Im in my final year at university and i want to do a maxscript for one of my projects. The only problem is it needs to be something that would be improved by being automated through a script or cannot currently be done through the UI.
Ive had a brief look through the forums and the maxscript challenges are giving me some good ideas, but they’re a little too small. Unfortunately its for a big project to accompany 15 000 words so it needs to be something with quite a bit of scope.
If anybody has any suggestions as to what projects i should look to do or any other places i can look for ideas, it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
A fully customisable toolbar!!
Basically, you need to be able to add macros (both installed and new) as well as maxscripts directly to a floater.
You could also add “common” commands…such as dos/windows commands if you were so inclinded…
You need to be able to group these “tools” into user definable groups (animation, modelling etc)
Shane
How’s your python? If i were doing a project like this, I’d work on some pipeline tools that integrate python with maxScript (check out the sticky thread here). That seems to be an wide open field.
Never looked at Python, but i wouldn’t rule it out as an option. When you say a pipeline tool, do you mean something like a project management tool? Something to track the file/objects and work flow?
As for the customisable toolbar im not sure my lecturer would allow it as a worthy project, mainly because all it would do is allow the user to do something that’s (mainly) already possible through the customize UI. Although i will suggest it as an option to see whether he thinks there’s some scope to it.
I had already suggested doing something which would allow the user to store render resolutions within the camera, instead of having to set it each time. But because this is achievable through the Batch Render system, he didn’t see the point.
Technically, yes, technically no…
You really can’t “catagorise” groups of buttons easily and you cann’t add plain “max script” either (you have to wrap it in a macro first) … I’ve already been working on it for 5 months
But the python idea is interesting…or any type of com bridge to bring max and another application together. You don’t have to write your own for example, you could write a wrapper (in maxscript) out to any com based app and generate some kinda workflow…just to broden the scope a little.
Shane
How about marking menus ala Maya. You could use all the GW drawing methods and mouseTools for tracking the mouse. Make that so it is all customizable. Make the final setup saved to an xml file for loading.
I’m just being selfish of course as this is what I wanted to do but don’t have the time.
That’s a good idea!! Added with your on screen display routines, this seems very doable…hmm, wonder if I have any time…NOT
I’ve never used Maya so could you give a bit of an explanation of what the marking menus are? And what do you mean by GW drawing methods and mouseTools? Sorry i’m a bit new to the programming side of things, i’m more grounded in the actual modelling area.
By this do you basically mean something which will spread the vertices out within the confines of the bounding box of the object?
I wonder if it would be better done with python. C++ would be even getting of course.
I don’t know about python, you’re still going to run into a bottleneck with the com bridage and max script itself.
A plugin would certainly be much faster and would be more capable of capturing any system events it needs (as well as producing the ui “outside” of max – rather then drawing on the viewport)
Shane
Curious, what problem would “plain max script” in a toolbar solve?
And categorising tool bar items could be done effectively by using multiple toolbars.
- No need to go through the “maxscript|run” process each time
- No need to wrap everything into a macroscript
These are the requirements laid down by my users
It seems your users don’t understand macroscripts The opposite is true. If you had ‘normal maxscripts’ that aren’t action items you would have to run them each time, or evaluate them in some way. Macros solve this problem. Also, macros can be assigned to hotkeys/quad menus. Regular maxscripts can’t.
You can just stick this script in a toolbar, and keep clicking on it, and “Hi!” will print each time. None of that Maxscript|Run nonsense.
macroscript Hello category:"Test"
(
print "Hi!"
)
In fact, even easier:
just type “print “Hi!”” in a maxscript window, and drag it onto your toolbar – instant macroscript!
All that you say is true, but you can’t catagorise the items…ie order them …
They also want a global/user settings, which can be achieved in any number of different ways, plus roaming and did i mention that they are lazy!?
You most definitely can order them Just drag the buttons where ever you want them to be.
They also want a global/user settings, which can be achieved in any number of different ways, plus roaming and did i mention that they are lazy!?
You can save toolbar sets, but perhaps there is a problem of granularity. I.e. you can’t save individual toolbars, it seems.
I guess if that is a big enough issue to warrant a toolbar rewrite, then so be it
Really?! I’ve not been able to get this to work…but then I’ve only tried half heartly…(ps – tried moving an existing button on one of toolbars to a different position, but it didn’t move…this is no big deal right now, as they won’t be able to do in my solution eaither ;)) – we also need to group icons into seperate groups…i’d like to be able to give out seperate “tool bars” based on work, but that just seems like more work then is required…
But, everything you have said is also valid…it just doesn’t quite meet the requirements of this group of users…yet
Shane
ps – Did I mention I need to make it work across versions ?? Don’t get me started there XP