Newb problem: Convert a string to scene object name?

Submitted by Vancent on Sat, 2010-02-20 18:01

Hi, I'm currently trying to develop some custom tools for a project I'm working on.

I've currently got a rollout featuring a dropdownlist (ddlObjects) and a button (btnMove), among other things.

ddlObjects contains the names of several scene objects, either poly meshes or splines. These names are stored in the ddlObjects.items array as strings.

What I want is for btnMove to move whatever object is selected in ddlObjects by a set amount. Preferably without the object being visibly selected in a viewport.

Currently I'm been trying

move ddlObjects.selected [0,1,0]

or other variation there of, but am stuck on the problem of the selection from ddlObjects being read as a string.

I know that this is probably a simple thing to fix but I can't for the life of me find out how. Please advise.

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Anubis's picture
Submitted by Anubis on Mon, 2010-02-22 09:42.

Execute is bad way to do...

Execute is bad way to do... you can use getNodeByName() function, ie:
target = getNodeByName ddlObjects.selected

my recent MAXScripts RSS (archive here)

Vancent's picture
Submitted by Vancent on Mon, 2010-02-22 10:30.

Thanks for the info. I'll try

Thanks for the info. I'll try your way.

Could you explain why execute is a bad way to do it? I'd like to know.

Anubis's picture
Submitted by Anubis on Tue, 2010-02-23 15:09.

Ok, "execute" borrowed by

Ok, "execute" is borrow from pure C and has very slow runtime performance.

my recent MAXScripts RSS (archive here)

turbinea's picture
Submitted by turbinea on Sun, 2010-02-21 06:13.

you can try command

you can try command 'execute'
something like this: FF = execute("Spehere01") which will be understood as FF = Spere01
not sure if this is "correct" way to do scripts but works for me.

Vancent's picture
Submitted by Vancent on Sun, 2010-02-21 19:03.

Problems solved. Found the

Problems solved. Found the sulution in 3ds Max's FAQ/

It seems I just needed to expand the string for the execute command. My new code looks like this:

target = execute("$" + lbxObj.selected + "'")
move target [0,1,0]

It now works gloriously thank you for your help.

Vancent's picture
Submitted by Vancent on Sun, 2010-02-21 13:52.

This seems useful but doesn't

This seems useful but doesn't seem to work in this case. I'm trying it like this:

target = execute(ddlObjects.selected)
move target [0,1,0]

But keep getting this error:

-- No ""move"" function for undefined

I am, of course, making sure that there is items in the list and that they are selected.

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