Hi Joel, I’ve just tested the download for IC.Shape and works fine. You can get it here under Download section clicking on the button with the diamond.
The system I used for IC.Shape 2.0 is based on the graphic functions provided by the SimpleManipulator Plugin. As a matter of fact when instruments requiring screen drawing are started, the Manipulate Mode is activated and restored to the previous state when the instruments are stopped. It is a bit complicated to describe each step, but the whole graphic made by two blocks, one is the SimpleManipulator plugin, used only to draw, and the other one is a sort of “graphic parser” which holds all the function to arrange graphic data to be passed to the SimpleManipulator plugin. It works like a printer parser. The “printer” is turned on and is ready to print (the System enters the Manipulate Mode), the parser gets data to print and arrange it in sort of “printing jobs” and sends it to the printer, when everything that needs to be printed in a single pass is ready, the SimpleManipulator does the “drawing pass”, and keeps doing it every time the viewport is refreshed, until the Manipulate Mode is switched off.
I know it sounds a little bit obscure, but the only way to make it understandable is to write down some code, and I’d need to strip it from IC.Shape and rebuild it to make it work as standalone. Anyway, everything I said can be equally achieved using gw drawing functions. You can find a working example under section “Editable Poly data from underlying Mesh” in MaxScript page of IllusionCatalyst website. It is a bit fragmented and should be rewritten in a single block of code, but you should be able to make it work by evaluating all the functions.
Hey, I’m going to need to take a short break from working on this script, maybe a couple of weeks, so I can focus on another one. Even though I haven’t had a chance to try out all of your advice yet, I wanted to say thanks for the tips. I’ll be sure to keep you up to date on my progress as it moves along.
From what I’ve seen at the IC site, it looks like we have some similar ideas. Clearly you have more experience with this sort of work than I do, as well as a significant head start with your projects, so I doubt I’ll catch up with you any time soon. At any rate, while I think your code posted on the MaxScript page will be very helpful to me, I think our end goals are different enough that it’s worthwhile for me to continue developing my project. Maybe one day, when I’m a bit further along, you will see something in my work that will give you an idea or two for your own.
I’m sorry to hear about the people who copied and pasted your work into their own code without permission or giving credit. Since I’m primarily an artist, not a programmer, and my implementation tends to lag behind my ideas, I often find myself relying heavily on the work of others who have come before me. You’ll see a lot of what I have written so far borrows from scripts posted on these forums by various MaxScript experts, but I am always sure to attribute functions or other code snippets to their original creators!
At any rate, feel free to continue the discussion without me until I get back!