MAXScriptManager
polycounter lvl 14
[img2=center]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3715555/MSM.jpg[/img2]
![http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3715555/MSM.jpg[/img2]](http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3715555/MSM.jpg[/img2]){kind=link}
MAXScriptManager is a 3dsMax script that will will help users and developers get/push their scripts easily. It will hopefully streamline the process of downloading, updating and installing scripts.
I've been working on this for quite a while, but only recently have I had to focus on it. The script is not released yet, since I still need to do finish some stuff and create installers, I'm however eager to push this out the door as soon as possible.
I'm going to leave two videos here for now and a list of features:
- Install scripts packed in MZP files by just double clicking on them from Windows Explorer.
- Right click mzp, ms, mse and mcr files to get additional options such as installing script with a specific 3dsMax version. (MSM will need to be installed in the other versions as well)
- Manage installed scripts.
- Browse repositories for scripts.
(Developers or websites such as ScriptSpot will have to create these repositories. Essentially they are just a text file with all necessary information such as download links to the scripts, version number and so on. I will create a tool myself in order to quickly create a repository and add and delete files.) - Directly contact script authors from MAXScriptManager, Follow them on Twitter, share the script through Facebook, visit their website and even donate!
- Automatic update check on 3dsMax startup.
- Option to automatically apply updates if found.
- View script changelists.
- When installing ms, mse or mcr files a button will be automatically added to the MainToolbar. (No need to hunt the script down under the Customize User Interface window
) - MagicClipboard (More on this later)
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3WSjnzydQA[/ame][ame]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKRJbJMb1VM[/ame]Now the more "technical" stuff for you developers out there:
As you may now, the whole script installing thing is a pain in the ass for developers and users. Here are just a couple of problems I have identified and I believe I'm tackling with this script.
- Users getting MZP files and not knowing what to do with them.
- Sometimes MZP files are renamed to ZIP files.
- Users not knowing if an update is available for their scripts. They either find themselves hunting down updates in forums or just sticking with a very old version.
- Users don't know exactly how to contact authors in order to report bugs. Developers don't get enough information, such as 3dsMax version, windows version and so on.
- Statistics for developers. (I will add this later on)
- Users don't know how to uninstall a script.
- Users don't know how or where to find your script in order to add it to the toolbar.
I have tackled all of these problems, but some of them require your scripts to be packed in MZP files as well as proper install / uninstall scripts.
In order for your script to benefit from MAXScriptManager's features you will need to have a repository and some lines of code added to your install / uninstall scripts. Do not worry, your script will install and work just fine even if MSM is not installed on the users PC.
I will provide proper documentation for you guys once I release it.
Until then, I'd appreciate some feedback, ideas and suggestions. Personally I believe it has a lot of potential and there a lot of exciting features that could make this even better
Replies
I was thinking maybe an export/import scripts pack could be useful, to export non-native script to a fresh install/ a co-worker pc....
And nice UI !
Have you thought about working with Tech-Artists.Org to integrate into their system? http://tech-artists.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=27
Kind of slow going there, but might kick-start something, plus give you access to scripting pros for testing and validation.
Thanks! As a matter of fact I already had that feature implemented, but I had to drop it since I rewrote the script too many times. But that feature is definitely in my to-do list.
And I'm glad you like the UI, it also went through a lot of iterations. It's actually inspired by the new 3dsMax 2012 graphite tools
Thanks Eric! I've actually been in touch with a couple maxscript developers, (RTTAssist, TexTools, ToTex and so on). And they have given me a lot of great feedback! That forum seems pretty dead, though.
But I will definitely start posting about MSM in other forums, just to get the discussion going. Unfortunately it's more of a "feature" that interests developers right now rather than "the average artist". But I'm sure they will understand the potential it has once they see other scripts taking advantage of it.
The Outliner tool that I developed basically has all base functionality (one-click installer/uninstaller, automatic updates, statistics, the lot). It'd just be a matter of generalizing it and opening it up for other developers.
I don't know how far along you are with this project, but if you are interested in something like a collaboration, let me know.
I'll be releasing it next week if everything goes well
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Like i said,i´m loving it and can´t wair for the release
Can't wait to try it out and start using it.
you are planning the admin version we were talking about it
will turn out to be a quite good feature.
Cheers!
Say does it support command line options?
We do have an automated updater in place which downloads scripts and other software from a depot and then installs them via a batch script. Automatically pushing mzp files via this would be extremely awesome.
Yes absolutely! MaxScriptManager comes with an exe. You can specify through the command line which version of 3dsMax to install it on and the location of the script.
Although as CodeFather said, I plan on creating a specific feature in order to push updates or script installs through a network.
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Thanks man!
I have a new exciting feature to show. ScriptSpot integration!
If the user provides a ScriptSpot page when installing the script, MaxScriptManager will be able to check for updates without the script needing a repository!
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haha There you go! It's out! Go go go!
http://norman3d.com/MaxScriptManager/
And really nice to see it´s not encrypted, i hope people can learn from it.
that makes it just twice as awesome! :thumbup:
Ha ha I also like the concepts of guidance are used on the website very similar to TexTools (animated gif, single page, heaps of illustrative images,...). I wish more people would push some effort into ease of read/ guidance or usability of their UI's and documentations/ websites. I mean just looking at the website already scares me less to try it out because its not bloated and explains first with images after that with contextual texts. Nice job!
Yes exactly! I hope you don't mind that I bascially used your site as a template,haha. It's just that, it's exactly what you are saying, your TexTools site is readable, understandable, it's exactly what every script site needs imo.
And a simple thing as the animated gif is a must! When working on GoMax I got plenty of emails asking me just how to install the script.
But I won't need the gif in future scripts, hopefully everybody will have MaxScriptManager installed by then :P
Haha, you noticed! :P
Precisely! At first I wanted to encrypt it, so I had more time to polish it and then release it un-encrypted. But it would have made the task of finding bugs harder.
But yes, I'm all for unencrypted scripts. There are a couple of functions that might be interesting. But what I'm most proud of is the idea and the design of the script, which can't be encrypted... so... :P
And please you should also check out the "About" window! There are a ton of credits there, pointing to various code snippets and artwork by some very talented people.
Heh, no problem
haha yeah. :poly136: Was typing fast and its 8am in the morning. Gonna take a look at the code later in the day.
Under settings you have a big red "Uninstall" button.
can you help me please?
Sure, I've pm'ed you my email so we can resolve this issue faster
Anyway to change a script informations (name/author, etc...) afterwards ?
I mean, without editing the .ini manually ^^
It seems the maxscript manager is desactivating the listener (max 2010 32 bit here) ! It is very annoying.
I have the same issue, can you please help me resolve it?
Not currently, but it would make sense to add in the future versions.
Are you sure it's MaxScriptManager? I know some scripts can cause the listener to deactivate, but so far no one has reported this issue. And I can't reproduce it myself.
Try running 3dsMax as admin and let me know if it fixes the issue.
That fixed the issue.:) What could be the problem?
you are probably working in a restricted work space, probably at work. You have not been granted total admin rights, so you need to run 3dsMax as admin in order for MaxScriptManager to install properly. It requires access to the registry in order to associate the MZP filetype to MaxScriptManager.
I'm not at work, but your right about the admin rights.:)
Thanks for the quick help.
a couple of notes:
- upon installing a script, an extra text box for adding your own notes would be nice. i have lots of scripts that i've just copy/pasted from forums or whatever, and after half a year, i rarely even remember what they're for or even how to use them exactly.
- shell integration with .mzp works fine, .ms i could not get to work (they were linked to notepad before, now just opening with maxscriptmanager.exe throws an error)
Ah that's a nice idea! I'll put it in my to do list. Hopefully I'll find time soon to get working on the next version!
Could you PM me the error message?
the error message is as follows (hope it's ok i didn't PM you):
The clipboard install works around this nicely, though.
Also loving the scriptspot feature, too bad some script authors don't use it as frequently as one would hope
an absolutely awesome feature would be portability, packaging everything the user has installed into one big ol' mzp and include your MaxScriptManager as well.. moving from workplace to workplace would be a matter of seconds. Scanning for quad/toolbar/keyboard customizations would be icing on that cake, but i'm pretty sure it's a nightmare to wade through, without even regarding the differences between Max versions..
Does the maxscriptmanager check for already installed scripts, especially those installed in other locations (directly in program files\autodesk for instance, as opposed to c:\Users\...) ?
Either way, great idea for a script and i'll be excited about future updates, as well as hoping that more script authors embrace the possibilities!
EDIT: oh, and the "Run Script" feature seems to be hit and miss. sometimes the option is there, sometimes it isn't, and if it is, it doesn't always work. this is probably dependant on the script, though ;-)
Ok, I recompiled the exe a couple of weeks ago with a bunch of fixes. If it's not fixed in the next version let me know.
Yes! I actually started implementing this, but I completely dropped it for now, since it's such a big feature. I still need to polish the inner workings of MaxScriptManager and the way it handles MZP files and so on. I'm also working on the installer so it's more compatible with certain work environments. But after I improve this, I'll definitely start working on this feature.
It currently only checks for scripts that have been installed through MaxScriptManager. If you were to install MaxScriptManager on a machine were MaxScriptManger-compatible scripts have been installed, they would then show up in the list.
I do have some ideas for the future, where it could check the files locally and cross reference them with files in some sort of online database (ScriptSpot for example), and then automatically add them to the list. This feature however is for the distant future. :P
Right! It only appears if you install MS, MSE and MCR files through MaxScriptManager, but if you install a MZP file, there is no way of knowing which installed MS file should be picked for the Run functions, that's why I don't add any. But in the future I'll let the user know which MS files have been installed, and let him pick one as the default "Run Script"
:thumbup:
EDIT: another suggestion.. in order to facilitate finding macroscripts when customizing, maybe a tooltip or some such which displays the category and name of the installed script? not the most important, granted
EDIT: and at the risk of getting on your nerves, another little suggestion: alphabetic sorting of the installed scripts
I'm not sure I know what you mean. When customizing? Do you mean that there should be a list that specifies what macroscripts belong to which script? That would be a good idea!
Yes, that might be possible. I believe I fixed that for version 0.3 (not out yet). I'll double check though.
ha ha, no problem. This is definitely possible, but I'd give it a low priority right now :P
I probably worded it badly.. um, pretty much every script author whacks his script into it's own category in 'MainUI' .. finding them can be a bit of a hassle sometimes. a quick tooltip with this information might be helpful. but come to think of it, it probably doesn't make sense that you code this into maxscriptmanager when all one really needs to do is open up the script and check it out ourselves
been installing pretty much everything through your manager now.. even made my own custom mzp's for scripts that didn't have any, in order to be able to run them through maxscriptmanager.. and really looking forward to what you cook up regarding portability
The same as Spatz had but i already ran 3ds max in admin mode.
I also lost the "run script" option from script roll down menu.
Is the a way i can "reset" and get the run script back without reinstal max?
Thanks!
You can uninstall MaxScriptManager from the options window. Let me know if you need help