Max : Turn off sequential numbering when duplicating

WarrenM

Is there an easy way to stop Max from adding 001, 002, etc to duplicates of things? I'd really like it to just copy the name and leave it alone.

monster

I don't know of any built in way, but you can use this script:

macroScript CloneKeepName
category:"monsterBlues"
toolTip:"Clone Keep Name"
buttonText:"Clone"
(
	newNodes = for obj in selection collect (copy obj name:obj.name)
	select newNodes
)

WarrenM

Thanks for the reply ... I guess I'll use your script as a base and dive in one day when I get a chance. Weird that they don't support that. Max handles duplicate names perfectly fine...

Mrfred

Yeah but imo max is stupid to tolerate that.... It shouldnt be a feature

monster

Mrfred wrote: »

Yeah but imo max is stupid to tolerate that.... It shouldnt be a feature

Well, as an animator, it's very handy when you need to create an animation that has several character's interacting. Like a real time cinematic. Otherwise you'd need to rename every rig before you export an animation.

Well, in Maya you just rename the root, but I still appreciate the "feature".

Mrfred

It might be handy for cinematic purpose but not for gaming

MaD

Doesn`t really fix your issue, but you can always rename all selected objects at once by using tools ->rename objects.

WarrenM

Thanks, that's what I've been doing. It's just a sucky extra step that I wish I didn't have to take.

McGreed

I personally find it to be a very bad idea to have the same name for multiple objects. I only have the first/original object with no numbers, and the rest with numbers, so I always know which object is which, and less mistakes with changing the wrong one.

WarrenM

Great. I have circumstances where having the same name on everything is desirable. It should be an option since Max has no problem with duplicate names. That's all.

McGreed

True, I guess you could create a callback function in maxscript which removes numbers after your object name on creation automatically.

WarrenM

That's interesting ... I didn't know MaxScript had callbacks. I'll look into that, thanks!

Mark Dygert

Mrfred wrote: »

Yeah but imo max is stupid to tolerate that.... It shouldnt be a feature

Each object has a unique ID number, the name is just a property that YOU see. Max sees "object 345678" Which happens to be a box with a property called "Box001".

You can have two objects with the same name property just like you can have a box with identical height parameters. You don't have to worry about max mixing things up. If you don't want to use identical names, don't, if you do, great have at it. But at least it's your choice to work how you like rather than being forced to only work one way.

Before they implemented the ID system, you could crash max fairly easily by getting two objects in your scene with identical names. They had a pretty robust system of checks to try to keep it from happening but there where still plenty of ways you could get it to happen and cause crashes. It didn't go away until they switched over to the unique ID system.

I agree with Warren, there should be a way to disable the naming inside of max. Like how you can disable "apply random wire colors" to new objects that get created. As a user I would rather have the option, rather than be forced to only work one way.