I've been working on a de-chamfer / un-chamfer script for 3DSMax lately. I was looking around for a way to do this in Max and the only stuff I could find was one old script from a decade ago with no working links anymore, and one that's part of a larger paid for toolset (and doesn't look like it can handle chamfers that border ngons). So I just made my own.
I messed around with the dechamfer script some more and managed to make some progress towards chamfer intersection support. Only very basic intersections work right now, but it's getting there
Adding the ability for people to change shelf height dynamically in Maya and will also be remembered after Maya restart which was incredibly challenging to figure out how to save load that data.
It might be in the future Right now I'm working on adding more features to the Max version, but once that's done I'll be looking at porting it to Blender and Maya.
added scripted gizmo width & length manipulators to my grid fill spline modifier, they are actually run/embedded from/in the plugin. gonna have to write mxs to string tool or get better at regex . It's relatively simple to create sdk versions but they are not quite the "cut n paste" as mxs variety.
Just finished creating a tool for my wife, she's modeling our new house before they build it and she's working in centimeters in Maya, but builders work in inches and feet so she wanted a tool that would convert inches and feet to cm, she also wants to times that by 1.6 because for her job that's the scale she works in for the game so I added that too. Also the tool can make 1x1 and 2x1 cubes based off whatever value is in the cm field.
Bro, I've been waiting for a spline to bool plugin for max since Lazer cut was announced, I just want it without the bloatwear.
Just wanna say that unless you go the extra mile and configure your own shortcut profile, the shortcut part will just lie dormant, you can turn off wheelCtrl if you don't like that, and you can remove the other modifiers too if they'd bother you for some reason - and you have pretty much lazercut standalone.
So long time no see, because I had a lot to do recently. BUT! Here is the next big deal I'm working on for 3dsmax.
It is called UVReactor which is a modifierless UV Editor for 3dsmax. Currently the feature list is not that huge, but the main point is to have a very well optimized system under the hood... Currently this is just a small preview about the performance of the viewport (which is OpenGL btw.) and real time syncing. (Actually it is working pretty fast with 1 million polygons as well, so I think I don't have to worry about the speed.) There are a whole bunch of Multi-Threaded operations implemented to have a really good responsiveness.
I have already implemented the most necessary things for it like, Split Edges, Stitch Edges, UV Shell Relaxing, basic UV transformations, Texel Density based UV normalization and scaling, all in real time etc...
Also if you want to follow the development, you will be able to do that here.
@pi3c3 My hero! I'd suggest making it scriptable if at all possible - recent versions of max don't seem to be crashy and shit when applying a modifier to multiple objects so I'd say the key to this thing's success is having a good enough featureset (or the ability to extend it myself ) to make me want to use it over the existing UV editor (being able to dock a sodding toolbar to it would be a good start)
@pi3c3 My hero! I'd suggest making it scriptable if at all possible - recent versions of max don't seem to be crashy and shit when applying a modifier to multiple objects so I'd say the key to this thing's success is having a good enough featureset (or the ability to extend it myself ) to make me want to use it over the existing UV editor (being able to dock a sodding toolbar to it would be a good start)
Thanks!
Actually it is also planned. Not just the current features, but a proper maxscript and c++ API. Similar to the polyop system, but it will be uvrop. The current system let's you dump a lot of data from the UVR and also let you to modify them. The plan is to create a fully scriptable system which is efficient to use. One of the main issues with polyop as well, that it's using BitArrays in most cases as interop objects which are extremely slow due to the massive amount of iterations. But there are a lot more things I'm planning to finish in the future. Currently I'm working on the UV Packer algorithm, which is actually the last and probably the most complicated part of the entire thing. If I finish with that, then I'll start writing the user interface which is a pretty quick and easy thing, compared to the rest of the system.
Updated the script, made it both "editable" as a cube or a sphere and separated segs and sides and added spherical mapping and negative s. Any way enjoy someone may find it useful/
@pi3c3 cool, I think the most requested feature for packing is being able to group UV shells as stacks that stay together and define a group of shells that stays together but doesn't stack. I got the UV shell grouping working in Maya using a hack in my UV tool, but I haven't found a way to group shells into their own containers that pack correctly.
@pi3c3 cool, I think the most requested feature for packing is being able to group UV shells as stacks that stay together and define a group of shells that stays together but doesn't stack. I got the UV shell grouping working in Maya using a hack in my UV tool, but I haven't found a way to group shells into their own containers that pack correctly.
I actually already have all the things to write a similar thing like the one you mentioned. Geo verts just have to reference the same tVerts to stack together similar shells. Also keeping together grouped clusters shoudn't be a problem either. My system is quite flexible to be honest.
One feature I'd like for lightmap UVs, be able to flag low priority UV islands that just fill any empty space left over. Nice for areas that should almost always be hidden.
@ZacD For low priority shells for lightmaps I turn off scaling and then scale those shells down layout so they stay smaller than the rest of the pack, this also means they usually fill in the wasted space. I developed a light mapping toolbox for Maya if you're interested you can see a video here
Wow very impressive, that was always my dream to have a dynamic bevel back when I was still modeling things. How are you doing the actual custom bevel node, is it in the API or can a geometry node be created in mel?
I finally figured out how to do select every other face or vert in Maya using mel. I hadn't seen this done in Maya other than Python so I wasn't sure if it was possible, but I eventually found a solution. You can make your own user defined patterns as well, besides just alternating you can do 2/on 2/off, 3/on 3/off, 4/on 4/off etc.
Wow very impressive, that was always my dream to have a dynamic bevel back when I was still modeling things. How are you doing the actual custom bevel node, is it in the API or can a geometry node be created in mel?
Thanks malcolm. its using polyDuplicateAndConnect to feed the original mesh to another shape node. so like this origmeshShape>Bevel>FinalShape. No api, pure mel.
actually theres a bunch of stuff i need to workout. bevel on a boolean object is unstable, very crash prone. Also the if objects is somewhat hires bevel is super slow, this is something that autodesk needs to fix on their side.
Ah yes, that's what I ran into the performance was unacceptable. I've heard if you make things like that a plugin you get the performance back, but I have no idea how to use the API language and also when you make a plugin it only works for the version of Maya you compile it for which is super limiting for the consumer. I still make all my tools in mel it's the most compatible backward/forward mac and LT.
@onionhead_o how is the stability when you have a lot of booleans stacked and you start tweaking those booleans? (moving them around / adding more bevel edges etc) / or making tweaks on the boolean geo? I found out that because of the history if you have too many stacked and you tweak the booleans you get unstable restuls (random edges get beveled) Is that the same case for you?
yes stacking many booleans will slow it down for sure. But its mainly the stability of booleans in general. Since it can create non-manifold edges and vertices which bevel doesnt really like. And when the polyBevel fails to compute. It could lead to crashes.
Replies
i imagine theres also a shape extrusion version possible
angled line with extrude mod applied
Right now I'm working on adding more features to the Max version, but once that's done I'll be looking at porting it to Blender and Maya.
a transpose normals mod
Plugin or script?
So long time no see, because I had a lot to do recently. BUT! Here is the next big deal I'm working on for 3dsmax.
It is called UVReactor which is a modifierless UV Editor for 3dsmax. Currently the feature list is not that huge, but the main point is to have a very well optimized system under the hood... Currently this is just a small preview about the performance of the viewport (which is OpenGL btw.) and real time syncing. (Actually it is working pretty fast with 1 million polygons as well, so I think I don't have to worry about the speed.) There are a whole bunch of Multi-Threaded operations implemented to have a really good responsiveness.
I have already implemented the most necessary things for it like, Split Edges, Stitch Edges, UV Shell Relaxing, basic UV transformations, Texel Density based UV normalization and scaling, all in real time etc...
Also if you want to follow the development, you will be able to do that here.
I hope you like what you see anyways.
Cheers,
Mike
But
@pi3c3
My hero!
I'd suggest making it scriptable if at all possible - recent versions of max don't seem to be crashy and shit when applying a modifier to multiple objects so I'd say the key to this thing's success is having a good enough featureset (or the ability to extend it myself ) to make me want to use it over the existing UV editor (being able to dock a sodding toolbar to it would be a good start)
Actually it is also planned. Not just the current features, but a proper maxscript and c++ API. Similar to the polyop system, but it will be uvrop.
Nice work though Sire!
too early for a crimbo tree ?
texture was grabbed of da web so not ideal
A quick update about the UV Packing algorithm I'm working on currently:
(which has a poly count independent performance, so it took 1 sec on a Single Thread
I actually already have all the things to write a similar thing like the one you mentioned. Geo verts just have to reference the same tVerts to stack together similar shells. Also keeping together grouped clusters shoudn't be a problem either. My system is quite flexible to be honest.
Thanks malcolm. its using polyDuplicateAndConnect to feed the original mesh to another shape node. so like this origmeshShape>Bevel>FinalShape. No api, pure mel.
how is the stability when you have a lot of booleans stacked and you start tweaking those booleans? (moving them around / adding more bevel edges etc) / or making tweaks on the boolean geo?
I found out that because of the history if you have too many stacked and you tweak the booleans you get unstable restuls (random edges get beveled)
Is that the same case for you?