[3DS Max] Persistent settings for Edit Poly modifier?

WarrenM

Is there an easy way in Max to set up Edit Poly and it's various tools (extrude, bevel, etc) with the settings I want to use by default and have it remember those between sessions? Or is this "write a script" time?

monster

Sorry not for edit poly. You'll need a script.

There's a bunch of INI files in: C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Autodesk\3dsMax\2014 - 64bit\

You can open them up and change some defaults around.

acitone

Guess I'll use this post to ask - is there a way to copy and paste an Edit Poly modifier across a bunch of copies of a mesh? Like in the case of making morph targets - you apply an Edit Poly on your mesh, adjust some things around, and want it copied to your morph targets.

stabbington

You can right click on any modifier to copy it and right click to paste into any selected object(s) stack. You can even instance the modifiers!

acitone

Yeah but you can only do it on one object right? It never allows me to paste to more than one object. Would save some good time if it did allow pasting to a bunch of selected objects.

stabbington

I think you can make it work by doing the following ;

- group all your objects apart from the one you want to copy the modifiers from
- select the object with the modifiers you want to copy
- ctrl+click and drag the modifier name in the stack and drag it onto one of the group members
- this will now instance the modifiers to the group
- ungroup the grouped objects and the instanced mods will now be passed down to each objects stack

stabbington

But yeah, I agree - would be better if paste just worked on mulit-selects, innit

monster

Here's a script that can help. Just select the object with the modifier you want to copy, then select all the targets, and then run the macro.

To install drag and drop it into the viewport, then look in the monsterBlues category to bind it to a hotkey.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2904948/MaxScript/Martinez_Macro_PasteModifierInstance.mcr

miauu

Copy - Paste the Edit Poly modifier most of the times not work properly.
monster do this:
- create a box
- clone it several times(copy not instance)
- select one of the box
- add Edit Poly modifier
- select one of faces and extrude several times
- now add to selection other boxes
- run the script
- all other objects will have Edit Poly modifier applied, but their geometry will not be changed.

This is the well known problem(Edit Poly modifier copy-paste through maxscript).

Using mouse to drag the Edit Poly modifier from source object and paste it to the target object works properly.
Rignt click over Edit Poly mod in the stack and then pressing Copy, then select the target object, right click in its modifier stack and pressing Paste also works.
But with maxscript this is not possible.

monster

That's good to know Miauu. I usually use it to instance my Attribute Holder modifiers. I didn't actually test it with a Edit Poly mod. Thought it would just work.

acitone

stabbington wrote: »

I think you can make it work by doing the following ;

- group all your objects apart from the one you want to copy the modifiers from
- select the object with the modifiers you want to copy
- ctrl+click and drag the modifier name in the stack and drag it onto one of the group members
- this will now instance the modifiers to the group
- ungroup the grouped objects and the instanced mods will now be passed down to each objects stack

Still doesn't work.

You're probably assuming Edit Poly will work since other modifiers like Bend work instanced across multiple objects.

When you copy and paste an Edit Poly modifier and paste it onto one object, it will work and also include whatever edits you've made in the modifier.

However it doesn't work if you paste it as an instanced modifier. It will paste of course but won't register any changes to the mesh whether they were made before or after the paste. An appropriate script may be the only answer.


edit
miauu, what you're talking about is exactly what I mean, thanks for providing the perfect example. But the thing is whether you right-click and copy or use the mouse-drag method, you can still only paste to one object at a time. So it doesn't really help if you're working on morph targets for example, and have to edit your mesh, which must then be applied to the rest of the morph targets.

If you're working on a bunch of chairs, columns in a building, or something relative to environmental or inanimate objects you can just instance the same object and whatever you do will always be instanced to the other copies, but in the case of morph targets, where each copy of the mesh must be different, and therefore CAN'T be instanced, this is a real problem and time consuming to have to paste the Edit Poly modifier one-at-a-time, especially when you have over a hundred or so morphs to work with. But hey, whatever. I guess it's best to just not make any edits to your mesh and be done when you're done