Maxscript 2013 Help CHM creator
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Update: Our friends at Autodesk have released an official CHM for both MXS and SDK!
Get it here: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?siteID=123112&id=16707768
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With this tool you can transcode the offline HTML help into a CHM for personal use.
Remember, while these tools are freeware the resulting CHM is still a copyrighted work and you cannot distribut that without permission, so keep the CHM to yourself.
Needed:
-The offline maxscript help files: http://images.autodesk.com/adsk/files/maxscript-2013-help.zip
-For Max 2014 use these: http://images.autodesk.com/adsk/files/maxscript-2014-help.zip
-htmlhelp.exe, download here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=21138
Howto:
1) Download offline help and unpack zip somewhere
2) Unpak chm_ftw.zip files to help's root folder (so chm_ftw.exe and index.html are in the same folder)
3) Optionally drop override.css in the '/styles' folder the get the original look and feel of the last CHM. (Thx to Johan Boekhoven for supplying the CSS)
4) **!! Delete or rename the /scripts folder !!** important
5) Run chm_ftw.exe (can take a while), now 2 files new are created ( a .hhc and a .hhk file)
6) Open '__maxscripthelp_project.hhp' in microsoft's HTLMworkshop (don't drag&drop, use the file menu)
7) Click on the content and index tabs, if asked for a file point to the files created earlier. (if you see content it worked)
8) Compile & Enjoy*
(Works on Max's main help file as well thx to SpaceFrog's handy work, see http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/maxscript-2013-help-chm-creato...
Checked and works with MaxScript 2014 docs as well
Update 1.3.0
- Better anchoring routine to account for discrepancies on the originals files.
- Now comes with a very clean and optimized index, the original had lots of doubles and those are now automatically being filtered out.
Small example, these are 3 original entries:
1) Abs()
2) abs() - Numbers
3) abs() - Time values
Nr1 points to the same place as nr2 so nr1 is removed and the index looks like this:
1) abs() - Numbers
2) abs() - Time values
Update 1.2.1
- Fixed anchoring bug in subtitles
- Optimization
Update 1.2.0
- CSS fixes
- Added subtitles to index for better usability The [1], [2], [3] etc are replaced by titles so instead of
Controller [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8], [9], [10], [11], [12], [13], [14], [15], [16], [17], [18], [19], [20], [21], [22], [23], [24], [25], [26], [27], [28], [29], [30], [31], [32], [33], [34], [35], [36], [37], [38], [39], [40], [41], [42]
You get
Controller
Controller - Animation Controller
Controller - Audio Controllers
Controller - Attachment : PositionController
etc...
Update 1.1.0:
- Added subtitles in index Update to 1.1.0 Thx to Ruramuq for some better CHM settings: Favorites tab enabled
- Advanced search
- Fixed the error on start page
- Some small tweaks.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| chm_ftw_1.3.0.zip | 2.7 MB |
Comments
Compiles the standard docs to CHM too after some changes !
Hi!
I just made some changes to the HTML Help Workshop project and tested the script on the 3ds Max docs itself. And it works with them too !!
You might get some warnings in the CHM, because some quicktime MOV's are embedded, but i think they are no way essential (they do not display on my system).
So the steps to create the CHM for the standard 3ds Max documentation are as follows:
* Download the 3dsMax docs and extract ( http://www.autodesk.com/3dsmax-helpdownload-enu , i did not test with non-english help )
* Download Jonathan's great maxscript CHM creator package (this page) and extract to the folder where you extracted the docs to
* Download the attached file ( __3dsmaxhelp_project.hhp )and save it to this folder too
* follow all steps from Jonathan's script's readme, but instead of opening "__maxscripthelp_project.hhp" in HTMLWorkshop, use the project-file i provided in the attachement and compile
Result:
you got a CHM of the 3ds Max doc's, a quick test shows search and index is working (some difference in the presentation compared to the HTML docs )
And as mentioned of course, quicktime movies might not work in the CHM version...
Like a breeze Jonathan! Owe
Like a breeze Jonathan! Owe you one!!
Never get low & slow & out of ideas
I bet this is not a problem
I bet this is not a problem with the generated CHM but with your systems security settings, which prevents you from opening a CHM of unknown origin (even if that sounds stupid). For more info please google "CHM unblock security"
eg. look here http://www.jeff.wilcox.name/2008/11/unblock-chms/
There are other ways to fix this for all CHM's, like editing/adding some registry entries.
Just backchecked the generated 2012 CHM here, and it looks pretty okay ;-)
error
with the created chm file is something wrong, theres an error "navigation to web page has been canceled" even if i dont copy owerride.css and use spacefrog 2012 hhp file
http://s9.postimage.org/yillfx7vx/error.jpg
There's a issue displaying
There's a issue displaying the Default/Index page when running the tool on Max 2012's help files. I looked up the correct file and fixed it and saved to a different HTML Help project. Use that one instead when working with Max 2012 files
(Copy it to the same folder were the original one sits....)
If the data structure is the
If the data structure is the same it should work fine, looks like SpaceFrog got it to work already :)
It looks for a 'indexes-data.html' and 'contents-data.html' to build the index and TOC structures, so if those are there it should work.
I'm not sure if the CSS overrides will work.. quite busy atm but I'll add 'check 2012 compatibility' to the todo list.
www.jdbgraphics.nl
I tested it with the Max 2012
I tested it with the Max 2012 files and it looked okay
Did'nt check the CHM for problems though ...
does it work for max 2012
does it work for max 2012 too?
Well done and Thank You!
Well done and Thank You!
Volition Inc.(THQ)
Lead Technical Animator
Thanks my men , I wonder if
Thanks my men , I wonder if you could also do this for max help....I could easly do maxscript to launch chm file to override the original one.