Mudbox 20xx to Max 2009 .obj bridge ?
grand marshal polycounter
Hello all,
My two primary 3D apps are Mudbox 2012 and 3DSMax 2009. As you may know, the 2012 Autodesk releases (Max, Maya, XSI, and Mudbox) have a common "bridge" feature linking the applications together so that one can pass data from one to the other easily.
Earlier on, Wayne Robson was providing a similar functionality with his Mudwalker tool but it is not supported anymore and is not available for Mud 2012 from what I can tell. And anyhow, it seemed a bit hit and miss and didn't do the simple export/import that I was after.
Here's the idea. Would there be a way to have a simple Mudbox action (using autohotkey maybe ?) performing the following :
-If no object is selected, do nothing ;
-If an object is selected, perform an "export selected" at the current subdivision level to a temporary obj file, on the desktop or a user-defined folder location for instance.
-bring up the 3DSMax window ; if not running already, start Max.
-perform a simple obj import on the temp .OBJ created earlier.
Obviously another action would do the opposite, sending stuff from Max to OBJ and Mudbox, as follows :
-If no object is selected, do nothing ;
-If an object is selected, perform an "export selected" at the current mesh to a temporary obj file.
-bring up the Mudbox window ; if not running already, start Mudbox.
-perform an import on the temp .OBJ created above
There might also be a need to distinguish "import" from "import as layer" so I think that two buttons/shortcuts are required on the Mudbox side.
I have the feeling that this would be doable using autohotkey. What do you guys think ? I am familiar with the principles behind autohotkey since I used a few .ahk scripts in the past, but this current problam is way above my head
Simply being able to export/import a temp.obj file from both apps (without the automatic focus switching) would be great already, I think. Other apps could easily be added too, like Zbrush, XSI, Modo, Silo - simply relying on a common .obj export script.
Now, one could argue that simply typing "qqwwougkgkgggg.obj" manually in the import and export dialogs of either application is good enough ... but I don't know, sometimes it just doesn't feel very natural and can break the flow of thing. For instance, some Zbrush users say that they like Zbrush better because they can do everything in it, without having to worry about exporting back and forth to other apps. I think this is a very valid point!
Thoughts ?
My two primary 3D apps are Mudbox 2012 and 3DSMax 2009. As you may know, the 2012 Autodesk releases (Max, Maya, XSI, and Mudbox) have a common "bridge" feature linking the applications together so that one can pass data from one to the other easily.
Earlier on, Wayne Robson was providing a similar functionality with his Mudwalker tool but it is not supported anymore and is not available for Mud 2012 from what I can tell. And anyhow, it seemed a bit hit and miss and didn't do the simple export/import that I was after.
Here's the idea. Would there be a way to have a simple Mudbox action (using autohotkey maybe ?) performing the following :
-If no object is selected, do nothing ;
-If an object is selected, perform an "export selected" at the current subdivision level to a temporary obj file, on the desktop or a user-defined folder location for instance.
-bring up the 3DSMax window ; if not running already, start Max.
-perform a simple obj import on the temp .OBJ created earlier.
Obviously another action would do the opposite, sending stuff from Max to OBJ and Mudbox, as follows :
-If no object is selected, do nothing ;
-If an object is selected, perform an "export selected" at the current mesh to a temporary obj file.
-bring up the Mudbox window ; if not running already, start Mudbox.
-perform an import on the temp .OBJ created above
There might also be a need to distinguish "import" from "import as layer" so I think that two buttons/shortcuts are required on the Mudbox side.
I have the feeling that this would be doable using autohotkey. What do you guys think ? I am familiar with the principles behind autohotkey since I used a few .ahk scripts in the past, but this current problam is way above my head
Simply being able to export/import a temp.obj file from both apps (without the automatic focus switching) would be great already, I think. Other apps could easily be added too, like Zbrush, XSI, Modo, Silo - simply relying on a common .obj export script.
Now, one could argue that simply typing "qqwwougkgkgggg.obj" manually in the import and export dialogs of either application is good enough ... but I don't know, sometimes it just doesn't feel very natural and can break the flow of thing. For instance, some Zbrush users say that they like Zbrush better because they can do everything in it, without having to worry about exporting back and forth to other apps. I think this is a very valid point!
Thoughts ?
Replies
Found the sdk:
http://download.autodesk.com/global/docs/mudboxsdk2012/en_us/index.html