cavity render had to go for this release - still not done. It basicly applies a cavity map (concarve / convex = black / white) to either the vertex color channel or renders it as a texture map. Almost the same as in Polyboost or now max2010 except that I can access it in max 9 as well without polyboost or alike. It has kind of a different touch as lets say the AO render and can be a nice alternative in some cases.
about the rest of the tools - I am right now recording my voice with some screen capturing to explain what each function does in this release- so you can see in motion how to use what.
1/3:
intro, installation, toolbox overview, setup, openEditor, checker maps, #flat view, open in Photoshop, render wireframe to clipboard, render face selection to clipboard, render AO map to clipboard
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArpQY5XhnEw[/ame]
2/3:
uv editing: pack selection, explode selection, crop selection, line up shells, straighten vertex/edge selection, relax edge/ vertex selection, align shell by edge, compress selection to a minimum height, stack uv shells, flatten selection to single shell.
Texel Density: pick density, apply texel density, normalize texel scale
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AcQz4T2_FU[/ame]
may they be a good start into learning what's behind those buttons
edit: just that you guys now the voice is speed forwarded by 1.2x so at some spots little parts of words might get under. I hope though its clear for everyone to understand.
Also, thanks for the vids, I enjoyed watching thought them, they gave me some better understanding of some of the buttons I still haven't used and i'll most definitely will now! :P
Like the align button for example, so handy! Just select an edge with the desired angle, and press align, no more shell rotating until it looks correctly aligned now!
Good work with the new lineup button, too bad ctrl+Z don't work if you want to undo it, after you press it.
is there a way to change the packing, so it uses some pixel padding? I've changed the values at the top, but it just packs everything tight against each other. Works great otherwise.
thanks
Good work with the new lineup button, too bad ctrl+Z don't work if you want to undo it, after you press it.
hmm you are right, there is something odd going on. Will fix that for sure !
@ airbrush: you mean this button?
because the pack button ( )should in fact incorporate the pixel padding.
will add soon a temporary sub version that will include the rectify draft version and some minor fixes like the pixel padding space in the explode function. thanks for the feedback so far
hello.
i am new to max and have been checking out your uv tools, fantastic.
i have a quick question/concern.
basically i have a poly object with multi-sub object materials applied to the mesh with different uv maps (i think that the stack was collapsed)
i need to output an obj file with separate uv sets, as the first one is lets say the head, and the 'map channel' 2 is the torso, but when i export an obj file,
and open in another program, it only the first uv map channel(the head) show up, and i think sorta overwrites the other maps for the torso, hands, etc.
my question is whether there is a funcion/way to export the obj file with all uv layers, or choose the active one in max and export the obj with that as the active map.....
this has been frying my brain for a few days, and any help would be more than greatly appreciated.
Oh nice... will wait till you have released this, then look at the code and try to make a Maya version of the Rectify tool, if that's ok!
i'd be happy to explain it - was planning on creating some illustrations on how it works from the mechanics because thats how I planned it using drawings
great stuff...rectify will come in handy, usually end up doing that by selecting each row of verts and using an align script. Definitely will save some more time and aggravation.
renderhjs, do you take requests for scripts outside of UV'ing? because id love to have a script that could make a bridge connection that is bendable thru its segments.
renderhjs, do you take requests for scripts outside of UV'ing? because id love to have a script that could make a bridge connection that is bendable thru its segments.
I dunno, propably dont have time for it now- UV is something I need very often myself + its a big interest of me. I assume its a kind of lofting with a twist parameter and intersections slider. Though the default max editPoly bridge command is already quite powerfull.
Maybe create a thread for it with some sample illustration because perhaps there is already such a script available.
i'd be happy to explain it - was planning on creating some illustrations on how it works from the mechanics because thats how I planned it using drawings
this is how it works at the moment
it might give a better overview if you should port the code - or perhaps improve it.
certainly the most important addition is the new rectify button (also map able as its registered as a macroscript). There are however certain limits which is also why I created the earlier illustration so that you guys know whats roughly going on behind. here is a smal video of a typical workflow with it:
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_NfdU5dIMM[/ame]
and here is a little chart on what will go right and what not (the same could be applied to the vertical exis,- its more about the break between U and V in a flow e.g bend)
as soon as you have something that goes 45° around it usually crushes the verts that go over.
Its also non perfect so experiment a little bit to know how to use it best. I might some day write it completely different with incorporating real world object face attributes like all of the other relaxing methods work out there.
next up are some additions to the macroscripts (the functions you can map on your keyboard or custom menus)
that should cover for now the most important shortcuts
as a little bonus this time/post here is a 4 min. unwrap video of something I talked with nrek about. He pm'ed me asking some specifics about texTools and eventually I ended up creating some videos for him
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQXCFF8alBs[/ame]
the video mainly shows the iron function which quickly flattens the selection to single shell. In the 2nd part some elements are lined up and rectified.
The relax feature is cool, but I was trying to use it today and it didn't want to work most of the time. I tried using the rectify which worked better in some cases.
A programmer at work made a tool quite a while back like your relax tool, but idk what he did, but I can take a poly strip that's in a complete circle, cut it into 2 ( shapes and it will relax them into a straight strip.
the relax only works on edges,- that was a old concept - maybe I should adopt it now to context sensitive selections e.g faces or edges.
If you hit however the Iron button it will in fact flatten your strip or face selection and relax it,- right click on that one to start easing (like a constant easing on your selection) hit either left or mouse button on the button again to disable the easing (might cause otherwise a CPU hog if used without care and not disabled proper).
I also thought about some automator like in UVlayout in which you select multiple UV sets and the script will run each shell for a defined time span and try to relax it as much as possible while you can get a coffee or so.
I still have lots of ideas to add,- will scan in some sketches and notes I made
Ill download the new script now and test it out. I almost always work in Faces mode in the UV edit window, and sometimes verts if I need to weld. Ok, and I guess edges if I stitch, but then I switch back to face mode again right away.
Not sure if anyone else has encounter this yet. I'm working in Max 2008, and after about 10 uses of the Rectify tool, it bugs out. After clicking rectify, it selects one face and refuses to work after that. I collapsed the stack after that and tried to open the UV editor again and it gives me an error saying Max is out of Memory and needs to shut down. Anyone else seen this?
Not sure if anyone else has encounter this yet. I'm working in Max 2008, and after about 10 uses of the Rectify tool, it bugs out. After clicking rectify, it selects one face and refuses to work after that. I collapsed the stack after that and tried to open the UV editor again and it gives me an error saying Max is out of Memory and needs to shut down. Anyone else seen this?
that is scary ,- if you dont mind could you hand me over your object - or tell how many polygons it had? (was it a poly?)
I know that I put in some try()catch() statement which means as soon as something fails in the script it catches the error in just a simple trace output instead of aborting the whole script and not letting you anymore work with it.
It could be by some stupid accident that some variable kept getting overwritten over and over without proper releasing the memory or so, causing what you just had.
suggestion A.)
If you don't mind I'd like to have the model to debug things here, maybe I can even get my hands on max2008 on another computer here (max9, 2009, 2010 already installed).
suggestion B.) I will give you a code without the try()catch() statement and we will see what errors it exactly give you - like where it stops at the script so I know most likely what the error causes and how to avoid/ fix it.
I've seen it do wonky things where it leaves a single face selected after being run, but the stack stays and I can undo. . . so it hasn't been as big of a deal. Nothing reproduceable though.
Pretty awesome stuff. I really enjoy these tools. The rectify was a little dodgy at first but got it working. It also took me forever to realize I needed to be in editpoly below my unwrap. Edit mesh did nothing with rectify. Probably written in here somewhere. Thanks
Pretty awesome stuff. I really enjoy these tools. The rectify was a little dodgy at first but got it working. It also took me forever to realize I needed to be in editpoly below my unwrap. Edit mesh did nothing with rectify. Probably written in here somewhere. Thanks
oh yes, it has to be in UVW edit mode - haven't thought about it the other way around
Though what you can do is:
1.) build you faces in 3d soace you want to rectify (best from top view - not a side view)
2.) then swap it into the UVW channel using:
3.) in the UVW editor then rectify the faces using
4.) once done swap it back to your 3d space using again:
I just wanted to say that I updated the documentation and scriptspot page to the newest release (1.70).
The documentation is now a bit more slim using less vertical space so its not so scroll intense anymore. Some changes are made - some things added. The URL is: http://www.renderhjs.net/textools/
much better
there is already a macroscript for that in texTools- just sect any face of the element and hit that macro and it will select the element. But not just that,- if you select a edge and hit that same macro it will loop select (well as good as max can)
its the "extend smartly the selection"
map that macroscript to a shortcut and it should work anywhere inside the UV editor
1.) upcomming align stuff
Thanks to Talon most likely in the next release I plan to add a d-pad with which you can align verts/edges and later shells into 4 directions.
Talon asked me if I / he could implement a script of him that aligns selections based on a given direction (4 types). At first I was a bit fonfused with it but he posted me some screens showing where to use it and I think it is a great idea.
It needs however in most cases 4 different buttons at least (Talon added a auto detect feature as well - but it really depends on the situation if that makes sense). So I though of bringing back the nudge/ dpad/ arrow buttons.
here is a mockup of how Talons script would then be used from the toolbar:
2.) Chinese translation
I got in contact with a Chinese community (even though I cant read at all chinese) and consider releasing a chinese version as well- at least for the interface.
A close friend (she studies the same as I do here and knows Chinese) helps me with the translation and the support there. Right now the youtube videos are uploaded to a chinese youtbue clone because youtube is blocked in China right now- so they can view those as well.
he render, you know that old uvtools?
why not add its function and make your script to relace it
so the toolset is connected to the uv window
its pretty annoying to have it in the startup
oh what the fuck I just discovered how to read the unwrap window x, y positions by looking at some of Chuggnuts UV scripts (now I just need to test the setPosition stuff). I was stuck at that months ago its the reason why I started with the minimize functionality and storing ini settings.
arrrrggg , well I guess I will add some auto detect align to UV editor script in the next release so that the texTools toolbar and the UV editor are always positioned next to each other.
arrangemonk:
As for the idea of having it launch or listen for the UVeditor and only then appear or pop up I am not such a fan of that simply because my tool goes a bit beyond just UV editing alone (its textureing, displaying and material tasks as well). For example the following tools can be used without the UV editor at all:
and only the others actually work together with the UVeditor window.
But maybe its an idea of deviding the GUI in 2 different modes, one that works outside of the UV editor (the icons I just listed) and the other mode maximized and showing all tools including the ones that are needed for tweaking your UV's in the UVW editor.
Another person from scriptspot suggested starting the GUI from a macroscript that the user could add to his panel or to a shortcut. And I think that might be a way I could go.
Replies
about the rest of the tools - I am right now recording my voice with some screen capturing to explain what each function does in this release- so you can see in motion how to use what.
- Rick.
1/3:
intro, installation, toolbox overview, setup, openEditor, checker maps, #flat view, open in Photoshop, render wireframe to clipboard, render face selection to clipboard, render AO map to clipboard
[ame]
2/3:
uv editing: pack selection, explode selection, crop selection, line up shells, straighten vertex/edge selection, relax edge/ vertex selection, align shell by edge, compress selection to a minimum height, stack uv shells, flatten selection to single shell.
Texel Density: pick density, apply texel density, normalize texel scale
[ame]
3/3:
swap UVW with XYZ
[ame]
may they be a good start into learning what's behind those buttons
edit: just that you guys now the voice is speed forwarded by 1.2x so at some spots little parts of words might get under. I hope though its clear for everyone to understand.
Also, thanks for the vids, I enjoyed watching thought them, they gave me some better understanding of some of the buttons I still haven't used and i'll most definitely will now! :P
Like the align button for example, so handy! Just select an edge with the desired angle, and press align, no more shell rotating until it looks correctly aligned now!
Good work with the new lineup button, too bad ctrl+Z don't work if you want to undo it, after you press it.
thanks
@ airbrush: you mean this button?
because the pack button (
will add soon a temporary sub version that will include the rectify draft version and some minor fixes like the pixel padding space in the explode function. thanks for the feedback so far
i am new to max and have been checking out your uv tools, fantastic.
i have a quick question/concern.
basically i have a poly object with multi-sub object materials applied to the mesh with different uv maps (i think that the stack was collapsed)
i need to output an obj file with separate uv sets, as the first one is lets say the head, and the 'map channel' 2 is the torso, but when i export an obj file,
and open in another program, it only the first uv map channel(the head) show up, and i think sorta overwrites the other maps for the torso, hands, etc.
my question is whether there is a funcion/way to export the obj file with all uv layers, or choose the active one in max and export the obj with that as the active map.....
this has been frying my brain for a few days, and any help would be more than greatly appreciated.
thanks
MV
here is a smal teaser for the next update, featuring the rectify script:
[ame]
- Rick.
this is gonna be hella handy. I'd love to see how it works too
Maybe create a thread for it with some sample illustration because perhaps there is already such a script available.
this is how it works at the moment
it might give a better overview if you should port the code - or perhaps improve it.
keep up the great work!
well here it is
TexTools 1.7
download
http://www.renderhjs.net/bbs/polycount/texture_maxscript_tools/uv_toolbox_1.70.mzp
(tested in 3dsMax2009 and 3dsMax 2010, but max 9 should most likely work as well)
certainly the most important addition is the new rectify button (also map able as its registered as a macroscript). There are however certain limits which is also why I created the earlier illustration so that you guys know whats roughly going on behind. here is a smal video of a typical workflow with it:
[ame]
and here is a little chart on what will go right and what not (the same could be applied to the vertical exis,- its more about the break between U and V in a flow e.g bend)
as soon as you have something that goes 45° around it usually crushes the verts that go over.
Its also non perfect so experiment a little bit to know how to use it best. I might some day write it completely different with incorporating real world object face attributes like all of the other relaxing methods work out there.
next up are some additions to the macroscripts (the functions you can map on your keyboard or custom menus)
that should cover for now the most important shortcuts
as a little bonus this time/post here is a 4 min. unwrap video of something I talked with nrek about. He pm'ed me asking some specifics about texTools and eventually I ended up creating some videos for him
[ame]
the video mainly shows the iron function which quickly flattens the selection to single shell. In the 2nd part some elements are lined up and rectified.
I'm looking forward to giving this a whirl
- Rick.
...will someone sticky this already
A programmer at work made a tool quite a while back like your relax tool, but idk what he did, but I can take a poly strip that's in a complete circle, cut it into 2 ( shapes and it will relax them into a straight strip.
If you hit however the Iron button it will in fact flatten your strip or face selection and relax it,- right click on that one to start easing (like a constant easing on your selection) hit either left or mouse button on the button again to disable the easing (might cause otherwise a CPU hog if used without care and not disabled proper).
I also thought about some automator like in UVlayout in which you select multiple UV sets and the script will run each shell for a defined time span and try to relax it as much as possible while you can get a coffee or so.
I still have lots of ideas to add,- will scan in some sketches and notes I made
Ill download the new script now and test it out. I almost always work in Faces mode in the UV edit window, and sometimes verts if I need to weld. Ok, and I guess edges if I stitch, but then I switch back to face mode again right away.
Anyways, keep up the awesome work, your great
I know that I put in some try()catch() statement which means as soon as something fails in the script it catches the error in just a simple trace output instead of aborting the whole script and not letting you anymore work with it.
It could be by some stupid accident that some variable kept getting overwritten over and over without proper releasing the memory or so, causing what you just had.
suggestion A.)
If you don't mind I'd like to have the model to debug things here, maybe I can even get my hands on max2008 on another computer here (max9, 2009, 2010 already installed).
suggestion B.) I will give you a code without the try()catch() statement and we will see what errors it exactly give you - like where it stops at the script so I know most likely what the error causes and how to avoid/ fix it.
thx
Though what you can do is:
1.) build you faces in 3d soace you want to rectify (best from top view - not a side view)
2.) then swap it into the UVW channel using:
3.) in the UVW editor
4.) once done swap it back to your 3d space using again:
I just wanted to say that I updated the documentation and scriptspot page to the newest release (1.70).
The documentation is now a bit more slim using less vertical space so its not so scroll intense anymore. Some changes are made - some things added. The URL is:
http://www.renderhjs.net/textools/
there is already a macroscript for that in texTools- just sect any face of the element and hit that macro and it will select the element. But not just that,- if you select a edge and hit that same macro it will loop select (well as good as max can)
its the "extend smartly the selection"
map that macroscript to a shortcut and it should work anywhere inside the UV editor
1.) upcomming align stuff
Thanks to Talon most likely in the next release I plan to add a d-pad with which you can align verts/edges and later shells into 4 directions.
Talon asked me if I / he could implement a script of him that aligns selections based on a given direction (4 types). At first I was a bit fonfused with it but he posted me some screens showing where to use it and I think it is a great idea.
It needs however in most cases 4 different buttons at least (Talon added a auto detect feature as well - but it really depends on the situation if that makes sense). So I though of bringing back the nudge/ dpad/ arrow buttons.
here is a mockup of how Talons script would then be used from the toolbar:
2.) Chinese translation
I got in contact with a Chinese community (even though I cant read at all chinese) and consider releasing a chinese version as well- at least for the interface.
A close friend (she studies the same as I do here and knows Chinese) helps me with the translation and the support there. Right now the youtube videos are uploaded to a chinese youtbue clone because youtube is blocked in China right now- so they can view those as well.
why not add its function and make your script to relace it
so the toolset is connected to the uv window
its pretty annoying to have it in the startup
arrrrggg , well I guess I will add some auto detect align to UV editor script in the next release so that the texTools toolbar and the UV editor are always positioned next to each other.
arrangemonk:
As for the idea of having it launch or listen for the UVeditor and only then appear or pop up I am not such a fan of that simply because my tool goes a bit beyond just UV editing alone (its textureing, displaying and material tasks as well). For example the following tools can be used without the UV editor at all:
and only the others actually work together with the UVeditor window.
But maybe its an idea of deviding the GUI in 2 different modes, one that works outside of the UV editor (the icons I just listed) and the other mode maximized and showing all tools including the ones that are needed for tweaking your UV's in the UVW editor.
Another person from scriptspot suggested starting the GUI from a macroscript that the user could add to his panel or to a shortcut. And I think that might be a way I could go.