Does anyone know of a script that can keep track of the time you work on a file similiar to the way autocad keeps track of editing time for each file?
This would be a great help for us freelancers.
I ‘ve seen bobo’s script but it is a general time keeper not for individual files within max.
Tony
I actually have a script that does just that. I haven’t really felt it was ready for prime time yet, mainly because there are a few features I want to implement still. But if you’d like to act as a beta tester for me I’ll send it to you.
There’s something similar on visualboo’s site too. Although it’s a stand alone program (if I remember correctly). I’ve used it to keep track of projects for a couple of jobs.
Hey Fat,
The script is working great! I think the best improvement to the script right now would be a place for short notes on the project.
Tony
I’m glad you like it Tony. I’ll look into added a place for notes. What kind of notes would you like to keep track of? I was also thinking of adding the option of creating different categories to keep track of, like modeling, texturing, animating, lighting, etc… Would that be helpful?
I’ll just post a link to it here for anyone that wants to try it. Just let me know what you think and any improvements you’d like to see.
Basically what it does is keep track of the total amount of time you’ve spent working on one file. It doesn’t matter if you save that file as a different name or take it to another computer to work on, as long as this script is running on both computers. It saves all the time info in the file’s properties.
This is how it works… put the script in the Scripts/Startup folder of Max. Go to the Utilities panel, click on MAXScript, and select Time Tracker from the dropdown list. Then click on “Track this file” to start tracking the time. Now whenever you open that file a box will pop up telling you that the file is being tracked, the time spent so far, and the date it was last opened. The “Show Time” buttons will let you see how much time has been spent so far at any time, and the “Pause” button will let you pause the tracker while you go to lunch or whatever. Just click it again to end the pause.
Some things I’d like to add… Take it out of the Utility tab and put in on the top toolbar. Offer the options of turning off the popup box when you open a file, and “cleaning up” the file by removing all the time information in the properties. Maybe showing the total time on the toolbar so it’s always visible while you work. If you can think of anything you’d like let me know.
If you ever want to manually disable it, just go into the File Properties > Custom tab, and change the Tracking value to No.
I’ve updated my Time Tracker script and put it on my website for anyone who’s interested.