Something like Blender F2 addon for 3ds max?
Detailed explanation
Quad from vertex
When a single vertex is selected, a new quad is created by creating a new vertex. The position of this new vertex is calculated based on the three existing vertices. These are the selected vertex, and two vertices to which it is connected via open edges. An open edge is an edge which is only part of one face, or none at all. The newly created quad has the same material and normal direction as the neighbouring faces.
Quad from edge
Similar to the quad from vertex functionality, this is based on open edges. The selected edge has to be connected to two open edges. The vertices which belong to these edges are used to create a new quad.
Direction control
If there are multiple ways to create a new quad, the position of the mouse cursor is taken into account. Of the multiple new faces which are possible, the one which will be closest to the mouse cursor (in 2d screen-space) is the one which will be created.
I only know about the RappaTools bridge functionality and Rapid Tools Quick QCap but those are much more restricted/specific in their usage.
Replies
Edit: Check lower post for script.
I guess what i'm looking for going by the Blender modelling videos is a mix between regular shift+drag edge extruding and freeform strips. Something that takes into account the direction i'm moving towards with the mouse like the strips method but at the same time obeys to the angle and size of the quad that i'm extruding from. What's annoying about regular shift+drag extruding is that when i model a more organic shape i constantly have to adjust and rotate the newly created edge around corners. Strips doesn't work for that either because the new geometry is always completely flat unless "painted" onto an already existing mesh for retopo.
This guy uses the F2 like retopo tools kinda, except it seems to work flawless in mid air which could be a huge time safer for semi organic polygon modeling.
I know it's not exactly what you're after (you can't extrude edges without faces like in Blender, so I'm not sure how I'd implement the cursor-based functionality in Max ), but hopefully it helps
Edit: Script removed while I make a more fully featured version. pm me if interested.
The Quad from vertex script unfortunately gives me an error. Have tested it in max 14 and 15.
http://i.imgur.com/QnAUGJl.jpg
This one certainly would be the bigger time safer of the two and i haven't found anything like that for 3ds max yet.
I got to play around with Blender the last two days and what i definitely miss most in 3dsmax from what i've seen is the ability to extrude edges and pointing the new edge in a direction without having to tweak rotation afterwards. This isn't part of the Blender F2 addon but out of the box Blender tool. These things work really well in conjunction tho for this ornamental modelling as seen in the video above.
If you would script a proper plugin for all this functionality i'm sure ther's a market for it. I would be willing to pay for something like that for sure.
Quad From Vertex should work fine now, sorry about that. Just fyi, It works slow on Edit Poly modifiers atm (about a 1/3 second delay on my PC).
About writing a plugin for edge extrusions like in Blender; It would take quite a while to do since it would need to use a bunch of tricks to make sure it was compatible with Maxs existing toolset. You might want to check and see if Maiuu would be interested, seems right up his alley.
Thanks a lot !
If anyone still wants this script, I just uploaded a fixed up version that works for Max 2021 here: https://gumroad.com/l/xxwms