Sick of the default ‘Select By Name’ modal* dialog (*when your in it you can’t do anything else but what’s in that dialog)? Then try this script I’ve written:
Description:
This script will create a rollout very similar to the default “Select By Name” tool however with a few key features:
- Non-Modal – so it can be left open and will update/sync with the selection.
- Added Hide, Freeze and Delete to the rollout
Installation:
It’s just a macroscript so add it to <your max dir>\UI\Macroscripts\ and run max.
Versions:
So far I’ve only tested it with Max 7.
Let me know what you think or if anyone has any problems.
Sorry guys, it seems I had a scope issue relating to converting this to a macroscript so anyone who has downloaded it should try again. I’ve fixed the issue and it wont crash max anymore!
I’ll have to try that one out. Is there a way to select by name among things that are hidden? That would be a lifesaver for me, since I have many-layered projects, and turning them all on to find stuff is a royal pain. That would let me manage stuff on layers without having everything un-hidden.
I actually planned to do this for frozen and hidden objects (switch mode) or have them indicated somehow. It’s planned for the next version (next couple of days).
Do that and you’re on my Christmas card list. Glad there are gurus who know more scripting than I do.
Added a major feature to be able to switch between normal/hidden/frozen object modes. You are also able to unhide/unfreeze objects when in each respective mode.
Check it out let me how it goes.
This is sooooo sweet. It will save me HEAPS of time!
One tiny request if you’ve got time… can you make it resizable? I have no idea if that’s a major pain or not… my maxscripting is limited to small functions for ease of process.
I love the fact that you actually EDIT frozen and hidden objects… the zoom extents doesn’t work for hidden objects, but I guess that kinda makes sense!
I have a few suggestions.
[ul]
[li]Try using spaces instead of the “–|” to show Subtrees, I think it’ll look a little neater. [/li][li]Add dialog scaling functionality. [/li][li]Add docking functionality. [/li][li]Instead of the normal/hidden/frozen buttons being abolute, perhaps they should be filters, like Geometry, Shapes, Lights, etc. [/li][/ul] Just my 2 cents.
[ul]
[li]Try using spaces instead of the “–|” to show Subtrees, I think it’ll look a little neater.[/li][/ul]Added an updated.
[ul]
[li]Add dialog scaling functionality.[/li][/ul]This is kinda hard with the way the multiListbox works. I’d need to change the rollout to use an embedded activex control of some sort to make it scale. Needless to say I should probably use a list control at some point anyway but I’ll hold off on this for a little while.
[ul]
[li]Add docking functionality.[/li][/ul]This could be done however without the scalability it’s going to take up a fair amount of screen real-estate. This will come with scaling.
[ul]
[li]Instead of the normal/hidden/frozen buttons being abolute, perhaps they should be filters, like Geometry, Shapes, Lights, etc.[/li][/ul]I thought of this too however the major problem is I want to ‘identify’ hidden and frozen objects within the list. I could append a (hid) and (froz) after each object but this will get messy. I have no way of changing the color of the text in the multi list box so I’d probably look at what activeX controller I could use that would let me do this better. I’m not happy with the [] for groups and {} for xrefs either but for now that’s what’s there… maybe a () for hidden and a <> for frozen?
Does anyone else have any other suggestions? I’m interested to hear back. I also would like to know if the updating of the list is sufficient? If you find that you would like it to refresh when you do ‘a specific action’ then let me know and I can put it in. I might end up putting in a settings panel that’s associated with the update callbacks.