Hi Yozora, I can't tell if the MaxScript listener window pops up because of IC.Shape, it shouldn't of course. At this point, I'm not sure about anything
The listener window status is saved every time you close 3ds Max and reverted to previous state at 3ds Max start. If it doesn't happen there could be an explanation. Does the listener say anything else other than "Welcome to MAXScript."? By default the listener is opened whenever 3ds Max encounters an error, or a scrips gives some output.
There is the possibility an error is found while loading a script, IC.Shape, or something else. If there is no error, that's odd. In this case you can just try to close the listener then save the user interface layout by hand under Customize > Save Custom UI scheme...
If nothing of this works, try to disable the "Auto Open Listener on Output" under Customize > Preferences... > MAXScript panel.
As last resource, just uninstall IC.Shape and see how it goes. If you save your user interface, then uninstall IC.Shape and restart 3ds Max, you can get your shortcuts set, after reinstalling IC.Shape, of course, by reloading the saved UI.
I hope this helps. Let me know if you can fix the annoying issue. Thanks.
Hi, its not the listener window... its this MAXscript window - the one that looks like notepad with tabs on top. The default "tab" it opens up is a blank one called "untitled"
Anyway I tried re-saving my UI and that fixed it so thanks I was just about to give you another screentoaster video, I love that site ;/
Hey Sync,
I found a few other bugs in Beta1 last week, but didnt get the chance to post till now. Maybe some of them are still relevant in beta2? I'll check tonight sense I dont have access to Max2009 on this machine atm. But anyway, here's what they were:
The Attach Nodes tool doesn't seem to work if at least one of the selected objects are a PolyMesh (as opposed to a primitive). The button breaks outright when attempting to attach Patch objects / Editable mesh / Splines, and wouldn't work again till I restarted Max. Oddly this also seems to break every other button in the Utils menu.
Another test I ran on it was to see what it would do if told to combine multiple splines and poly objects at once. Ideally it would merge the splines and the poly objects seperatly in the event that the splines had not had 'Enable in viewport' checked, as without that they cannot work properly as part of the same node. But unfortunatly it doesn't take this into account (yet?). I actually wouldn't have tried any of this if it wasn't for it refering to 'nodes' which I thought might refer to different types of objects.
The command also takes a considerable amount of time when a very large number of objects are being combined (In my test I combined 250 objects at once). This is to be expected, and the standard attach function in max with the same items took the same ammount of time, but would be nice to have a progress bar if the number of selected items is substancial.
Asside from that, the brush tools (Drag/relax/raise/etc.) don't seem to work if 'Ignore Backface' is enabled. I also tried with an edit poly modifier and ran into a number of glitches. While as it does recognize the component modes while in the Edit Poly modifier, it only works on the standard edit poly, and will switch to it if the brush tools are activated (Thought that was something you mentioned working on for this release?). Max also crashes if you switch to the Edit Poly modifiers component modes while a brush is active.
One other minor annoyance that I'm having is that every time I exit a brush (either by toggling it or switching to another tool) max will switch from the modify panel to the create panel.
btw, the Geo-Loop is great, but would be even better if it let you just select the faces inside the closed edge loop and then performed the action on its border edges, fewer clicks that way in many cases
Hi PolyHertz, thank you for the extensive tests and for reporting.
Starting from the good news. Ignore backfacing is now fixed in Beta 2 for every instrument. It was a last minute change in a small function that broke already tested code. I guess the 3ds Max crash should be fixed as well.
IC.Shape Instruments work only on Editable Poly as BaseObjects. You can add Edit Poly Modifiers on the Stack, but BaseObject will be automatically activated once an instrument is run. If you select every kind of modifier while a tool is running it is shut down.
Right now only GeoLoop works on Editable Polys and Edit Poly Modifiers. I plan to expand support to modifier version in future releases, as it is quite demanding. About GeoLoop, your idea is good and I don't see great difficulties supporting it. I'm going to add it to the "to do" list.
AttachNodes is meant to work on Editable Polys only, and should simply ignore other node class. I don't know why it hangs the script so badly on your Max. I just tested it again with every kind of object you mentioned and worked fine. Could you provide a very simple scene to test, or post a detailed list of steps to reproduce the error?
I called it AttachNODES, only to suggest you attach different objects, so you need a multi selection. Anyway, I think I can improve this tool, and I remember an article about how to speed attachment up significantly. I only tried the tool on a few nodes, because the use I got in mind was as counterpart of DetachElems. You got a model, made of different elements, need to export for baking and so on, detach, need to get it back again, attach. There is a lot of room for improvement. The progress bar is feasible too, but maybe I prefer a feedback in the listener, as it is now with GeoLoop when working on multiple edge chains.
The behaviour of switching to Create from Modify mode in the Command Panel is not coded anywhere in IC.Shape, on the contrary in different situations is needed to ensure the Command Panel is in Modify mode for some instruments to work properly. I don't know where does this switching come form. Is your 3ds Max updated to latest patches and so on?
Thank you very much for the heads up, I'll be working on them.
Erm, I feel a bit silly to ask this, but how do I uninstall this? I tried to go to the plugins folder and get rid of the folder there, but now when max starts I get a MacoScript compile error.
Edit: Never mind, I had a button on the toolbar that was calling for your script, which was gone now and it was giving that error.
Thank you very much, you might wanna add that to the FAQ area of your website.
The script it great, I haven't used every single feature on it yet, but I will give it a try at home, where I would probably find more use to it on my own personal stuff.
Btw, I use the Z key a lot, to center what I have selected to the center of the screen. And I was instantly exited about your "FrameGeo" feature. I like how soft the movement is, and how can you customize it, but I find it a bit weird that the object sometimes just waves around if you press the FrameGeo button repetitively, especially if you assign it to a hotkey and move your cursor around the viewport.
Hi, the unistallation info is on IC.Shape page under Installation > Wizards. Maybe I should make it a little more clear (already done, thanks).
I'm glad to hear it wasn't a script issue the reason why you wanted to get rid of it
About Frame Geo, it detects the point to zoom to even when nothing in the scene is selected. It just looks for what's under the mouse in the instant the tool is run. If you got an object under the mouse it fires a ray toward it and looks for the surface normal in that point and align the viewport accordingly. If you run the Framing action many times, they get buffered, and as soon as one is finished another sampling point is taken and the viewport changed again, causing that "waving effect". The script reacts to many different situation, for a full list, take a look at the brief explanation of the stand alone version here. I hope this sets the seemingly odd behaviour.
Well gave Beta2 a go, and looks like the T/M Smooth and symmetry work now (though they don't refresh the modify panel 'light bulbs' when used to turn on/off the modifiers). Also made videos of the Sub-object crash (+panel switch) and AttachNodes Utils-breaking glitches so you can see how to reproduce them:
The glitch with it switching back and forth between the Create and Modify panel actually went away after installing beta2...for a while at least, then I re-installed beta1 and went back to beta2 and now beta2 has the same behavior
For Max I'm not running the latest patches atm, now that you mention it though should probably do that (don't update much cause I haven't had fast net access in a while).
Well gave Beta2 a go, and looks like the T/M Smooth and symmetry work now (though they don't refresh the modify panel 'light bulbs' when used to turn on/off the modifiers).
Fixed: now the Modifier Panel is refreshed when toggling T/M Smooth and Symmetry
The glitch with it switching back and forth between the Create and Modify panel actually went away after installing beta2...for a while at least, then I re-installed beta1 and went back to beta2 and now beta2 has the same behavior
For Max I'm not running the latest patches atm, now that you mention it though should probably do that (don't update much cause I haven't had fast net access in a while).
When you uninstall IC.Shape, it deletes every file from your system, so it cannot be anything left by one version picked up by the other.The Modifier Panel switching and the crashes seem related to me. It seems your Painter Interface plugin (painterInterface.dlu) has issues. I think so because ending paint session on sub object level change and setting the mod panel are handled by that 3ds Max component and cannot be controlled by MaxScript. Could it be a conflict with some other script/plugin you installed? Unfortunately the only advice I could give is to try to update to latest service pack and see how it goes, because I tried every possible combination, but couldn't make the beta2 crash anymore.
You can run another test: try to do the same crashing steps with standard Editable Poly "Paint Deformation", and see if it always works.
I'm going to publish a new update in a few days. Thanks again for your effort and support.
The only Bug Ive encountered was the attachnode function being not working ang givin error messages like " Unknown Property: BaseObject" undefined...everything else worked fine...but if you have fixed this in the upcoming release, than there is no problem
Hope Extend Surface Script is now integrated in the new beta.
Hi Serdar, thanks for the report, I already fixed the issue with Attach Nodes and some others, included in next release. If you want to follow IC.Shape development, check its web page, where I post fixes, changes and additions under "Version History" paragraph. I start adding instruments when current will be reasonably bug free. Update is going to be released in a few days.
Hi guys, I just released the IC.Shape 2.0 beta 3. This new release fixes some bugs, amends some usability glitches and give access to secondary instrument functions, for those of you using dRaster Switcher, experiencing issues with modifier keys. See first post and IllusionCatalyst web site page for the full list.
Extra Actions aren't added by default to avoid cluttering customization panel. To install them, click with right mouse button on IC.Shape UI header image and choose Add/Remove Actions.
Enjoy the two fully recoded tools Attach Nodes and Detach Elements, several times faster than previous version (and than standard Attach List).
Please report any issue you may find. Thanks.
To install new version, simply get it form the web site, then drag and drop the .mzp file on 3ds Max viewports. It starts the installation wizard that will handle the upgrade. You won't need to rewire the shortcuts.
ahh cool, the axis align hotkey is almost perfect. It would be nice if you can align to any edge/vertex instead of requiring the vert to be in the same mesh. Similar to how snapping works. Its still very useful as it is either way
I've actually hotkeyed all the tools I find most useful now so I can close the IC shape window, but if I close it then none of my hotkeys work anymore
I'd prefer if I can close it completely, but I put the collapsed ic shape window on the top main menu bar so at least it doesnt take up any extra space which is cool
Attachnodes seems to work very quickly, I didnt test the previous version much though so duno how much it has improved. I like that it doesnt ask me that condense material thing (attach options), hated that popup
I replaced my attach hotkey with your attachnodes, but then realised it doesn't work for attaching splines...
Previously I had editable poly group attach as the same hotkey as "attach spline" in the main menu, but since theres no "editable spline" group (well, there is, but its useless and only has 1 tool in there) I cant bind the "attaching" hotkeys together anymore.
Hi Tom,
thanks for getting beta 3 straight off. The Axis Align tool works on currently selected object only, I guess on a pure theoretical point of view, it could handle "snapping" on more than one object, but that would make the code more complex, for node+hit sorting and worse, heavier to execute. Anyway I thought about it too, and will keep this tip in mind. I could give it a shot in the future.
IC.Shape works with a lot of common structures, variables and callback functions to detect events, which are "alive" only when the UI is open. The idea is to have them in memory/executing in background, only when you really make use of them. I made the super compact form to allow the user to bury it somewhere, like next to "Help" voice in menu bar. Anyway standard 3ds Max interface has a lot of wasted space, even without trotting out the 2010.
Regarding the Attach Nodes, it can be further upgraded to handle splines too. I'm quite sure of it. Right now it attaches every kind of suitable node to first Editable Poly found in current selection, so the advice is to select the node to attach to, then all the others. I can make it work the same way with Editable Spline, whichever is found first, determines the attach type. As usual I need to run some tests.
Please let me know if you find any bug, or something's bothering you. Thanks.
@ RappyBMX: I followed your steps a few times, adding slight variations too, and never experienced a crash. Please be sure to have the latest 3ds Max patches installed on your system.
Please let me know if anyone else is experiencing such issues, even if they're not directly connected to IC.Shape, since it makes use of thePainterInterface straight from 3ds Max. Thanks.
open max > make a teapot > convert it to editable poly > press Paint > exit vertex mode > deselect the teapot... instant crash
tried it just to test, mine didnt crash, but instead my modifier list info has disappeared... which means now I can't edit any object in the scene.
Strange... never ever seen that happen before
Now I tried to repeat the problem and record it on screentoaster, but a different problem happens -.-
When I select another paint mode (face/edge), all of IC shape breaks and none of the buttons work anymore (it makes the 3d max error sound when you try to click on the buttons that have missing or incorrect scripts).
Just to reiterate/clarify; select ANY editable poly > press Paint > press another mode (face or edge) > IC shape messes up
But tbh, I'm really not that bothered because I havent been using that paint selection tool yet anyway
Hi guys, thanks for the reports, but unfortunately they are not related directly to IC.Shape because stopping the current paint mode when sub-object level has been changed is handled by 3ds Max PainterInterface.
The odd thing is I'm on 3ds Max 2009 x64 and cannot reproduce any of your issues.
I'll try to fix this, anyway, by introducing a callback function that stops instruments by hand whenever the sub-object level has been changed, hoping this would work.
Havn't tried Beta3 yet, but heres an update on beta2 findings :
To refer to your query about plugin conflicts, I don't think that could be the case as other then IC I only have TexTools installed on Max2009, With Max9 retaining most of my scripts instead. I did give it a shot with the standard paint tools but didn't run into any problems with them. So guess will just have to wait till I can get the updates for Max to re-test.
Also, found another bug with AttachNodes (on accident as I wasn't expecting to find any more bugs from it). Though this is probably fixed now in beta3, heres a video plus before/after scene files of the bug (sense again, can't test the new beta immidiatly):
One other thing, the Draw function seems to have problems working with border edges. I tested this in both Max 2009 and Max9 just to be sure, sense the problem doesn't exist in the original IC. Here's a video showing the difference between IC1 and IC2b2:
When testing this I came across one other anomaly, which I'm not sure if is important or not. After finishing testing beta2 in Max9 and uninstalling it, I went to re-install IC1, and it told me it was going to uninstall IC1. This means that Beta2 is possibly either not getting rid of all IC1s files, or all of its own when performing either uninstallation.
Hi Greg, thanks very much for the help in debugging, always top notch!
About the crash, I heard other user experiencing it when switching sub-object level in instruments involving the Painter Interface. Unfortunately, it is not handled by IC.Shape, but by the Interface itself. And unfortunately I cannot reproduce any of these crash on my 3ds Max. Anyway I already coded a manual switch off that should take care of the painter interface avoiding the crash. Finger crossed, as I cannot test it.
The AttachNodes has been completely recoded in beta 3, but the modifiers handling is the same, and that issue you found is really weird. I think it has something to do with the Edit Poly Modifier. I now leave to the attach command the duty to collapse the stack before performing the attach, but I guess it would be better if I force it by hand. Let's see if it fixes the issue.
Draw had a bug. And is clear it is throwing a bug when stops working on your system. I fixed it in beta 3. As a test I've just built a scene like yours and it seemed to work well. Please let me know if you're still experiencing problems with beta 3.
About the uninstallation, I need to take a look at IllusionCatalyst 1. More on this after some tests. Thanks for the tips, your help is invaluable.
Attach Nodes is actually working as it is supposed to, despite the issue you pointed out. This means there's room for another upgrade step: you want to attach objects to Edit Poly Modifier, while the Attach Nodes attaches them to the Editable Poly BaseObject. If you like, run this test: in your scene, select the editable poly, turn off all modifiers, attach the line to the editable poly, then turn modifiers on again, you'll get the same result as IC.Shape tool.
<EDIT>
Bottom line, I can make the Attach Nodes look for the first node in selection with an Enabled Edit Poly Modifier on top and perform the attach to the Modifier found.
Otherwise if there is not such suitable modifier, look for the baseObject. If it is an Editable Poly, or an Editable Shape (as Yozora suggested) attach nodes to it. In this case it would be very important to select the relevant attaching node first, then all the others.
After reading the MaxScript documentation, it seems many cases like Edit Mesh Modifier, Edit Spline Modifier, don't allow to directly attach meshes/splines to them.
</EDIT>
Thanks to your scene I was able to discover another hideous bug in objects initialization when changing selection between two nodes with an Edit Poly Modifier on top.
About installation/uninstallation issue I run some tests, and both versions don't seem to leave any file on the system with the exception of IC.Shape, which leaves an empty folder in 3dsMax/scripts/ to avoid deleting other tools that could be stored there. Anyway I'll add checks to remove it too if empty, in next release.
The only annoyance I found is IllusionCatalyst 1.x.x deletes any IC.Tool when uninstalled. But installation checks are completely different for the two versions.
Hey Sync,
Thought I'd post some new findings in beta3.
First some good news: Draw does indeed work now
Also, I found a way to solve both the panel switching and crash bugs. Simply enter and exit the Tweak tool and for the rest of that max session neither of the formentioned glitches will happen. Originally I thought this only solved the panel switching, but on a hunch I gave it a shot with the crash bug and it fixed that too. Theirs a bit of magic in that Tweak tool it seems
However I have also found two new bugs:
If 'Auto Base Obj' is enabled and the user enters a component mode of an editable poly modifier, despite the component selection being in editable poly it'll actually be happening on the base object (confusing). Another problem, though not really a bug per say, with the function is makes it so the user cant enter other modifiers at all unless directly selecting a component mode of theirs (like in the formentioned problem), the feature should however only affect the object when selecting from another object or if their was no selection prior.
The second bug is that the UI always docks to left, never right, when max starts up (ie, it forgets that preference). Despite this it does remember its assumed floater position, so if you undock it from the left side it'll appear as a floater on the right.
Let me know if you need vids for any of these. Oh, and happy new year
Hi Greg, happy new year to you too, and thanks for the reports!
Right now I cannot work on the code, and be back to it in a few days. I'm glad the Draw instrument bug have been solved.
The issue about panel switching/crash is still under investigation, but you have just given me an important hint to understand what's going on. I guess there's something uninitialized related to "mouseTrack functions" that's been called and cause the issues. Now I got something to work on to try to make it work properly.
About Auto Base Object, I guess there is a command panel refreshing issue, where it doesn't reflect the actual modifier status, and other issues, when it forces the activation of base object while it is not always needed. I'll look into its behaviour a bit deeper, and try to make it smarter, even if I'm tied to MaxScript Callbacks Mechanism that not always can sort accurately what's going on.
I've already upgraded the Attach and Detach functions. They now handle Editable Polys and Edit Poly Modifiers as well. The example you recorded should now perform the attachment as you expected from the beginning, on the modifier, rather than on the base object.
I'll look into the docking feature too, that sounds quite weird as I remember to have it tested extensively, but I don't exclude bugs. It could be a simple variable to change.
Thank you very much for you thorough reports and suggestions. They're really important to me. A heartfelt thanks to all of you who gave their support along this still running coding ride, or simply use and like IllusionCatalyst. Happy new year to you all!
Hi guys, a new release is available for download: IC.Shape 2.0 beta 4. The new version tries to solve the crash issue on sub object level switching while a deformation painting instrument is active. Please let me know if it know works correctly or not, because I cannot reproduce the issue on my machines.
Attach Nodes and Detach Elements now work on Edit Poly Modifiers too. Editable Spline are still under evaluation because of some limitations of MaxScript.
Auto Base Object have been recoded to be less "aggressive" and switch to Base Object only on selection change.
Enjoy this new release and please report any issue you may find. Thanks for your support.
edit: nevermind, fixed I had a problem with my axis align hotkey but after several combinations of reinstalling/restarting it worked
Since I posted and cant delete this post I may as well thank you again for this awesome tool, I've been using axis align alot and its really saved a lot of annoyance from copy and pasting numbers from the XYZ coordinate input boxes or settling for imperfect results
Time for an update. Gave Beta4 a shot and glad to say the crashes and panel switching are both fixed
The right-dock bug is also gone, but in its place is a new bug that makes the Max panel icons and buttons appear in the viewport while in expert mode whenever a tool is entered or exited. Example vid:
It seems to happen despite the position of the panel, whether its docked or floating. Thankfully it goes away once the viewport is refreshed, but its still something that wasnt present in beta3.
Also, Their are a few very minor issues thought I'd bring up. The modify panel has an issue where when entering any brush modes it'll show nothing as being highlighted if the user had any other modifier selected before hand. IC still leaves folders after uninstall (something you mentioned in a previous post before beta4 was out, so just a reminder). The 'Keep Quads' is currently a bit inaccurate. This one caught my attention because I actually made my own quad-connect for Maya a few months back and noticed the same thing a bit after I started using it. Heres a pic to illustrate the issue:
As you can see the vert that should lie on the center is off slightly. I'm not sure how your going about the offset, but what I did was after making the two cuts (one for standard connect, and a second to make the tri and n-gons into a set of three quads) the middle vert was slid 33% of the way along the the second cuts edge (well actually 66% cause I calculated it from the far end, but whatever). pic:
Assuming your doing it the same way, should just be a matter of changing the slide %. Of course, I doubt you need me to explain any of that, but hey, never know, might be of some use
Edit:
Something else thought I'd bring up, the Span tool is a bit limited atm because of the fact that it only supports one ring/loop at a time, it'd be nice if it could perform multiple selections. For this it could simply identify individual rings/loops that selected components are on and allow 1 Span for each.
tried the beta 4 too, so far everything ok but editing with edit poly modifier alone still does not work...it works, if the object is previously converted to editable poly but if I create a object without converting it to editable poly but assigning a edit poly modifier, IC Shape does not work. Im not sure if it is a bug but in this way, it does not work.
And whats with extendsurface script? Thought you wanted to integrate it in to beta 4?
The right-dock bug is also gone, but in its place is a new bug that makes the Max panel icons and buttons appear in the viewport while in expert mode whenever a tool is entered or exited.
It seems to happen despite the position of the panel, whether its docked or floating. Thankfully it goes away once the viewport is refreshed, but its still something that wasnt present in beta3.
I just tested all previous released version and this bug seems to be there from the beginning. I can't understand how I missed it. There are quite a lot of things to test, but I guess I can do something for it. Thanks for the video.
EDIT: You are right, the issue has been introduced in latest beta 4. I have just tracked and solved it. It was caused by an "improvement" which reduced the Command Panel flickering, but I'll ditch it because of this nasty side effect.
Also, Their are a few very minor issues thought I'd bring up. The modify panel has an issue where when entering any brush modes it'll show nothing as being highlighted if the user had any other modifier selected before hand.
I don't experience this, or I miss the point. As an example I set up a stack with Editable Poly Object + Edit Poly Modifier + TurboSmooth Modifier. If any modifier is active, as soon as any instrument is started, the Edit Poly Object becomes active and the Modifier Stack gets updated. Does it work differently for you?
IC still leaves folders after uninstall (something you mentioned in a previous post before beta4 was out, so just a reminder).
I paid attention to the uninstallation process making sure it doesn't leave anything in the system. It now removes the "IllusionCatalyst" folder in the 3ds Max scripts directory too if it is empty. Do you find something is left on the system, or is it an issue coming up only when you try to install/reinstall IllusionCatalyst 1.1.1? It may be a problem of the old script.
The 'Keep Quads' is currently a bit inaccurate. This one caught my attention because I actually made my own quad-connect for Maya a few months back and noticed the same thing a bit after I started using it.
As you can see the vert that should lie on the center is off slightly. I'm not sure how your going about the offset, but what I did was after making the two cuts (one for standard connect, and a second to make the tri and n-gons into a set of three quads) the middle vert was slid 33% of the way along the the second cuts edge (well actually 66% cause I calculated it from the far end, but whatever).
Assuming your doing it the same way, should just be a matter of changing the slide %. Of course, I doubt you need me to explain any of that, but hey, never know, might be of some use
Well, I know about the "keep quads", it is a long time question. It doesn't work exactly like yours, but it takes advantage of a peculiar 3ds Max function: "getSafeFaceCenter" which is averaged with other parameters too.
from MaxScript Reference:
polyop.getSafeFaceCenter <Poly poly> <int face> node:<node=unsupplied>
Returns the "safe" center of the face, if possible. For non-convex faces, the average point found using getFaceCenter is unsuitable for some applications because it can lie outside the face completely, or in a region where it cannot see all the face's vertices (i.e., line segments from the center to the corner pass outside of the face.). If a safe center cannot be found, a value of UNDEFINED is returned.
This routine provides a better solution in some cases by finding the center of the convex hull of the face. The convex hull is defined as the region in a face with a clear line-of-sight to all the corners. Some faces, such as the top face in an extruded letter M, have an empty convex hull, in which case this routine fails and merely provides the regular center given by ComputeCenter.
The "keep quads" option was born for organic modeling as the whole original toolset. Creating a 100% safe point was more important than actually get the perfect center in a very specific case: perfectly squared face joining two adjacent edges perfectly in their middle position. Anyway, I have on schedule to redesign the whole function, handling more cases too, so I'll pay attention to this one.
Something else thought I'd bring up, the Span tool is a bit limited atm because of the fact that it only supports one ring/loop at a time, it'd be nice if it could perform multiple selections. For this it could simply identify individual rings/loops that selected components are on and allow 1 Span for each.
I agree. Span tool is quite primitive right now. The issue is with MaxScript calculation times. I had to design functions to get Edge Loops and Rings scanning quads "one by one", which is quite a slow process (well with the SDK it is instantaneous, but that's another story). When Span is called this process has to be repeated from 1 to several times and could require a certain amount of time, that's one of the reasons why I set this limit. There is room for enhancements, of course, but there is the chance I make a completely different and smarter tool for span selections, more like Pick Select.
Thank you very much for the tests, I'll post bug fixing and enhancements on IC.Shape page as they proceed.
tried the beta 4 too, so far everything ok but editing with edit poly modifier alone still does not work...it works, if the object is previously converted to editable poly but if I create a object without converting it to editable poly but assigning a edit poly modifier, IC Shape does not work. Im not sure if it is a bug but in this way, it does not work.
I'm afraid it is not a bug. All tools except for some like Attach Nodes, Detach Elements and Geo Loop, work on Editable Poly Objects only. Edit Poly Modifier exposes a limited set of methods and it's not always possible to accomplish the same tasks on it. If some day I port all of this in C++, it will support both base object and modifier.
And whats with extendsurface script? Thought you wanted to integrate it in to beta 4?
Before starting to add instruments and features I want to debug the current set to a reasonable degree. Let's say, when PolyHertz says it is OK , the first non beta version will be released, from that point there will be additions.
Hi guys, I've just found and fixed a bug in beta 4: Auto Base Object causes issues when creating new objects. A new release will be out soon, with the command panel refresh issue fixed too.
i just downloaded beta and noticed theres no IC_Shape.mzp like in the install instructions on your site. i tried to just use the IC_Shape_Installation.ms but just get the error
--Runtime error: fileIn: can't open file - "C:\Program files\Autodesk\3ds max 2010\scripts\IllusionCatalyst\IC_Shape_Shape_Macro_Core.ms
my max is installed in default location, i'm running of xp x64
Hi, from the site you download the file IC_Shape.mzp. To install the script, simply start 3ds Max, then drag and drop the .mzp file on 3ds Max viewports, it will start the installation. A few clicks and it's done, nothing more. Let me know if you got any issue.
Thanks for the tip, it's strange, I tried it on Firefox and IE and it comes right named as .mzp. Just out of curiosity, what browser do you use? I'm going to write some instructions about it.
i used opera , just tested is on chrome and its fine on there. don't know why opera changes it to zip. not sure what safari does if you want to test that too.
i used opera , just tested is on chrome and its fine on there. don't know why opera changes it to zip. not sure what safari does if you want to test that too.
Now that is weird. I'm using chrome and every time I download a .mzp it ends up getting a .mzp.zip at the end. I have always renamed them and removed the .zip to get it working.
It doesn't just apply to IC shape, same thing with textools as well. I didn't think it was a big enough problem to discuss though
In my case the "zip" extension comes from the http header content type set to 'application/zip' generated by php. The file name in the header is set correctly to mzp, but it seems some browsers disregard it in favor of the recognized type, since the mzp is nothing but a renamed zip.
I never thought it could cause problems, so adding a brief note for the downloaders doesn't hurt. If you're not into scripting and don't use free scripts extensively, may not even know what an mzp file is.
Hi guys, a new release is available for download: IC.Shape 2.0 beta 5. It solves some issues introduced in beta 4 and add some minor fixes to the code. As usual, please report any issue. Enjoy!
Hi, SyncViewS, IC_Shape is truly amazing ! I use a lot all of the brush tools , especially the Drag brush. Is it possible to control the brush parameters (size and pressure) with mouse movements instead of typing in numbers ? Polyboost PolyShift brush handles this vary nicely. Ctrl + Drag increases the size of the brush, while Shift + Drag alter the falloff, it is really quick and intuitive this way.
Anyway , IC_Shape is a great toolset (especially like your implementation of the slice tool.)
Hi, I'm really happy you like it. Of course you can adjust pressure sensitivity and size by shortcuts, they are the default of thePainterInterface in particular:
SHIFT + CTRL + LMB Drag Up/Down: Increase/Decrease brush diameter SHIFT + ALT + LMB Drag Up/Down: Increase/Decrease brush pressure multiplier for those instruments where this parameter is meaningful, like Inflate/Deflate, while others like Draw and Erase disregard it and it's locked to 1.0
Question about Axis project: Is it possible to lock specific axis while using it, so If I wanted to flatten a surface using it but maintain the X/Y position of the affected points (ie only moving them on the Z axis) would that be possible?
Oh also, no new bugs found, beta5 is looking good so far
Hi Greg, Axis Project always work along a single axis, so if you want to flatten elements on a plane defined by XY, just drag in Z, you should see the axis colored blue. Keep in mind it is relative to current Reference Coordinate System, so if you want it to work along world axis set Refs to World, same goes for Local, Screen and so on.
This tool can be efficiently coupled with "Pivot" instrument: set the Working Pivot as you like and make it the active coordsys, then use Axis Project, it will follow current matrix orientation.
Glad to hear no new bugs have been found so far by the hereby appointed IC.Shape best tester Thank you.
first of all, thank you very much for this really usefull tools ...i you allow me i would add something to the wishlist ... i dont know how difficult it is... im switched from maya to max and in maya we got this amazing G button that simply repeats every thing you´ve done ...max has also this button but in max it doesn´t repeats everything ...so my greatest wish would be to have such an "repeat my last action" button or shortcut... thanks in advice
Replies
The listener window status is saved every time you close 3ds Max and reverted to previous state at 3ds Max start. If it doesn't happen there could be an explanation. Does the listener say anything else other than "Welcome to MAXScript."? By default the listener is opened whenever 3ds Max encounters an error, or a scrips gives some output.
There is the possibility an error is found while loading a script, IC.Shape, or something else. If there is no error, that's odd. In this case you can just try to close the listener then save the user interface layout by hand under Customize > Save Custom UI scheme...
If nothing of this works, try to disable the "Auto Open Listener on Output" under Customize > Preferences... > MAXScript panel.
As last resource, just uninstall IC.Shape and see how it goes. If you save your user interface, then uninstall IC.Shape and restart 3ds Max, you can get your shortcuts set, after reinstalling IC.Shape, of course, by reloading the saved UI.
I hope this helps. Let me know if you can fix the annoying issue. Thanks.
Anyway I tried re-saving my UI and that fixed it so thanks
I'm sorry, I misread. By the way I'm glad you nailed it
Thanks a lot for sharing this, will give it a go, and hopefully start using it on my stuff.
I found a few other bugs in Beta1 last week, but didnt get the chance to post till now. Maybe some of them are still relevant in beta2? I'll check tonight sense I dont have access to Max2009 on this machine atm. But anyway, here's what they were:
The Attach Nodes tool doesn't seem to work if at least one of the selected objects are a PolyMesh (as opposed to a primitive). The button breaks outright when attempting to attach Patch objects / Editable mesh / Splines, and wouldn't work again till I restarted Max. Oddly this also seems to break every other button in the Utils menu.
Another test I ran on it was to see what it would do if told to combine multiple splines and poly objects at once. Ideally it would merge the splines and the poly objects seperatly in the event that the splines had not had 'Enable in viewport' checked, as without that they cannot work properly as part of the same node. But unfortunatly it doesn't take this into account (yet?). I actually wouldn't have tried any of this if it wasn't for it refering to 'nodes' which I thought might refer to different types of objects.
The command also takes a considerable amount of time when a very large number of objects are being combined (In my test I combined 250 objects at once). This is to be expected, and the standard attach function in max with the same items took the same ammount of time, but would be nice to have a progress bar if the number of selected items is substancial.
Asside from that, the brush tools (Drag/relax/raise/etc.) don't seem to work if 'Ignore Backface' is enabled. I also tried with an edit poly modifier and ran into a number of glitches. While as it does recognize the component modes while in the Edit Poly modifier, it only works on the standard edit poly, and will switch to it if the brush tools are activated (Thought that was something you mentioned working on for this release?). Max also crashes if you switch to the Edit Poly modifiers component modes while a brush is active.
One other minor annoyance that I'm having is that every time I exit a brush (either by toggling it or switching to another tool) max will switch from the modify panel to the create panel.
btw, the Geo-Loop is great, but would be even better if it let you just select the faces inside the closed edge loop and then performed the action on its border edges, fewer clicks that way in many cases
Starting from the good news. Ignore backfacing is now fixed in Beta 2 for every instrument. It was a last minute change in a small function that broke already tested code. I guess the 3ds Max crash should be fixed as well.
IC.Shape Instruments work only on Editable Poly as BaseObjects. You can add Edit Poly Modifiers on the Stack, but BaseObject will be automatically activated once an instrument is run. If you select every kind of modifier while a tool is running it is shut down.
Right now only GeoLoop works on Editable Polys and Edit Poly Modifiers. I plan to expand support to modifier version in future releases, as it is quite demanding. About GeoLoop, your idea is good and I don't see great difficulties supporting it. I'm going to add it to the "to do" list.
AttachNodes is meant to work on Editable Polys only, and should simply ignore other node class. I don't know why it hangs the script so badly on your Max. I just tested it again with every kind of object you mentioned and worked fine. Could you provide a very simple scene to test, or post a detailed list of steps to reproduce the error?
I called it AttachNODES, only to suggest you attach different objects, so you need a multi selection. Anyway, I think I can improve this tool, and I remember an article about how to speed attachment up significantly. I only tried the tool on a few nodes, because the use I got in mind was as counterpart of DetachElems. You got a model, made of different elements, need to export for baking and so on, detach, need to get it back again, attach. There is a lot of room for improvement. The progress bar is feasible too, but maybe I prefer a feedback in the listener, as it is now with GeoLoop when working on multiple edge chains.
The behaviour of switching to Create from Modify mode in the Command Panel is not coded anywhere in IC.Shape, on the contrary in different situations is needed to ensure the Command Panel is in Modify mode for some instruments to work properly. I don't know where does this switching come form. Is your 3ds Max updated to latest patches and so on?
Thank you very much for the heads up, I'll be working on them.
Edit: Never mind, I had a button on the toolbar that was calling for your script, which was gone now and it was giving that error.
The script it great, I haven't used every single feature on it yet, but I will give it a try at home, where I would probably find more use to it on my own personal stuff.
Btw, I use the Z key a lot, to center what I have selected to the center of the screen. And I was instantly exited about your "FrameGeo" feature. I like how soft the movement is, and how can you customize it, but I find it a bit weird that the object sometimes just waves around if you press the FrameGeo button repetitively, especially if you assign it to a hotkey and move your cursor around the viewport.
I'm glad to hear it wasn't a script issue the reason why you wanted to get rid of it
About Frame Geo, it detects the point to zoom to even when nothing in the scene is selected. It just looks for what's under the mouse in the instant the tool is run. If you got an object under the mouse it fires a ray toward it and looks for the surface normal in that point and align the viewport accordingly. If you run the Framing action many times, they get buffered, and as soon as one is finished another sampling point is taken and the viewport changed again, causing that "waving effect". The script reacts to many different situation, for a full list, take a look at the brief explanation of the stand alone version here. I hope this sets the seemingly odd behaviour.
Crash bug
Utils bug
The glitch with it switching back and forth between the Create and Modify panel actually went away after installing beta2...for a while at least, then I re-installed beta1 and went back to beta2 and now beta2 has the same behavior
For Max I'm not running the latest patches atm, now that you mention it though should probably do that (don't update much cause I haven't had fast net access in a while).
Fixed: now the Modifier Panel is refreshed when toggling T/M Smooth and Symmetry
That's a wonderful bug report. The AttachNode was a coding bug, an index array out of range. Fixed.
When you uninstall IC.Shape, it deletes every file from your system, so it cannot be anything left by one version picked up by the other.The Modifier Panel switching and the crashes seem related to me. It seems your Painter Interface plugin (painterInterface.dlu) has issues. I think so because ending paint session on sub object level change and setting the mod panel are handled by that 3ds Max component and cannot be controlled by MaxScript. Could it be a conflict with some other script/plugin you installed? Unfortunately the only advice I could give is to try to update to latest service pack and see how it goes, because I tried every possible combination, but couldn't make the beta2 crash anymore.
You can run another test: try to do the same crashing steps with standard Editable Poly "Paint Deformation", and see if it always works.
I'm going to publish a new update in a few days. Thanks again for your effort and support.
Hope Extend Surface Script is now integrated in the new beta.
Cheers.
Extra Actions aren't added by default to avoid cluttering customization panel. To install them, click with right mouse button on IC.Shape UI header image and choose Add/Remove Actions.
Enjoy the two fully recoded tools Attach Nodes and Detach Elements, several times faster than previous version (and than standard Attach List).
Please report any issue you may find. Thanks.
To install new version, simply get it form the web site, then drag and drop the .mzp file on 3ds Max viewports. It starts the installation wizard that will handle the upgrade. You won't need to rewire the shortcuts.
I've actually hotkeyed all the tools I find most useful now so I can close the IC shape window, but if I close it then none of my hotkeys work anymore
I'd prefer if I can close it completely, but I put the collapsed ic shape window on the top main menu bar so at least it doesnt take up any extra space which is cool
Attachnodes seems to work very quickly, I didnt test the previous version much though so duno how much it has improved. I like that it doesnt ask me that condense material thing (attach options), hated that popup
I replaced my attach hotkey with your attachnodes, but then realised it doesn't work for attaching splines...
Previously I had editable poly group attach as the same hotkey as "attach spline" in the main menu, but since theres no "editable spline" group (well, there is, but its useless and only has 1 tool in there) I cant bind the "attaching" hotkeys together anymore.
thanks for getting beta 3 straight off. The Axis Align tool works on currently selected object only, I guess on a pure theoretical point of view, it could handle "snapping" on more than one object, but that would make the code more complex, for node+hit sorting and worse, heavier to execute. Anyway I thought about it too, and will keep this tip in mind. I could give it a shot in the future.
IC.Shape works with a lot of common structures, variables and callback functions to detect events, which are "alive" only when the UI is open. The idea is to have them in memory/executing in background, only when you really make use of them. I made the super compact form to allow the user to bury it somewhere, like next to "Help" voice in menu bar. Anyway standard 3ds Max interface has a lot of wasted space, even without trotting out the 2010.
Regarding the Attach Nodes, it can be further upgraded to handle splines too. I'm quite sure of it. Right now it attaches every kind of suitable node to first Editable Poly found in current selection, so the advice is to select the node to attach to, then all the others. I can make it work the same way with Editable Spline, whichever is found first, determines the attach type. As usual I need to run some tests.
Please let me know if you find any bug, or something's bothering you. Thanks.
Please let me know if anyone else is experiencing such issues, even if they're not directly connected to IC.Shape, since it makes use of thePainterInterface straight from 3ds Max. Thanks.
here is the error message:
tried it just to test, mine didnt crash, but instead my modifier list info has disappeared... which means now I can't edit any object in the scene.
Strange... never ever seen that happen before
Now I tried to repeat the problem and record it on screentoaster, but a different problem happens -.-
When I select another paint mode (face/edge), all of IC shape breaks and none of the buttons work anymore (it makes the 3d max error sound when you try to click on the buttons that have missing or incorrect scripts).
Just to reiterate/clarify; select ANY editable poly > press Paint > press another mode (face or edge) > IC shape messes up
But tbh, I'm really not that bothered because I havent been using that paint selection tool yet anyway
Edit: Im using max 2009 x64 too
The odd thing is I'm on 3ds Max 2009 x64 and cannot reproduce any of your issues.
I'll try to fix this, anyway, by introducing a callback function that stops instruments by hand whenever the sub-object level has been changed, hoping this would work.
To refer to your query about plugin conflicts, I don't think that could be the case as other then IC I only have TexTools installed on Max2009, With Max9 retaining most of my scripts instead. I did give it a shot with the standard paint tools but didn't run into any problems with them. So guess will just have to wait till I can get the updates for Max to re-test.
Also, found another bug with AttachNodes (on accident as I wasn't expecting to find any more bugs from it). Though this is probably fixed now in beta3, heres a video plus before/after scene files of the bug (sense again, can't test the new beta immidiatly):
Video
Pre-attach file
Post attach file
One other thing, the Draw function seems to have problems working with border edges. I tested this in both Max 2009 and Max9 just to be sure, sense the problem doesn't exist in the original IC. Here's a video showing the difference between IC1 and IC2b2:
Draw feature compare
When testing this I came across one other anomaly, which I'm not sure if is important or not. After finishing testing beta2 in Max9 and uninstalling it, I went to re-install IC1, and it told me it was going to uninstall IC1. This means that Beta2 is possibly either not getting rid of all IC1s files, or all of its own when performing either uninstallation.
About the crash, I heard other user experiencing it when switching sub-object level in instruments involving the Painter Interface. Unfortunately, it is not handled by IC.Shape, but by the Interface itself. And unfortunately I cannot reproduce any of these crash on my 3ds Max. Anyway I already coded a manual switch off that should take care of the painter interface avoiding the crash. Finger crossed, as I cannot test it.
The AttachNodes has been completely recoded in beta 3, but the modifiers handling is the same, and that issue you found is really weird. I think it has something to do with the Edit Poly Modifier. I now leave to the attach command the duty to collapse the stack before performing the attach, but I guess it would be better if I force it by hand. Let's see if it fixes the issue.
Draw had a bug. And is clear it is throwing a bug when stops working on your system. I fixed it in beta 3. As a test I've just built a scene like yours and it seemed to work well. Please let me know if you're still experiencing problems with beta 3.
About the uninstallation, I need to take a look at IllusionCatalyst 1. More on this after some tests. Thanks for the tips, your help is invaluable.
Attach Nodes is actually working as it is supposed to, despite the issue you pointed out. This means there's room for another upgrade step: you want to attach objects to Edit Poly Modifier, while the Attach Nodes attaches them to the Editable Poly BaseObject. If you like, run this test: in your scene, select the editable poly, turn off all modifiers, attach the line to the editable poly, then turn modifiers on again, you'll get the same result as IC.Shape tool.
<EDIT>
Bottom line, I can make the Attach Nodes look for the first node in selection with an Enabled Edit Poly Modifier on top and perform the attach to the Modifier found.
Otherwise if there is not such suitable modifier, look for the baseObject. If it is an Editable Poly, or an Editable Shape (as Yozora suggested) attach nodes to it. In this case it would be very important to select the relevant attaching node first, then all the others.
After reading the MaxScript documentation, it seems many cases like Edit Mesh Modifier, Edit Spline Modifier, don't allow to directly attach meshes/splines to them.
</EDIT>
Thanks to your scene I was able to discover another hideous bug in objects initialization when changing selection between two nodes with an Edit Poly Modifier on top.
About installation/uninstallation issue I run some tests, and both versions don't seem to leave any file on the system with the exception of IC.Shape, which leaves an empty folder in 3dsMax/scripts/ to avoid deleting other tools that could be stored there. Anyway I'll add checks to remove it too if empty, in next release.
The only annoyance I found is IllusionCatalyst 1.x.x deletes any IC.Tool when uninstalled. But installation checks are completely different for the two versions.
Thank you again for the high quality bug report.
I can align the IC Shape Bar to Left or Right...aligning to top or bottom would also be a awesome option...especially useful for widescreen.
Thought I'd post some new findings in beta3.
First some good news: Draw does indeed work now
Also, I found a way to solve both the panel switching and crash bugs. Simply enter and exit the Tweak tool and for the rest of that max session neither of the formentioned glitches will happen. Originally I thought this only solved the panel switching, but on a hunch I gave it a shot with the crash bug and it fixed that too. Theirs a bit of magic in that Tweak tool it seems
However I have also found two new bugs:
If 'Auto Base Obj' is enabled and the user enters a component mode of an editable poly modifier, despite the component selection being in editable poly it'll actually be happening on the base object (confusing). Another problem, though not really a bug per say, with the function is makes it so the user cant enter other modifiers at all unless directly selecting a component mode of theirs (like in the formentioned problem), the feature should however only affect the object when selecting from another object or if their was no selection prior.
The second bug is that the UI always docks to left, never right, when max starts up (ie, it forgets that preference). Despite this it does remember its assumed floater position, so if you undock it from the left side it'll appear as a floater on the right.
Let me know if you need vids for any of these. Oh, and happy new year
Right now I cannot work on the code, and be back to it in a few days. I'm glad the Draw instrument bug have been solved.
The issue about panel switching/crash is still under investigation, but you have just given me an important hint to understand what's going on. I guess there's something uninitialized related to "mouseTrack functions" that's been called and cause the issues. Now I got something to work on to try to make it work properly.
About Auto Base Object, I guess there is a command panel refreshing issue, where it doesn't reflect the actual modifier status, and other issues, when it forces the activation of base object while it is not always needed. I'll look into its behaviour a bit deeper, and try to make it smarter, even if I'm tied to MaxScript Callbacks Mechanism that not always can sort accurately what's going on.
I've already upgraded the Attach and Detach functions. They now handle Editable Polys and Edit Poly Modifiers as well. The example you recorded should now perform the attachment as you expected from the beginning, on the modifier, rather than on the base object.
I'll look into the docking feature too, that sounds quite weird as I remember to have it tested extensively, but I don't exclude bugs. It could be a simple variable to change.
Thank you very much for you thorough reports and suggestions. They're really important to me. A heartfelt thanks to all of you who gave their support along this still running coding ride, or simply use and like IllusionCatalyst. Happy new year to you all!
Attach Nodes and Detach Elements now work on Edit Poly Modifiers too. Editable Spline are still under evaluation because of some limitations of MaxScript.
Auto Base Object have been recoded to be less "aggressive" and switch to Base Object only on selection change.
Enjoy this new release and please report any issue you may find. Thanks for your support.
Since I posted and cant delete this post I may as well thank you again for this awesome tool, I've been using axis align alot and its really saved a lot of annoyance from copy and pasting numbers from the XYZ coordinate input boxes or settling for imperfect results
The right-dock bug is also gone, but in its place is a new bug that makes the Max panel icons and buttons appear in the viewport while in expert mode whenever a tool is entered or exited. Example vid:
Viewport bug video
It seems to happen despite the position of the panel, whether its docked or floating. Thankfully it goes away once the viewport is refreshed, but its still something that wasnt present in beta3.
Also, Their are a few very minor issues thought I'd bring up. The modify panel has an issue where when entering any brush modes it'll show nothing as being highlighted if the user had any other modifier selected before hand. IC still leaves folders after uninstall (something you mentioned in a previous post before beta4 was out, so just a reminder). The 'Keep Quads' is currently a bit inaccurate. This one caught my attention because I actually made my own quad-connect for Maya a few months back and noticed the same thing a bit after I started using it. Heres a pic to illustrate the issue:
As you can see the vert that should lie on the center is off slightly. I'm not sure how your going about the offset, but what I did was after making the two cuts (one for standard connect, and a second to make the tri and n-gons into a set of three quads) the middle vert was slid 33% of the way along the the second cuts edge (well actually 66% cause I calculated it from the far end, but whatever). pic:
Assuming your doing it the same way, should just be a matter of changing the slide %. Of course, I doubt you need me to explain any of that, but hey, never know, might be of some use
Edit:
Something else thought I'd bring up, the Span tool is a bit limited atm because of the fact that it only supports one ring/loop at a time, it'd be nice if it could perform multiple selections. For this it could simply identify individual rings/loops that selected components are on and allow 1 Span for each.
And whats with extendsurface script? Thought you wanted to integrate it in to beta 4?
Thanks for your efforts.
Cheers,
Serdar
Glad to hear this. It was really bad, and I didn't know what to do about the crashes because I couldn't reproduce the issue.
I just tested all previous released version and this bug seems to be there from the beginning. I can't understand how I missed it. There are quite a lot of things to test, but I guess I can do something for it. Thanks for the video.
EDIT: You are right, the issue has been introduced in latest beta 4. I have just tracked and solved it. It was caused by an "improvement" which reduced the Command Panel flickering, but I'll ditch it because of this nasty side effect.
I don't experience this, or I miss the point. As an example I set up a stack with Editable Poly Object + Edit Poly Modifier + TurboSmooth Modifier. If any modifier is active, as soon as any instrument is started, the Edit Poly Object becomes active and the Modifier Stack gets updated. Does it work differently for you?
I paid attention to the uninstallation process making sure it doesn't leave anything in the system. It now removes the "IllusionCatalyst" folder in the 3ds Max scripts directory too if it is empty. Do you find something is left on the system, or is it an issue coming up only when you try to install/reinstall IllusionCatalyst 1.1.1? It may be a problem of the old script.
Well, I know about the "keep quads", it is a long time question. It doesn't work exactly like yours, but it takes advantage of a peculiar 3ds Max function: "getSafeFaceCenter" which is averaged with other parameters too.
The "keep quads" option was born for organic modeling as the whole original toolset. Creating a 100% safe point was more important than actually get the perfect center in a very specific case: perfectly squared face joining two adjacent edges perfectly in their middle position. Anyway, I have on schedule to redesign the whole function, handling more cases too, so I'll pay attention to this one.
I agree. Span tool is quite primitive right now. The issue is with MaxScript calculation times. I had to design functions to get Edge Loops and Rings scanning quads "one by one", which is quite a slow process (well with the SDK it is instantaneous, but that's another story). When Span is called this process has to be repeated from 1 to several times and could require a certain amount of time, that's one of the reasons why I set this limit. There is room for enhancements, of course, but there is the chance I make a completely different and smarter tool for span selections, more like Pick Select.
Thank you very much for the tests, I'll post bug fixing and enhancements on IC.Shape page as they proceed.
I'm afraid it is not a bug. All tools except for some like Attach Nodes, Detach Elements and Geo Loop, work on Editable Poly Objects only. Edit Poly Modifier exposes a limited set of methods and it's not always possible to accomplish the same tasks on it. If some day I port all of this in C++, it will support both base object and modifier.
Before starting to add instruments and features I want to debug the current set to a reasonable degree. Let's say, when PolyHertz says it is OK
Thank to you all for support and feedback.
--Runtime error: fileIn: can't open file - "C:\Program files\Autodesk\3ds max 2010\scripts\IllusionCatalyst\IC_Shape_Shape_Macro_Core.ms
my max is installed in default location, i'm running of xp x64
thanks for help
thanks
Now that is weird. I'm using chrome and every time I download a .mzp it ends up getting a .mzp.zip at the end. I have always renamed them and removed the .zip to get it working.
It doesn't just apply to IC shape, same thing with textools as well. I didn't think it was a big enough problem to discuss though
I never thought it could cause problems, so adding a brief note for the downloaders doesn't hurt. If you're not into scripting and don't use free scripts extensively, may not even know what an mzp file is.
Anyway , IC_Shape is a great toolset (especially like your implementation of the slice tool.)
Great stuff, keep up the good work !
SHIFT + CTRL + LMB Drag Up/Down: Increase/Decrease brush diameter
SHIFT + ALT + LMB Drag Up/Down: Increase/Decrease brush pressure multiplier for those instruments where this parameter is meaningful, like Inflate/Deflate, while others like Draw and Erase disregard it and it's locked to 1.0
Oh also, no new bugs found, beta5 is looking good so far
This tool can be efficiently coupled with "Pivot" instrument: set the Working Pivot as you like and make it the active coordsys, then use Axis Project, it will follow current matrix orientation.
Glad to hear no new bugs have been found so far by the hereby appointed IC.Shape best tester
first of all, thank you very much for this really usefull tools ...i you allow me i would add something to the wishlist ... i dont know how difficult it is... im switched from maya to max and in maya we got this amazing G button that simply repeats every thing you´ve done ...max has also this button but in max it doesn´t repeats everything ...so my greatest wish would be to have such an "repeat my last action" button or shortcut... thanks in advice
bye
Cheers!