Using Macros in 3ds Max

barnesy

Hi Polycount, 

I'm currently in the process of optimising a falcon model and I was wondering if there was any way that I could automate the optimisation of the feathers as they appear to be instances.  

 
I've tried to record a macro but nothing happens when I try to run it. 

Could it be to do with the fact that the names of the feathers are different and the macro references the original feather model? 

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated as I have minimal experience with MAXScript  

Thanks,
Mike 

Swordslayer

What does the macro you recorded look like - could you post it? Without that, it's quite hard to give an advice here.

barnesy

Sorry , I should've induced that in my original post. Here is the macro that I recorded to optimise the feathers.

Swordslayer

Looks quite straightforward to cleanup, can you post that to pastebin, please (I'm better at showing by doing first, explaining afterwards)? Even better if you could also attach a scene with one unoptimized feather.

barnesy

Is that the correct link for pastebin? 

http://pastebin.com/3WNxuKRq

Here's the dropbox links:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/17367483/Feathers/feathers2.max
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/17367483/Feathers/feathers.FBX
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/17367483/Feathers/feathers.mtl
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/17367483/Feathers/feathers.obj

Thanks,
Mike 

Swordslayer

Perfect, could you try if this works for you when you select an object and run it (paste it in the Maxscript editor and press ctrl+E)?

<br><br>ePoly = $.modifiers[#Edit_Poly] -- alias, for convenience<br><br>setCommandPanelTaskMode #modify -- switch to Modify panel so that we can enter subobject mode<br>subObjectLevel = 2 -- go to edge mode<br>ePoly.SetSelection #Edge #{} -- clear existing Edge Selection if any<br><br>ePoly.Select #Edge #{131, 133, 135} -- set new selection<br>PolytoolsSelect.DotRing 1 -- Dot Ring function, 1 is the gap value (macros.run will use the last used value so I used this to be explicit)<br>ePoly.ButtonOp #RemoveEdgeRemoveVertices -- selected are removed, no need to deselect again<br>ePoly.Commit() -- better safe than sorry, topology changed so better force update of the poly modifier<br><br>ePoly.Select #Edge #{155..157}<br>PolytoolsSelect.DotRing 1<br>ePoly.ButtonOp #RemoveEdgeRemoveVertices<br>ePoly.Commit()<br><br>ePoly.Select #Edge (#{5, 9, 12, 14, 16, 26, 29, 36, 39, 46, 51, 74} + #{7, 10, 13, 15, 17, 27, 30, 37, 40, 47, 52, 75} - #{5, 7, 46, 47})<br>ePoly.ButtonOp #RemoveEdgeRemoveVertices<br>ePoly.Commit()<br><br>ePoly.Select #Edge #{24, 25}<br>ePoly.ButtonOp #RemoveEdge<br>ePoly.Commit()<br><br>subObjectLevel = 1 -- go to vertex mode<br>ePoly.SetSelection #Vertex #{} -- clear existing selection, if any<br>ePoly.Select #Vertex #{14, 15, 18}<br>ePoly.ButtonOp #RemoveVertex<br>ePoly.Commit()<br><br>subObjectLevel = 2<br>ePoly.SetSelection #Edge #{}<br>ePoly.Select #Edge #{5, 7}<br>ePoly.ButtonOp #RemoveEdge<br>ePoly.Commit()<br><br>subObjectLevel = 1<br>ePoly.SetSelection #Vertex #{}<br>ePoly.Select #Vertex #{4, 5}<br>ePoly.ButtonOp #RemoveVertex<br>ePoly.Commit()<br><br>subObjectLevel = 0 -- exit subobject mode

barnesy

Yes that worked perfectly! Thank you so much for helping me out with this!

Also, thanks for providing the notes - They will help me create similar versions of the script to work on the different types of feather. 

cptSwing

You could also "re-instance" them in Max with the Instance Tool. Has saved me time and nerves over the years.

Swordslayer

Well, in this particular case, you can also deinstance one of the edit_poly modifiers, select the rest and remove it, and then paste it:

barnesy

You sir are an absolute legend! Thanks for putting together that video - It makes much quicker copying and pasting.