[Closed] Move ojbects in a group to a specified layer

You da’ Man!

I made a slight modification based on one of the other code strings (so that a new layer was created to avoid problems with putting everything in another ‘set of groups’ in the same layer if this script has to be run more than once in a scene)

ActiveSelection = #()
GroupedObj = #()
for s = 1 to ActiveSelection.count do (if isGroupMember Selection[s] then (append GroupedObj ActiveSelection[s]) else false)
for GroupedObj in Selection where isGroupMember GroupedObj AND (NOT isOpenGroupMember GroupedObj) do setGroupOpen GroupedObj.parent true
layer = LayerManager.NewLayer(); for node in selection do (layer.addNode node)

For some reason, the line breaks were causing problems as well, so removing the line break and just adding a ; seemed to make Max read it just fine.

Okay… I’m not sure if this will be biting off more than I can chew, but how would I go about replacing the bit where it says “LayerManager.NewLayer();” with something that would allow me to either select an existing layer from a list?

Ideally, I’d like to be able to have a list to select from with the option of creating a new layer as well, but if this is going to be a nightmare to figure out code for I may just stick with what I’ve got.

It looks like “listbox” may be my answer, but I can only find info on how to make the list box select an array of items from the scene. How do I get it to list the layers in the Layer Manager?

Edit:

Okay, now I have this;

ActiveSelection = #()
GroupedObj = #()
for s = 1 to ActiveSelection.count do (if isGroupMember Selection[s] then (append GroupedObj ActiveSelection[s]) else false)
for GroupedObj in Selection where isGroupMember GroupedObj AND (NOT isOpenGroupMember GroupedObj) do setGroupOpen GroupedObj.parent true
		PickLayer = (rollout DestLayer "Destination Layer"
			(
			dropdownlist Layers "Select Layer"
			on dropdownlist selected do LayerManager.getLayerName
			)
				createDialog DestLayer
		)
LayerOne = layermanager.getlayerfromname "PickLayer"
for node in selection do (layer.addNode node)

It creates an empty dropdown list at the moment. What am I doing wrong that is keeping it from populating the list with the layer names?
(by the way, thanks for the tip about Max’s script editor… that was the source of several issues)

alright, the code you put up does display a list of the active layers, but does not seem to dismiss the dialog for some reason (I looked up the destroyDialog topic in the help file and it looks like what you have there should have worked… so I’m scratching my head a bit there).

I tried adding in my code a piece at a time, and it seems like when I get the dialog, I make a selection, the dialog stays up and nothing else changes. I’m supposing that if the dialog can be sucessfully dismissed, it will complete the process and populate the layer selection with the selected objects (I hope).

Presumably, once I have that working could I add an ‘else’ clause that would give the option of adding a new layer? That may be too much, so if it is I’ll be happy with what I’ve got.

I think I’ll curl up into a ball then sit in the corner and cry for a few hours when this is all said and done… and have MaxScript nightmares for the next few years.

It seems like every time I get a piece of code to work, there’s another bit that is blowing up on me, and I’m so new to this stuff that I’m sure I’m just missing some really basic steps along the way.

Edited –
Here’s what I’ve got…

ActiveSelection = #()
GroupedObj = #()
for s = 1 to ActiveSelection.count do (if isGroupMember Selection[s] then (append GroupedObj ActiveSelection[s]) else false)
for GroupedObj in Selection where isGroupMember GroupedObj AND (NOT isOpenGroupMember GroupedObj) do setGroupOpen GroupedObj.parent true
layerList = #()
if (LayerManager.count > 0) then (for i = 0 to LayerManager.count - 1 do (append layerList (LayerManager.getLayer i).name
  )
)
selectedLayer = undefined
	(
	rollout DestinationLayer "Layers"
		(
		dropdownlist Layers "Select Layer" items:layerList
		on Layers selected index do
					(
 					local layerName = layerList[index]
					selectedLayer = (LayerManager.getLayerFromName layerName)
					)
		)
	)
createDialog DestinationLayer width:100 heigh:100 model:true;


--if (selectedLayer != undefined) then (for node in selection do (selectedLayer.addNode node))
--DestroyDialog DestinationLayer

--actionMan.executeAction 0 "40143"

This shows everything open and has a list of layers to select from. That means that whay I’ve messed up is the last part of the code here, right? What do I need in order to accept the selection from the user, close the dialog, and close the group?

Okay…a couple of quick things…

 (
 	rollout DestinationLayer "Layers"
 		(
 		dropdownlist Layers "Select Layer" items:layerList
 		on Layers selected index do
 					(
 					 local layerName = layerList[index]
 					selectedLayer = (LayerManager.getLayerFromName layerName)
 					)
 		)
 	)
 )

This isn’t going to work the way you appear to think it will…

The rollout clause is a “defination”, not a “script” per say (for the moment, you don’t need to understand)…You’ve also enclosed it within in it’s own context, which hides it from the rest of the script…not what you want…

createDialog DestinationLayer width:100 heigh:100 model:true;

This is wrong, sorry, my bad, it’s modal not model…

I still don’t understand why you feel the need to open the groups…I can do it without the need to.

If, however, you feel that you have to, collect the group head’s into an array and close them at the end of the script, don’t use the action manager, it is contextual…

This is the script I’ve been able to come up with. It works quite well on the sample scene you provided…try it as it stands…

 -- Used to specify the layer of choice...
 selectedLayer = undefined
 
 -- Define the rollout for later use...it's a special kind of function...but not a function...
 rollout DestLayer "Layers"
 (
 	dropdownlist Layers "Select Layer" items:layerList
 	on Layers selected index do (
 		 local layerName = layerList[index]
 		selectedLayer = (LayerManager.getLayerFromName layerName)
 		DestroyDialog DestLayer
 	)
 )
 
 -- Get a list of all the layers
 layerList = #()
 if (LayerManager.count > 0) then (
 for i = 0 to LayerManager.count - 1 do (
 	append layerList (LayerManager.getLayer i).name
   )
 )
 
 -- Create our modal dialog
 createDialog DestLayer width:100 heigh:100 modal:true
 
 -- If the user selected a layer, then move the objects
 if (selectedLayer != undefined) then
 	 
 		--Then comes the part of the script I expected to have move my objects to the chosen layer
 	(for node in selection do (selectedLayer.addNode node)
 	
 	
 ) else (
 --not sure what to put here
 -- Print nasty messages about the user...;)
 -- The user has failed to select a layer...do what ever you think you need to do...
 )
 

Shane

Excellent, it works! I had to swap two chunks of the code around (it gave a compile error if I didn’t define what the ‘layerlist’ was before doing the rollout), but it works great otherwise.

It may work differently if it’s processed in MaxScript rather than straight through Max itself (and not consistantly either), but we frequently find that when you try to assign a grouped selection with nested groups to a new layer, only portions of the selection will transfer to the new layer… some items stay put for some reason (hence the need to first open the groups). If the way things are processed when running that command as a script works differently, I’m all for it. I’ve got some more files to test it on first.