[Closed] Maxscript and Editable Poly

I’m afraid this is out side my area of experience, but you might be able to walk the faces somehow and calculate, based on the position of the vertices where you are…but I just know that there has to be an eaiser way…

#2>I plan to use the polyops.detach but it brings up a naming diolouge for each detach. Can I define the name of the new object from the detach in my script and stifle the diolouge?
For this I know of a rather sneaky solution…

If you are using max 9+, you should look at the UIAccessor interface and the DialogMonitorOPS interface. They should allow you to “automate” response to a dialog request.

I know I’ve had problems with spline detachment or simular in the pass and couldn’t find a solution…till now…

Shane

I can’t really provide you with a solution to this but can lead you down a path for a possible solution.

Maybe cycle through the polygons of the editable poly and use polyop.getFaceNormal to get the vector of the polygon’s normal and figure out a way to determine a threshold to determind what is considered “top view”. Maybe something as simple as if Z is the dominant axis in the vector.

Hope that helps!

Thank you Mathieson, I will try that. I see your thought process. I will post if it works

i have no experience with games … so excuse me if i’m out of topic here

for the no 1 “selecting the faces “

if i get it right , you can simply create a cube “with the dimentions you need and make a control for its pos ” then run a boolean operation to see what exactly it intersects
if the boolean is true … there is intersection —> append the result into array
then select the elements of the array

i’ve done a similar procedure before for a friend working in games , to test what objects are lit by what lights

Ok, I use polyop.getFaceCenter $ 1 as getFaceNormal equals the same for all faces. It returns LocalCoordinates of the face [-23,35,0] so I can select any face which is with a specified XY location and then use polyop.detachFaces with a name: option to name the new node. I do see the face numbers change after a selection is detached but it should not matter if I select faces within a certain XY.

Now I simply have to read up on how to read and manipulate Local Coordinates and it should just be a job of logic to create the script.

EDIT->ok, duh. you simply add an .x .y or .z to the variable. I feel dumb for even writing the above statement. I have been coding PHP for 2 years and am just coming back to MaxScript so I am back a few steps.

Thank You for your help.

faces = polyOp.getFaceSelection $Plane01

This should work, it works in the listener window but not in my script! What am I doing wrong?

It gives me the error…

– Syntax error: at =, expected name
– In line: faces = polyOp.getFaceSelection $Plane01

I am unsure what this means.

Here is my Code (don’t laugh)
rollout levelSplitFloat “Level Splitter” width:300 height:60
(
button split “Split the Level” pos:[26,94] width:169 height:43 toolTip:“Split the Level – GO!”
label lbl1 “Evil Tiger Demo Level Splitter” pos:[37,17] width:167 height:24
editText edt1 “” pos:[80,55] width:0 height:0
editText startX “” pos:[51,52] width:128 height:28
on split pressed do
faceArray = “#{”

faces = polyOp.getFaceSelection $Plane01
faceCount = faces.count
for i = 1 to facecount do

(

loc = polyop.getFaceCenter $ i

faceNum = i as string

print "face #:" + faceNum

print loc

if loc.x<0 then

   (

   if loc.y < 0 then (addTo = 1)else(addTo = 0)

   )

   else(addTo = 0)

if addTo == 1 then (join faceArray i)

)



polyop.setFaceSelection $ faces

)

)
– create the rollout window and add the rollout
if levelSplitFloat != undefined do
(
closerolloutfloater stlimportFloater
)
CreateDialog levelSplit width:300 height:60

You just have some formatting errors and typos. Try the following code, it should work:

global levelSplitFloat
try (destroyDialog levelSplitFloat)catch()
rollout levelSplitFloat "Level Splitter" width:300 height:60
(
	button split "Split the Level" pos:[26,94] width:169 height:43 toolTip:"Split the Level - GO!"
	label lbl1 "Evil Tiger Demo Level Splitter" pos:[37,17] width:167 height:24
	editText edt1 "" pos:[80,55] width:0 height:0
	editText startX "" pos:[51,52] width:128 height:28
	
	on split pressed do
	(
		faceArray = "#{"
		faces = polyOp.getFaceSelection $Plane01
		faceCount = faces.count
		for i = 1 to facecount do
		(
		
			loc = polyop.getFaceCenter $ i
			faceNum = i as string
			print "face #:" + faceNum
			print loc
			if loc.x<0 then
			(
				if loc.y < 0 then (addTo = 1)else(addTo = 0)
			)
			else(addTo = 0)
			if addTo == 1 then (join faceArray i)
		)
		polyop.setFaceSelection $ faces
	)
)
-- create the rollout window and add the rollout
--if levelSplitFloat != undefined do
--(
--closerolloutfloater stlimportFloater
--)
CreateDialog levelSplitFloat width:240 height:150

I tried you code, and it does not give me the error I was getting before but now it will not put i into an array.

I am appending faceArray each time it finds a face within the tollerence (I think) but when it comes to the face selection, it says the array is undefined.

Or more specifically…
>> MAXScript Rollout Handler Exception: – Runtime error: Cannot convert value to bitArray: undefined <<

Here is the slightly modified code…
on split pressed do
(

    faces = polyOp.getFaceSelection $Plane01
    for i = 1 to faces.count do
    (
    
        faceArray = #{}
        print faceArray
        loc = polyop.getFaceCenter $ i
        faceNum = i as string
        print i
        print loc
        if loc.x<0 then
            (
            print "x is < 0"
            if loc.y < 0 then
                (
                print "y is < 0"
                addTo = 1
                )
                else(
                    addTo = 0)
                    )
            
        else(addTo = 0)
        
        if addTo == 1 then (append faceArray i)
    )
    [color=Red]polyop.setFaceSelection $ faceArray
)

[/color]

This code appends the faces appropriately:

global levelSplitFloat
try (destroyDialog levelSplitFloat)catch()
rollout levelSplitFloat "Level Splitter"
(
	button split "Split the Level" width:169 height:43 toolTip:"Split the Level - GO!"
	on split pressed do
	(
		sel = selection[1]
		if (classof sel == Editable_Poly) then
		(
			faceArray = #()
			faces = polyOp.getFaceSelection sel
			for i = 1 to faces.count do
			(
				loc = polyop.getFaceCenter sel i
				if loc.x<0 and loc.y<0 then (append faceArray i)
			)
			polyop.setFaceSelection sel faceArray
			completeredraw()
		)else (messageBox "selection must be an Editable Poly")
	)
)
CreateDialog levelSplitFloat width:200 height:60