[Closed] Newbie With Animation Questions

Real quick, I can help you with 1 and 4.

1. box wirecolor:green

2. macros.run “macroCategory” “macroName”

Thanks for the help so far. Your answer for number 4 does bring up a little question though: the syntax I tried using for loading a macro script is somewhere along the lines of

   macros.load "absolute_path_of_script"
   

(based on what I saw in the MXS Reference), although that doesn’t seem to work. I also tried using the absolute path of the script’s parent directory, but that doesn’t do anything. I verified these results by checking the “Customize User Interface” dialog after executing this line of code; the script didn’t appear under the category that I specified in the macro script definition. Am I way off, perhaps?

I started trying to create my own script to create the dialog box needed to input values for the simulation to start, and I have run into a number of problems. I don’t think that the MXS Listener’s built-in debugger is that intuitive, as it doesn’t tell me what line that run-time errors show up on…if there’s any cure for that, I’d be glad if someone let me know.

 Anyway, the code should be simple and straightforward, so if anyone has the time to take a look at it and help me debug it, I'd really appreciate it.  I'm using 3dsMAX version 7, by the way...sorry for not stating that in my first post.

     rollout sim_options "Simulation Options"
     (
     	spinner plants "Plants" range:[1,3,1] type:#integer
     	spinner herbivores "Herbivores" range:[1,3,1] type:#integer
     	spinner carnivores "Carnivores" range:[1,3,1] type:#integer
     	
     	spinner years "Simulation Length (years)" range:[10,10000,100] type:#integer
     	spinner time "Time per Year (seconds)" range:[1,10,6] type:#integer
     	
     	label note "Note: Animation speed is 20fps"
     	
     	button start "Start Simulation"
     		
     		on start pressed do
     		(
     				
     			array_Plant = #()
     			array_Carnivore = #()
     			array_Herbivore = #()
     			array_XPos = #()
     			array_YPos = #()
     		
     			range_end = years.value * time.value * 20 - 1
     			animationRange = interval 0 range_end
     			
     			for i = 1 to (plants.value + herbivores.value + carnivores.value) do
     				(
     					array_Xpos[i] = random -250	250
     					array_Ypos[i] = random -250	250
     				)
     			
     			for i = 1 to (plants.value + herbivores.value + carnivores.value) do
     			(	
     				for j = 1 to plants.value do
     				(
     					a = random 10 20
     					  ("Plant" + (j as string)) as name = sphere radius:a pos[array_Xpos[i],array_Ypos[i],0]
     				)
     				
     				for j = 1 to herbivores.value do
     				(
     					a = random 20 40
     					  ("Herbivore" + (j as string)) as name	= box length:a width:a height:a pos[array_Xpos[i],array_Ypos[i],0]
     				)
     				
     				for j = 1 to carnivores.value do
     				(
     					a = random 20 40
     					  ("Carnivore" + (j as string)) as name = pyramid length:a width:a height:a*1.5 pos[array_Xpos[i],array_Ypos[i],0]
      pos[array_Xpos[i],array_Ypos[i],0]
     				)
     			)
     		)
     )
     CreateDialog sim_options width:245 height:155
     

 A general break-down of what I want to do: A dialog box shows up with 5 spinners and a button.  A user selects how many of each of the three types of organisms he/she wants in the simulation, how many years to run the simulation for, and how a "year" translates into seconds of animation time.  After pressing the button, all that this code should do is create a number of each organism per user specification, create a number of random positions for the organisms to be situated in at the start, and then place them.
 
 I tried running this script and got a couple of errors, but I'm not sure what they are or why they're happening.  The following code window is what came up in the MXS Listener:

    -- Error occurred in j loop
    --  Frame:
    --   j: 1
    --   pos: undefined
    --   called in i loop
    --  Frame:
    --   i: 1
    --   called in start.pressed()
    --  Frame:
    >> MAXScript Rollout Handler Exception: -- No ""="" function for (%"coerce"() (%"+"() "Plant" (%"coerce"() Local:j Global:String)) Global:name) <<
     

I kind of think I narrowed this down to the way I tried naming the form.  I tried converting the value of the loop index into a string, then concatenate it with another string, and then convert the new string to a Name.  I think that is what caused the error, but like I said, I can't really decipher the error messages that well yet.  I also can't immediately think of another way to dynamically create variable names, so if you can see what I'm trying to do and can think of another way to do it, that would be great.  Later on, when I figure this out, I'll also be placing each on of the names into a corresponding array, just in case you're wondering why I have defined 3 empty arrays and haven't done anything with them.

Thanks again.

Number 6: Do you not need to just set a key at frame 50 with the same settings as frame 0 for the skew modifier?

You can use:

fileIn "scriptPath"

to run a script.

Thanks. The function you suggested does exactly what I wanted.

I hate to be a nag, but I still haven’t the slightest clue about how to set keys in MXS. I don’t know how to assign a key to a certain time, a certain object, or what a controller is. I’ve been making attempts at finding tutorials online and experimenting with what I can find in the MXS reference, but I keep coming up short.

Can anyone at least give me an overview on how to animate in MAXScript, or at least point me to a tutorial of some kind? This is an integral part of my project, and I’m in danger of having to abandon it.