jbUDK Tools -- UDK tools script for Maya

jbuck

Hello everyone. I've had this UDK Tools script around for awile now and recently polished it up into a Python version that I believe to be a more useful tool. It's free.

Features:

• Ability to quickly switch between the UDK grid and the default Maya grid
• Custom grid division settings
• Transform tools for positioning meshes and/or pivots in level designer friendly locations
• Quickly create useful references
• A Unreal Unit/standard unit real-time float field calculator
• Batch Exporter that uses an FBX preset file and can automatically position your mesh for export, then place it back to its original location in your scene.

Additions to version 1.1 based on user feedback (see help file for full details):
* Automatically loads FBX export preset file when the script is run
* Basic UI coloring for clarity
* Object/pivot transform now separate tools
* Auto load of custom references with buttons for each
* Batch export prefix/suffix option
* Stacking transform tool

v1.11
Bug Fix: Float and int fields can now be updated with either the regular or num-pad enter keys

v1.12
Feature: Added option in the 'Settings' dropdown to keep custom grid color settings or use jbUDK Tools grid color settings

v1.20
Update: UI now works with Maya 2013.

v.1.30
Update: Updated for Maya 2014

Latest version (1.30) can be downloaded here
Help file is here

haiddasalami

Nice stuff! I assume your using the object name and not allowing the user to set a name on export?

jbuck

Thanks. Yes, it inherits the object name on export. I was thinking about adding a simple prefix/suffix system in future versions but all other suggestions are welcome!

haiddasalami

jbuck wrote: »

Thanks. Yes, it inherits the object name on export. I was thinking about adding a simple prefix/suffix system in future versions but all other suggestions are welcome!

Ah. yeah I tried figuring out an elegant solution to the user defining names but didnt come up with any when I made an fbx exporter for unreal. The reference bit is definitely a nice touch. :thumbup:

NoltaN

Wow these are great! Does anyone know if anything like this exists for Max?

Ace-Angel

^Nope.

jbuck

There must be something for Max, but when people cobble scripts like this together they often end up as 'proprietary.'

passerby

like your script a lot,

maybe a button to add the collision prefix for fbx export would be cool to have too.


also for the reference option a user-definable mesh would be nice, since a lot of people exported out one of the default UT3 characters, or they have there own player mesh.

overall nice script, the batch export, with the auto pivot positions is really nice when working on modular environment assets.

add that too the import features UDK already has for FBX, such as lodgroups, and importing of referenced materials, and textures, and the UDK pipeline is getting pretty dam efficient and fast.

jbuck

Thanks.

Totally agree on the UCX naming. I'm thinking: take the name of the first selected mesh and apply it to all subsequent selections as 'UCX_firstSelectedMeshName_number'. I might prefer this to a guided dialogue.

User definable reference is a great idea. I'm thinking .ma, .mb or obj.

btw... the batch exporter is in it's infancy and while it works well for lots of meshes, you'll have less luck with LOD groups. That's worth thinking about.

passerby

you sure i did a batch export of 2 objects both with lods groups, and it had no issue.

i just selected the LODGroups from the outliner when added them to the batch export instead of clicking the object in the scene.

oh my FBX export preset, didn't seem to survive a maya restart, is there a way to make it remeber that, or maybe a parameter to launch the tool with that selects the preset file.

jbuck

Good to hear and makes sense as it exports anything you've added to the list. I was thinking it would be nice to iterate through groups automatically -- probably more trouble than it's worth at this point.

The FBX export preset needs to be reloaded every time you restart the script. It does default to your current project location so I keep my presets in there but it currently won't auto load it -- I'll look into adding that.

passerby

ya don't think you need to do much or anything more with the lod groups, since they are supported by FBX, and UDK already knows what to do with them.

as far as the fbx preset file, maybe something as simple as a launch parameter for the tool, since im sure most people are firing it up via a shelf button anyways.

going to do some more testing, tomorrow when i have a good amount of time, and will post any bugs, or possible features for you.

jbuck

Thanks, let me know what you come up with for both bugs/features. So far for features I have:
* UCX collision naming
* Batch export prefix/suffix option
* Load FBX preset file automatically
* Custom reference mesh loader
* Stacking -> DONE for v1.01. Nice bounding box stacking as opposed to the quirky Maya align stacking.A pain to do but I like the results.

passerby

ya been doing e bit of messing about, and haven't found any additional bugs, and everything works as expected.

it's really nice how i can select a whole group of objects for export and it does it as 1 fbx, since that allows me to easily export with out combing meshes into 1 object.

i expect to be working on UDK environment sometime next week, so will give this a try while im doing that, and make sure texture and material references, and lods and everything still exports fine, with larger scenes.

sofar don't really see anything new feature wise but what was already suggested.

Ignoto

Thanks!
A really usefull tollkit.
I ´m going to download, and use it in the next asset for my proyect.

Paragon

Hey Guys!
Nice stuff jbuck!
I decided to go ahead and make a max version since people were asking for it.
download here!
:P

Oniram

awesome job on this dude.

Bal

This is great, as passerby said, I especially love that you can export groups as one FBX (combined with the "combine meshes" option when importing in UDK), make it simpler, don't need to merge unnecessary stuff.

One request, maybe this is something I haven't figured out how to avoid : Why does it always ask me the path and open the FBX export window as soon as I do an export? This is wasted time as usually I'm always keeping the same settings. It would be good to be able to set the path once and for all, and bypass the FBX export window, this would really speed things up as exporting would really be a one click solution once everything is set up.

passerby

Bal wrote: »

This is great, as passerby said, I especially love that you can export groups as one FBX (combined with the "combine meshes" option when importing in UDK), make it simpler, don't need to merge unnecessary stuff.

One request, maybe this is something I haven't figured out how to avoid : Why does it always ask me the path and open the FBX export window as soon as I do an export? This is wasted time as usually I'm always keeping the same settings. It would be good to be able to set the path once and for all, and bypass the FBX export window, this would really speed things up as exporting would really be a one click solution once everything is set up.

maybe having it export to the same directory that the scenes MB is in, or a sub-directory of it. like scenedirctory/export.

Tutstastic

Awesome to see new versions of these scripts. I still use your original tool every time I make models for UDK.

jbuck

Thanks all. As Tutstastic mentions this in the latest version of a tool set that I created back in 2007 for Unreal 3.

@Bal -- it's asking you where to put the files on export every-time because I didn't look into a way to "remember" where you last exported to. It does, however default to your current project. Would be easy to have it pick a folder from there or create one -- prob better to have it "remember" where you last exported to though? FWIW, having to choose a folder on export seems to be the system default for all exports, especially since it overwrites whats in the directory.

Also, I think autoloading FBX presets would be helpful. Maybe from the root location of the active project?

Thanks for the feedback!

Bal

You could use the current maya project settings to define where the exports should go, that would seem logical, and I don't really understand why you have to preload the FBX settings at all since each time you export it still opens the FBX options window (would be nicer if it didnt ).

jbuck

You only have to load the FBX preset file each time you run the script. You don't have to load it each time you export. I will find a way to get it to autoload when you run the script.

The latest Maya 2012 hotfix or service pack seems to address an issue with the MEL filedialog2 function which I use for file-browsing in this script. On at least one of the systems I tested on I had to update Maya to get the FBX settings to load properly.

Bal

jbuck, what I mean, is that each time I export, after pressing OK for the folder, I also have the FBX option window that pops up that I have to OK as well, is there a way to avoid that?

jbuck

If you keep the script open it will keep the FBX preset file loaded and not prompt you for it. What OS/Maya version are you running?

jbuck

Updated to V1.10 based on feedback (thanks all). See top post for download link and help file.
V 1.10 adds:
* Automatically loads FBX export preset file when the script is run
* Basic UI coloring for clarity
* Object/pivot transform now separate tools
* Auto load of custom references with buttons for each
* Batch export prefix/suffix option
* Stacking transform tool

Please get back to me with bugs.

Bal

jbuck wrote: »

If you keep the script open it will keep the FBX preset file loaded and not prompt you for it. What OS/Maya version are you running?

Yeah for me each time I click on export, it pops the FBX box open again, weird, I'm using
Maya 2011 hotfix 3 x32, on Windows 7 x64. Haven't gotten around to trying it on Maya 2012 yet.

Will try the new version asap, looks good!

jbuck

Please let me know if you have any issues with the new version. Also looking for feature requests.

Lots of downloads so far, the majority of them initiated from Polycount.

jbuck

v1.11 Available
Bug Fix: Float and int fields can now be updated from either the numpad or regular enter key.

Download Here

Norron

This tool is immensely helpful. Thanks for taking the time to develop it.

Support for grid axis and number colors would be helpful though. When I hit one of the plugin's grid presets it resets the colors back to maya's almost invisible gray.

jbuck

Norron, good to hear. You're welcome.

Do you have custom grid colors set? The script sets grid colors based on what I thought was most appropriate for the settings and default background but they will overwrite what you have set. Should be simple to add an option to leave the grid colors/numbers alone when toggling grid settings -- do you think that would solve the issue?

Norron

That would be great. My only problem was it overwriting back to default.

jbuck

v1.12 is now available. I added an option in the 'Settings' dropdown to use the script's settings. If this is NOT checked it will maintain your custom settings. Please verify that this works on your end.

Download location is the the same: jbUDK Tools v 1.12

passerby

sorry to necro this, but after not using this for a while, and trying ot use it again im having some issues with it.

when ever i try to set the FBX export preset file, it just does nothing and gives me a error.


here is the console output for running the script, and trying to set the file.

import jbUDKtools
jbUDKtools.jbUDKtoolsUI()
No FBX preset file found
Custom reference folder ' UDKreference ' NOT found.
jbUDK Tools v1.12  |  Josh Buck 2008-2012  |  www.cgartistry.com
# Error: RuntimeError: file C:/Users/Chris/Documents/maya/2012-x64/scripts\jbUDKtools.py line 296: Object 'fbxExportPresetT' not found. #

jbuck

Hey there. No problem.

Those aren't errors, just messages. When jbUDK Tools is launched it looks in your current Maya project folder for a few things: 1) An FBX preset file, 2) a folder called UDKreference. If you want to access these things automatically when you run the script you should set your project first and make sure they exist.

The FBX preset file can be created in Maya from the FBX exporter and has the '.fbxexportpreset' file extension. See the help file for details. To have the FBX preset loaded automatically when you run the script, put it in the root of your active Maya project. You can also manually load an FBX preset file but you'll have to load it again each time you run the script.

jbUDK Tools can also create a button for each .mb file in a folder called 'UDKreference' in the active project. Handy for dropping down references or assets in your spaces.

Get back to me if more info would be helpful.

passerby

ah thanks mate, i wasnt working with a project setup, just a scene file, but ya once i set a project up, and dragged in my fbx preset, it all worked as expected.

passerby

you should add a option to the auto postion tool in the batch export, to move everythign to the center based on there already set object pivot points, instead of LFB, CFB, CB, or C.

since in a lot of cases neither of those are suitable.

jbuck

A very good idea -- haven't had much feedback on this feature. For the time being you should be able to position them yourself and still use the batch exporter. I will look into adding what you suggest.

jbuck

v1.20 now available.

* Resolves the UI issues with Maya 2013 yet maintains compatibility with Maya 2011 and 2012.

Latest version can be downloaded here.

Please let me know of any bugs/issues.

Lucas Annunziata

Bumping this super awesome tool that has helped save me plenty of time when exporting assets.

jbuck

Haha... Right-on. Glad you've found it useful and thanks for the kudos.

bugo

I'm getting this error: # Error: RuntimeError: Invalid file type specified: FBX export

any help?

System

Have you got the fbx plugin loaded in maya?

bugo

Yep, I also tried setting up the FBX preset and Maya project, nothing...

jbuck

When are you getting the error? Which version of Maya?

bugo

Maya 2011
Im getting the error while trying to export individual or batch.

jbuck

Try: Restart Maya. Set project to a project folder with an FBX preset file. Run jbUDKTools. Try to export. Same error? If so, can you export FBX from the menu (normally)?

bugo

When I do that, no errors appear, the place set to export doesnt have any FBX files in it, only the preset file. Yep, I can export from the normal FBX export menu.

If I try to export batch same error appear again.
# Error: RuntimeError: Invalid file type specified: FBX export #

jbuck

I have to ask... have you read the help file? I just want to make sure you understand how it's supposed to work. Let me know if that helps.

http://cgartistry.com/help/jbUDKtoolsHelp.html

Lucas Annunziata

Heyo! So the good news is that the tool still works for Maya 2014 wooooo! The only issue is you can't adjust the size of the tool window, and it is set to a larger size.

jbuck

Hey Lucas. Yes, both jbUDKtools and jbUnityTools need to be updated for Maya 2014. There was a UI bug in Maya 2013 and I implemented version detection as a solution. I'll fix them very soon, hopefully this weekend. Thanks for the heads up!