MAXScript: Multi OBJ Tool v1.3!
polycounter lvl 18
I put this in my DomWar thread, but I figure it might get more exposure here. It was just a quick thing I threw together this afternoon, so let me know if it has any major flaws... 
mopMultiImport 1.3
Download here!
Installation instructions:
Let me know if you have any troubles with it!
mopMultiImport 1.3
- Floating window which lists files in a folder of your choice.
- Select multiple objects and click "Import" to get them all in the scene.
- Double-click on a file in the list to import it directly.
- Choose to replace objects in the scene if they already exist on import.
- Export selected objects to multiple OBJ files!
- NEW: Text filter for the file list, nicer to deal with large amounts of objects
- NEW: Choose to import/export FBX or OBJ format!
- NEW: Move objects to 0,0,0 in world space for exporting (they'll get put back afterwards)
- Bug fix: Objects which had keyframes on rotation/scale and are being replaced on import will now work correctly.
Download here!
Installation instructions:
- Run the script in Max. You only need to do this once, since it creates a macroScript.
- Look in the Customize User Interface menu, find the "MoP's Tools" category, it should contain the entry for "Multi OBJ Tool".
- You can then put this as a toolbar button, hotkey, or my recommended method of putting it in the default viewport Quad menu for fast access at all times.
- Make sure you have already set your OBJ and FBX import/export options, since this script gives no import prompt. It will use whatever settings you last used. In most cases this will be fine since you probably just imported something with the correct settings recently anyway.
- This script will always prefer the GuruWare OBJ plugins if you have them installed. I think it's generally better and faster than Max's default one.
Let me know if you have any troubles with it!
Replies
what would be cool if one could on the other way around select objects from the scene and batch export them to the folder of that rollout. The object name in max would then be assigned to the file name dot obj and if you import objects thei max name would be the same as the filename without the extention.
I've added an option to "overwrite" scene objects if they have the same name as the OBJ file being imported. Basically this just deletes the existing scene object before importing the new one (thus replacing it).
If you use this option and your existing objects had materials, those materials will be applied to the newly-imported objects that are replacing them. Hooray!
I've you've already downloaded and installed the script, please re-download if you want the new functionality, and run the new one. Any shortcuts/hotkeys you had should be updated correctly.
Added an Export button like renderhjs suggested.
This one will simply export any selected objects to OBJ files matching their object name in Max, to the "source folder" chosen in the tools.
Again if you need to update, just re-download the .ms file, run it once, and all should be well.
Bug reports / suggestions welcome.
thx alot for this usefull script
highlight or add a color note to the line of those objects in the list that are already available in the scene (aka the objects to be merged or replaced) so that one quicker can see which objects are already exported or available in your scene from the list.
gui shrinking and multi column dotNet use
thanks so much
Thanks
Not a major overhaul at all, just a little under-the-hood change so that it now saves your settings (the source folder, and the "replace objects" checkbox value) into an INI file and tries to load this on startup, so you shouldn't have to keep re-entering the path between Max sessions.
Download link is the same as before.
I showed this script to some other students here and they got quite fond of it - its a very useful tool when you work a lot with different external tools.
To bypass this problem i changed the import option "tri2quad" in zbrush. Any ideas?
So like you said changin the default export settings (when doing so manually) to quads should basicly do it.
Except Mop did things different in his script
Yep, all I do is call Max's function to the OBJ exporter (Guruware plugin is tried first, if it doesn't exist then I fall back on default Max OBJ exporter) - as far as I know this function should just use the last saved settings you used to export an OBJ.
It has worked fine for me so far, and I'm not using any voodoo in the script to load/save OBJ exporter settings.
Did I?
- Dialog now remembers position across sessions so you don't have to keep putting it back in your favourite position.
- When the "Replace existing objects" checkbox is enabled, object transforms (and simple keyframe data) will be preserved, so if you've moved your OBJ imports in the scene at all, the replacements will remain positioned/animated correctly! Only supports position/rotation/scale keyframes.
- Some other minor cleanup in the backend, doesn't change anything, just makes the script a bit neater.
Same download link as before.Been working with edited vertex normals alot, which the OBJ max exporter doesn't handle (not sure why, as far as I know the OBJ format supports it), so I've switched to FBX. Would also make it work with the latest version of UDK.
You might want to consider that with FBX, as it supports more than just a singe object.
Your script available anywhere?
Nice tool!
I can also check out the stuff cw mentioned and maybe see about adding some more features like renderhjs suggested.
I've updated the first post with all the latest info so the thread is up to date.
Here are the main improvements:
Download here!
Let me know if you run into any issues or have any requests for new features.
Some things I want to bring across from my Maya version of this script is stuff like being able to browse to the output folder in Explorer, and also directly delete OBJ files by right-clicking on the list (and other context-sensitive actions).
I will also look into adding options to have specific settings for import/export for the tool. Right now it just uses whatever your last OBJ/FBX import/export settings were, so it's much easier for me to deal with in script.
It will be a fair amount of work to add the options per filetype but I think it might be worth it in the long run.
You can also find this script on the scripts section of my new website.
But the new dropdown box for file type is very handy, I just replaced "fbx" with "smd" instead since I barely ever use fbx.
I like that it remembers the (last used?) path now.
It should have remembered the last used path before too, maybe I inadvertently fixed a bug without noticing? It's probably something to do with how I was storing the settings before, I was using a custom format.
I somehow totally missed that Maxscript has a direct INI get/set procedure... so I'm now storing the settings in with the main 3dsmax.ini file
Hey MoP, why do you add information to the 3ds Max ini file? Wouldn't it be better to create your own ini file in the same folder containing the script? Functions for file creation and access are quite straightforward as those for direct ini fields manipulation. Anyway, thank you for the useful script!
Is there any reason why I shouldn't write stuff into that file? It seems like the script functions for setting values there are pretty foolproof, so I can't see it damaging anything.
Until then, it works and shouldn't cause any problems
I could just have it add a new layer with the same name as the object, would that be ok?