[3ds Max] miauu's Tab Panel

miauu

     miauu's Tab Panel allows you to organize all of your toolbars into tabs.

What you can do:

• convert existing toolbars into tabs
• create new tabs and easily fill them with action buttons
• rename tabs
• hide and show tabs
• rearrange tabs
• convert tabs to toolbars

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkB48n2wgWo

You can find more information here.

Noren

This is looking great!
What has me a bit worried is the fact that converted toolbars won't longer be accessible via the normal UI show/hide dialog. It makes sense for them to be there only once, but what if your system breaks? Not a comment on your abilities, btw., just a general concern.

miauu

Noren said:

This is looking great!
What has me a bit worried is the fact that converted toolbars won't longer be accessible via the normal UI show/hide dialog. It makes sense for them to be there only once, but what if your system breaks? Not a comment on your abilities, btw., just a general concern.

What do you mean with "if your system breaks"?

If there is a sudden crash of 3ds max  when you start 3ds max again the tabs will be loaded.

Noren

Let's say I converted some toolbars to tabs and the tabs break because of a bug: Are there safeguards in place that allow me to continue using all toolbars without having to e.g. reset my whole UI or even Max? Can I still access them via Customize UI?

miauu

Noren said:

Let's say I converted some toolbars to tabs and the tabs break because of a bug: Are there saveguards in place that allow me to continue using all toolbars without having to e.g. reset my whole UI or even Max? Can I still access them via Customize UI?

When you convert a toolbar to a tab you can't access this toolbar via Customize UI. If the tabs breaks... I don't know what can breaks them, but there is a chance this to happen. Restarting 3ds max will load all tabs.

miauu

Noren said:

Let's say I converted some toolbars to tabs and the tabs break because of a bug: Are there saveguards in place that allow me to continue using all toolbars without having to e.g. reset my whole UI or even Max? Can I still access them via Customize UI?

I think I two have two "solutions" for your concern about the toolbars:

1) instead of converting a toolbar to a tab you can create a new tab and then copy all buttons from any toolbar to this tab. In the video, starting at 02:30 I am doing the same. 3dsMax does not allow some controls to be copied, so this is the main issue with this approach.

2) I can add a, lets call it "Safe Mode" in the script. When it is ON, every time when you switch to a new tab the script will automatically convert the old tab(s) to a toolbar(s). This way you will have access to all toolbars( created manually or converted from tabs to toolbars) and only the currently active tab will not exist as a separate toolbar. The main issue here is if the tab brakes you will not be able use the buttons of the active tab. I have something in mind about this issue also.

Noren

First of all, thanks a lot for humoring me.
How are you removing the toolbars from the show/hide and customize menus? If it's e.g. in an .ini or .cuix file, it might be enough to make a backup of that or give the user instructions to do so. I mentioned not resetting the UI before, but if the backup is kept current, that shouldn't be too much of a hassle.
And just to clarify, with Customize UI, I don't mean right clicking on the main toolbar, but going via Customize/Customize User Interface/Toolbars where you can show and hide toolbars as well. But perhaps that's one and the same, just with different interfaces.

To clarify my concern: This is not about having to restart Max or losing a tab temporally, but that your tool seems to affect the base configuration (obviously not at a low level, but still). Ideally, it would just sit on top, without any possible interference. Maybe that concern is unwarranted.

miauu

When a toolbar is converted to a Tab, this toolbar can't be accessed via Customize-Customize User Interface-Toolbars tab.

Noren said:

 Ideally, it would just sit on top, without any possible interference. Maybe that concern is unwarranted.

I agree, but in that case the tool will not work as I want and as it should(in my opinion).