputNodes) != array then inputNodes = #(inputNodes);
	   
	   local inputLayer = (LayerManager.getLayerFromName str_layerName);
	   
	   for eachObj in inputNodes do
		   (
		   inputLayer.addnode eachObj;
		   );
	   );
LayerManager.newLayerFromName "New Layer"; addNodesToLayer "New Layer" (selection as array);

And had no problems. Everything move to the “New Layer”

Shane

Again, I really appreciate the help and I’m trying the advice you’ve posted but for some reason or other I’m just not getting it to work (I know… my noob-ness is showing). I’m not only trying to get this to work, but I’m trying to understand what is going wrong when it doesn’t work. For example, every time I place a ) on it’s own line, it gives me an error that says;

-- Syntax error: at ), expected <factor>
--  In line: )

I tried running the code you provided on a test scene (just a bunch of boxes with nested groups several layers deep) and I got a a ‘False” response in the listener. I tried it with the group closed as well as with all groups open and got the same result. The new layer didn’t show up and nothing seems to have changed in my scene.

My latest stab at this was using this code;

ActiveSelection = #()
GroupedObj = #()
for s = 1 to ActiveSelection.count do (if isGroupMember Selection[s] then (append GroupedObj ActiveSelection[s]) else false)
for GroupedObj in Selection where isGroupMember GroupedObj AND (NOT isOpenGroupMember GroupedObj) do setGroupOpen GroupedObj.parent true
	(
		LayerOne = LayerManager.NewLayer()
		LayerOne.addnode Selection

Two of the three seperate parts of this code seem to work – running the part about opening all the groups in the selection works by itself and creating a new layer works by itself. The part about adding the selection to the new layer doesn’t work, but I’m not sure why.

Running it all at the same time gives me an error stating that “addnode is undefined” or “Unable to convert: $selection to type: <node>”

I figure your code should work, but I must still be missing something in there too. I don’t understand your code as clearly as what I’ve currently got (not because yours is confusing, but because my maxscript vocabulary is limited)