Pipe Generator

Submitted by JokerMartini on Tue, 2012-11-27 16:02
-8 votes
Version: 
WIP
Date Updated: 
11/27/2012
Author Name: 
JokerMartini / Denis Trofimov

Hey guys. I just wanted to post on here a thread which I started on cgtalk where I document the progress of building a pipe generator maxscript tool. I'd love to get some feedback and even some help on optimization of the code from the community. I'm hoping you guys here at scriptspot can help me out along with the guys on cgtalk. For some reason most of the people on cgtalk seem a bit hesitant or shy to comment. I know you guys here aren't though. So here is the link to the video and here is the working and in progress script.

https://vimeo.com/54060892 part 1
https://vimeo.com/54404186 part 2

I'm aware of a few redundant bits of code as far as optimization goes. So if anyone feels like helping me optimize where possible a good place to start would be to condense these three functions into one....

getEnds
getOpenEnds
fnSelectOpenEnds

They are all very similar and simple.

Aside from that I've added the controls for building custom rig templates as well as layer managing and point helper size controls. Check out the video and see it in action.
Everything works so far. I have yet to add the collision detection. It's getting there.

Before running the code unzip the attached file and place the JokerMartini folder in the local Max Scripts directory folder, otherwise just comment out the icon images in the script below.

Additional Info: 

Upon improvements made on the script I'll be updating it here for users to easily grab the latest one. You'll find it below under the downloads section.

Links
Download URL: 
http://jokermartini.com/
AttachmentSize
Demo Image 02198.66 KB
Demo Image 01197.95 KB

Comments

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JokerMartini's picture
Submitted by JokerMartini on Sun, 2012-12-02 16:35.

JohnnyRandom

Thank you for the kind words. I'll have an update coming soon. A few minor fixes and the undo implemented a bit better.

Aside from that I'd love to add a spline driven pipe generator as well as a particle system one. That would be very cool.

John Martini
Digital Artist
http://www.JokerMartini.com (new site)

nerozak's picture
Submitted by nerozak on Sat, 2012-12-01 15:00.

thank you

thank you

JohnnyRandom's picture
Submitted by JohnnyRandom on Sat, 2012-12-01 12:13.

Nice!

So obviously the next is to make it particle driven! :-D

You can call undo with:

with undo label:"Pipe Gen" on doSomething

undo ["undo_item_label" | label: | variable_name ]

FYI it can be sketchy use with caution, ie I would limit how much you do per undo call. Don't forget to garbage collect when you close because you will easily load up the undo buffer with this.

JokerMartini's picture
Submitted by JokerMartini on Fri, 2012-11-30 19:46.

Does anyone have methods of

Does anyone have methods of implementing an undo? I noticed the pipes gen doesn't seem to handle them to nicely.

John Martini
Digital Artist
http://www.JokerMartini.com (new site)

JokerMartini's picture
Submitted by JokerMartini on Thu, 2012-11-29 15:28.

Thank you for that idea

Thank you for that idea Anubis. That should help clear things up a bit more. I've got a huge update coming later tonight or tomorrow morning.

It will have a handful of new controls! I look forward to seeing ways you may have to improve or optimize it then.

John Martini
Digital Artist
http://www.JokerMartini.com (new site)

Anubis's picture
Submitted by Anubis on Thu, 2012-11-29 14:35.

just one more idea...

using Pathname Literals:
fn getEndChildren node = (for p in (execute("$"+node.name+"...pipeEnd_*")) where p.children.count==0 collect p)

and just to warn that i write this right now by memory, so let me know if it works.

my recent MAXScripts RSS (archive here)

JokerMartini's picture
Submitted by JokerMartini on Thu, 2012-11-29 10:54.

Thanks Anubis

This is what I ended up using for the get endChildren function which replaces all 3 previous ones and consolidates them into one.

	mapped fn getEndChildren node selectNodes:off ends:#() root:on = if not isvalidnode node then ends else 
	(
		if root or node.children.count > 0 then for child in node.children do getEndChildren child ends:ends root:off
		else if iskindof node Point AND findString node.name "End" != undefined do appendifunique ends node
		if selectNodes do select ends
		ends
	)

John Martini
Digital Artist
http://www.JokerMartini.com (new site)

Anubis's picture
Submitted by Anubis on Thu, 2012-11-29 08:48.

well done

I just need to figure out a good way to collect the children of a hierarchy going from the selected objects down through their children and selecting the last child but only if that last child is a point helper.

Maybe this can helps:
for each in selection[1] do selectMore each.children
-- that will quickly select all children of selected object

And next you can deselect the last child(s) if it's a point helper:
for each in selection where each.children.count == 0 and isKindOf Point do deselect each

my recent MAXScripts RSS (archive here)

asymptote's picture
Submitted by asymptote on Thu, 2012-11-29 06:36.

I can't help with code, but

I can't help with code, but this looks like one cool tool :)

awesome work.

JokerMartini's picture
Submitted by JokerMartini on Wed, 2012-11-28 09:51.

Thank you Shawn, I saw your

Thank you Shawn,
I saw your post. I seems to be a very popular thread on the site which is a good thing. The biggest thing for me right now is just optimizing some of the code before I get further into it with more functions and controls.

I just need to figure out a good way to collect the children of a hierarchy going from the selected objects down through their children and selecting the last child but only if that last child is a point helper. The objects leading up to it can be whatever they want.

John Martini
Digital Artist
http://www.JokerMartini.com (new site)

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