MousePlanter
A tool for 'planting' objects over the surface of other objects - with interactive control of the scale and rotation of each object planted.
MousePlanter is one of my oldest and most cherished scripts. It started out in 3dsmax R4 as a project to get acquainted with a number of (at the time) unfamiliar MAXScript concepts. Based on the Planter plugin for Mirai - this script allows you to place objects on the surface of other objects in an intuitive manner; a manner unlike any other surface distribution tool available for Max. To get a better understanding of how it works - watch this little movie (sorry 'bout the download size!):
Visit Mouseplanter Webpage for detailed video demonstration
Okay - so it's not the most well-produced video around...but I hope it gets the idea across. You can choose any number of objects to plant - and either set MousePlanter to choose each new object at random - or take control and manually choose which one to plant next. Positioning - rotating - and scaling is all done by simply dragging the mouse around!
A more complete feature description - along with a mini-tutorial - can be found in the ReadMe.txt included in the Zip package. As with several of my other scripts - installation is easy - just drag the included mzp package onto a Max viewport and go! MousePlanter creates its own menu - so you don't need to explicitly add it to your UI (unless you want it on a quad or button).