Polymagus 2.0 (beta 005 – 30 Aug 2002)

Written by Herman Saksono

Please send bug reports or requests to herman-saksono@telkom.net

Visit http://maxres.cgworks.com for scripts and more

A. Introduction

Polymagus is set of tools to assist polygon modelling and enhance 3ds max Poly Object tools. It consists of:

§ Paint Selection, to select sub-object components using brush-based interface.

§ Blend Edges, a tool to blend two or more open edges

§ Average Vertices, to average selected vertices position. Good for smoothing strange bumps on your model.

§ Draw Poly, to create new polygon by drawing vertices

§ Join Edges, joins selected edges

§ Separate Poly, to separate selected polygon(s)

§ Explode Poly, to separate selected polygons into individual faces.

Scripters can also take advantage of the eposlibs functions library. Internally Polymagus is called EPOs. A document covering this part will be written as soon as the tools are matured.

Polymagus was tested on 3ds max 5, but it should run without (major) problems on 3ds max 4. Some tools like Join Edges and Paint Selection does not work on 3ds max 4.

B. Installing Polymagus

Polymagus package contains 3 files: Functions_Polymagus.ms (the function library for Polymagus), Macros_Polymagus.mcr (Macroscript containing Polymagus action items), and readme.html (this document).

Installing Polymagus:

1) copy functions_polymagus.ms to 3dsmax5\stdplugs\stdscripts

2) copy macros_polymagus.mcr to 3dsmax5\Ui\macroscripts\

3) start max

4) install polymagus action items by using the Customize UI dialog. Polymagus action item is located under "Polymagus Action Items" category

C. User Guide

To be done…

D. History

Polymagus 2.0 beta 005

• Changed the Blend Edges code. It should be more reliable and able to produce correct blending on the first try. I bring back the confirmation dialog again, in case it blends in the wrong direction. If you encountered incorrect blending when using blend edges, please let me know and send the problematic scene to my email.
• Blend edges now works on two neightboring edges (bugfix #003: Blend Edges doesnt work on neighboring edges)
• Blend edges now works flawlessly on continuous edge loop. (bugfix #001: Blend edges will fail on continuous edge loop. I gotta rework the eposlibs.sortContEdges function.)
• Added the sub-object component selection painter. This works on vertex, edge and polygon subobject mode. Note: this tool doesn’t work on 3ds max 4.
• Draw Poly no longer requires user to place vertices in anti-clockwise order as the new addition to the code atomatically re-create the face if it doesn’t face to the active viewport.

Polymagus 2.0 beta 003

• Fixing several bugs that prevents Polymagus tools from working when Show End Result active.
• Finishing the Join Edge tool. Note: this tool doesn’t work on 3ds max 4.
• Removing Draw Poly on Surf. Nobody used it anyway.

Polymagus 2.0 beta 002

• Finishing the 'Average Vertices' code. This is a basic topology relaxing tool.

§ Draw Poly (on grid)no longer requires user to create poly object in order to perform poly creation. It will automatically creates poly object if it is executed and nothing is selected.

• Fixed few errors on the blend edges tool.
• Fixed a merge bug on Draw Poly that prevents DrawPoly from working.

Polymagus 2.0 beta 001

• Completing the blend edges tool. Blend Edges will run succesfully on meshes with moderate topology. It will not work on continuos edge loop. I gotta rework the eposlibs.sortContEdges function. Blend Edges doesnt work on neighboring edges.
• Merging Draw Poly code into Polymagus functions library. Draw poly will be integrated with Polymagus.
• Added few simplistic tools into Polymagus
• Starting to work on the Average Vertices tool.

E. Known Issues

§ #002 Blend edges does not work on overly complex (not ot mention strange) meshes. Still investigating this, but Blend Edges should work fine on common topology.

F. Bugs

If you find this tool useful, please contribute to the development by informing me any bugs you have encountered. Send detailed steps to reproduce the error as well as sample scene (if necessary, and please zip it) to this email herman-saksono@telkom.net. If you encountered Assertion Failure, please record the Assertion Error Information, and include it to the email. Don’t save the scene if you have encountered Assertion Failure.

G. Acknowledgements

Special thanks to Peter Åshberg for testing and giving cool ideas for the blend edges tool, Eric Twisté for testing Polymagus tools.

H. Eposlibs functions library

Eposlibs was created to provide modulatiry for scripting something as complex as blend edges tool. I will try to make these function library as accessible as possible to third-party scripters. In this section <to be done………………….>