Home Technical Talk

[3ds Max Plugin] Radially - pie menu editor for 3ds Max

node
Offline / Send Message
Winged node

Hello!

I made a plugin for 3ds Max - Radially.

It is a pie menu editor for 3ds max that can handle up to 12 3ds Max actions actions per pie menu. Here is a link to the demonstration video. Radially is still in active development, but its most valuable features are already implemented and I am ready to get some feedback on it.

There is more info available on the Gumroad page of the product, so if you are interested - check it out!

Replies

  • Revel
    Offline / Send Message
    Revel interpolator
    Bryan and Perna did a pie menu maxscript few years back here; http://polycount.com/discussion/comment/1664518/#Comment_1664518 and I'm still using it until today, but it does required a basic maxscript understanding to edit it to your need. Radially looks more user friendly, sure, but for that high price tag (with a 1 year maintenance fee? after that user user need to purchase the license again?), I'm not too sure man, sorry.
  • Winged
    Offline / Send Message
    Winged node
    Revel said:
    Bryan and Perna did a pie menu maxscript few years back here; http://polycount.com/discussion/comment/1664518/#Comment_1664518 and I'm still using it until today, but it does required a basic maxscript understanding to edit it to your need. Radially looks more user friendly, sure, but for that high price tag (with a 1 year maintenance fee? after that user user need to purchase the license again?), I'm not too sure man, sorry.

    Thank you for your reply! The thing is, you don't need to purchase new license to continue to use Radially, you only need new license in case you want to get new updates, get support for future versions of 3ds Max, etc., after a year of use. You can freely use Radially for the lifetime with only one license, but only with one year of updates.
  • Winged
    Offline / Send Message
    Winged node
    Okay, based on the feedback I was able to receive, I have changed the price tag, and, from now on, you are buying the plugin and all its future updates with one purchase. No annual payments anymore! I guess I made a mistake in my pricing policy, my bad.
  • Revel
    Offline / Send Message
    Revel interpolator
    That's awesome decision man, thanks for doing that! :smiley:

    The only maintenance I guess you will be doing (?) is to compile the plugin for future version of Max and some feature updates that isn't implemented yet within the first year.

    By removing the maintenance fee, for us the user will be more confident buying your product since we know it will be compatible with any version of max as long as the product still alive.
  • Winged
    Offline / Send Message
    Winged node
    Revel said:
    That's awesome decision man, thanks for doing that! :smiley:

    The only maintenance I guess you will be doing (?) is to compile the plugin for future version of Max and some feature updates that isn't implemented yet within the first year.

    By removing the maintenance fee, for us the user will be more confident buying your product since we know it will be compatible with any version of max as long as the product still alive.
    Yeah, sure. It seems like not a big deal, to make a plugin compatible with future versions of Max. As of new features - I have some improvements planned, and at least one major feature update (context based pie menus, i.e. multiple pie menus on one keyboard shortcut), but no ETA on this.
  • thomasp
    Offline / Send Message
    thomasp hero character
    first - i'm not on max anymore so not a potential customer.  but if i still were - what would the advantage be over the (pretty nice) quad menu that ships with max?

    just checked your video and from what it shows you will need a graphical (drag&drop) interface for users to create those pies that comes with a quick-test functionality so you can see right away what you are creating. also the ability to store and reload and transfer those pies between installs.

    are the pies hierarchical at all? as in can you create links to sub menu's to jump between pies? and can you trigger functionality 'blind' by making a gesture/hotkey+stroke and finishing before the pie pops up? that's a big one with maya, mudbox, wherever these are common.

    on screen the pies seem really far apart in your demo. medium size buttons with rather small text and they seem to overlap the command panel, too if you fire them too close to the border.
    these should not display outside the viewport or at the very least have some sort of obvious border when they overlay other GUI items. and you'll want to be able to set size and distance from center to your liking.

    layout -wise the maya marking menu makes more sense to me: fewer actions prominently displayed in a star pattern and then a block of secondary functions below. personally i'd never configure more than four primary ones so i can fire off 'blind'. if the whole point behind these menus is to hit them quickly for frequently-used functionality then you'll not want 12 icons to pick from.

    lastly i don't know if max supports that but other apps allow you to e.g. incorporate sliders, drop-downs and other UI elements into pie menus. would be neat i think.



    perhaps check out the blender addon 'pie menu editor' for some inspiration. i have made use of that to create basically a context sensitive screen overlay similar to the maya hotbox where i have context switches and sliders for sculpt brushes, material settings and whatnot - but by default it's for creating pie menus similar to yours.

    it's extremely powerful and a reference for what these tools should be able to do IMO.
    here's a quick rundown with example screens to flick through - no need to listen to the review as such: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWwBbnV1IOs

    also check out this one, neatly designed. more like what i'm using: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJArcg4cn-8

  • Revel
    Offline / Send Message
    Revel interpolator
    @thomasp - both is pie menu, but functionally it's kinda different in my opinion. The pie menu you showed on the video more like a quad menu in max arranged in pie-chart style. But the script that Bryan and Perna did I posted above (and Radially maybe?) is more about gesture flicking to make you work faster. IMO for this kinda pie-menu where you need to read your menu text to find what are you looking for is kinda removed the original gesture flicking idea and the function only bring the shortlisted list of menu that you can find on the menubar on top to near your mouse cursor.

    For me personally I divide my custom quad and pie-menu in 2 different way;
    Quad menu,- frequent modifier list, custom script that required to bring UI interaction and a toggle state (so I can see whether it's on or off)
    Pie menu,- Viewport view (top/ bottom/ etc), viewport shading (shaded/ flat, wires on-off/ etc), align component (align left/ right/ etc) and kinda bonus addition thing I got a pie menu for boolean ops as well.

    So the idea is that Quad is for things that required further actions (setting up properties) and Pie is for an instant action once you flick it'll happen right away.

    ---

    I do agree about Radially looks too big distant wise from one button to another and 12 menu is kinda too much for action I mentioned above, 8 should be the sweet spot where you can be sure to flick in 8, 45deg directions without having to read the menu text.
  • Winged
    Offline / Send Message
    Winged node
    Radially is more about gesture flicking, in future - context-based. But that was some nice feedback, @thomasp, I wrote down some things in my "potential features" list, thanks!

    For clarification on some things you mentioned:
    1) Pie menus are transferable across installs already
    2) Pie menus are not hierarchical right now (I guess this would be kind of hard to make convenient, because Radially was designed with no mouse clicks in mind)
    3) I guess by blind functionality you mean quick action call without mouse clicks - this is exactly how the plugin works right now

    And yeah, I agree that maybe 12 actions is too much, but there is no point in reducing this number, may be it will be useful for someone. Others can just don't make such a big pie actions list.
  • Winged
    Offline / Send Message
    Winged node
    Just a quick notice, Radially got experimental support for 3ds Max 2015/2016 and a couple of bugfixes since the first release. Experimental support lacks only one feature - icons on pie menu buttons.
  • Br0ken
    Offline / Send Message
    Br0ken polycounter lvl 3
    @Winged
    "Radially needs an active Internet connection due to license verification mechanisms."
    It's just one-time verification or Internet connection needs to be permanent?
  • Winged
    Offline / Send Message
    Winged node
    @Br0ken
    Hi! It is a one-time verification at the each start of 3ds Max.
  • Br0ken
    Offline / Send Message
    Br0ken polycounter lvl 3
    @Winged
    So, if I start 3ds Max without Internet connection, Radially will be unavailable?
  • Winged
    Offline / Send Message
    Winged node
    @Br0ken
    Unfortunately, yes.
  • Winged
    Offline / Send Message
    Winged node
    @Br0ken
    Actually, I plan to disable license verification on startup in the near future, so if anyone is interested - feel free to follow me on Gumroad for the updates.
  • Br0ken
    Offline / Send Message
    Br0ken polycounter lvl 3
    @Winged
    Good to hear that!
    Looking forward to context-based menus.
    And will be good to add option for change pie menus to more compact Maya-style.
  • Winged
    Offline / Send Message
    Winged node
    @Br0ken
    Yeah, compact pie menu layout was introduced in 1.1.0 update, I just didn't update the video and the thumbnail...
    It looks like this now, menu reduced in size by half overall: 
  • Br0ken
    Offline / Send Message
    Br0ken polycounter lvl 3
    @Winged
    Cool. One more question: is it possible to change pie menu radius to more tight?




  • Winged
    Offline / Send Message
    Winged node
    @Br0ken
    Hm, even more tight? Right now this isn't possible, but I'll think of that.
  • Fwap
    Offline / Send Message
    Fwap polycounter lvl 13
    Hey, I'm using 3ds Max 2017, and i can't seem to get the pie menu to behave, i've got the plugin working up to the point where i've populated a pie menu, but when i go to click one of the menu items on the pie, it doesn't do anything, it just moves the pie menu further away each attempt.

    If you need more info, i can send a gif

    Cheers
  • Winged
    Offline / Send Message
    Winged node
    @Fwap
    Hi!
    If I understand it right, you are trying to click on the menu items on the pie. The plugin doesn't work that way, it just wants you to hover over the item and let go your shortcut key, then it'll execute the action.
  • Fwap
    Offline / Send Message
    Fwap polycounter lvl 13
    ohh, got ya.
    My bad, thanks for the help. 
  • Geekson
    Offline / Send Message
    Geekson polycounter lvl 3
    Amazing tool. I've been using this for like two months and have never encountered any bugs or crashes caused by radially. Works fast, easy to setup and edit menus, an opportunity to export settings to another workplace. 
    Looking forward to context-based menus, and It would be really great to make the circle a bit tighter (or to have an opportunity to set radius manually)
  • Winged
    Offline / Send Message
    Winged node
    Thank you for the kind words, @Geekson!
  • mickeyvpn
    Offline / Send Message
    mickeyvpn polycounter lvl 8
    @Winged
    I agree with @Br0ken more tight radius will be more comfortable, less travel distance from center to the button. I prefer MODO's pie menu. If you will provide control for the radius, I'm pretty sure I'll buy it. :) 


  • Winged
    Offline / Send Message
    Winged node
    @mickeyvpn
    I'll see what I can do about that.
    Just for everyone to know: you don't need to hover the actual button, you just need to move the cursor a little bit in the direction of desired button. The said travel distance is very low even now, it's just the visual representation that makes it look cumbersome.
Sign In or Register to comment.