hi,
i’m looking to improve my modelling workflow a bit and am wondering if it’s possible to use maxscript to show a heads up display in the viewport if certain modifiers in the stack are selected (editable poly object & edit poly mod in this case).
what i want it to do is read out the status of certain functions from the rollout and display if they are toggled or not directly in the view.
reason for that is that it just takes a bit to look up in the UI which coordinate system i’m in, if there are any constraints active, the soft selection status and so on, especially when i’m using expert mode like i prefer to do most of the time. see below for a picture to explain my point.
i suppose this must be possible using maxscript, however my forum and web-searches haven’t turned up much. are there any scripts/frameworks out there i could use as a starting point? perhaps this stuff has even been done before? i’d like to get an implementation up and running that works in a performance-sensible way, nothing over-engineered that has loads of gimmicks and want’s to make coffee.
and it’s meant as purely a status display, not as clickable icons (wich would get in the way when modelling).
thanks!
It’s possible. One of Bobo’s CD’s covers some of what you are looking to do.
That was the recording of the Siggraph 2005 Master Class “MAXScript Secrets Revealed” to be precise. It used the GW methods described in the “Viewport Drawing Methods” topic – check them out.
Shameless Plug:
This year’s Siggraph Master Class I just finished preparing will cover MUCH BETTER WAYS to do this and more. Autodesk does record those so it is most probably be available to Subscription members for free later this year.
thanks for the pointers! i’ve played around a bit with the gw.* functions but so far it’s a little problematic, i take it these do not work so well in direct-3D viewports?