taking max in a new direction
Hi all
i have a request for help from you guys, its to write basically a bolt on for max turning into a completely different beast, but having no experience in scripting but lots of ideas is proving to be a major hurdle, so here's my question, i have managed to created a roll out on which i have 5 buttons, what i need is for each of those buttons when clicked to bring up another screen (don't know if it should be a roll out) that will contain a View port, a panel to its right (same height as the view port), 2 tool bars, a command panel that will have various functions that change depending on what screen the user is in and smaller dynamic toolbar in-between the command panel and the view port, this i know is going to be a huge project, and for the amount of time i have been exposed to max script one could almost say its preposterous for me to even attempt this, but i personally think that as long as you have the ideas then all else is possible, if anyone wants to actually get involved with this then i would be glad to have that happen.
Michael
Comments
hi anubis not as
hi anubis
not as far as i know, all its doing is placing and locking toolbars to a certain screen location, which should then allow all the functions that are needed to be accesses and those that arent to be hidden, think of it like placing a template over your screen, you can still see the main work area but things that arent going to be used will be hidden, and if done correctly it will offer all the functionality that you could want, without the overload of info from all the clutter like the viewport navigation tools and the timeslider, it just strikes me as an easier way to develop a highly useable working environment without needing to delve in to C++ or Max SDK.
yes there will still be a need for some clever coding but essentially all that will be is macros of various actions, one example is that because this is for lighting, to choose a colour for your light, you woulf have a pallette of the same colours the real world light has and by picking the light you want then the colour from the pallette this will then set the light to the desired colour, but it would be scripted to look a certain way and sit in the panel next to the view screen, or when you want to animate the lights in the X and Y axis, or pan and tilt, you would chooose either a preset ngon shape which would be labeled as triangle , square, pentagon etc and when you chose your path shape you would be able to choose a light or group of lights that would be automatically aligned to the path, both of these actions can be done by going thru the usual motions, with this its already done with just one click, obviously some lights have a colour mixing function, so a set of sliders would be set up to handle the subtle colours that are available, there is a whole lot more that this will do eventually, but suffice to say with the speed max can throw wireframes around, feedback will allow creativity to more prominent.
hi K not really, what i
hi K
not really, what i was thinking was to have a general layout, so the main view screen, an extended view port(both of these can be done using the Layout function, using a 2 screen layout and just setting that in max script, at least that's how i see it being done without using the SDK)two tool bars either side of the view port, a man command panel at the bottom and an info bar at the very top, because there will be a minimum of options the user needs a lot of the features can be automated, this will then remove the need for menus, that basic layout will stay the same , but the contents of the tool bars and specific view ports will change, i guess its basically writing a CUI swapper, but it would need to be quick, as i said , i have only started dipping into max script, but for whats needed i think the SDK would be overkill.
Michael
Im not heard about this
Im not heard about this Layout function, is this something new in Max2011 ?
my recent MAXScripts RSS (archive here)
Its not possible to create
Its not possible to create another (floating) viewport im afraid, i wanted this myself once. Are you thinking like modos setup? Different screens and setups for various tasks?
k