Quick Parent Link

4 votes
Version: 
1.5
Date Updated: 
07/19/2013
Author Name: 
Shawn Olson

Quick Parent Link is a script to allow you to quickly pick a chain of obects to set them into a parent/child hierarchy. It works a little more efficiently than the native Select and Link tool (which requires you to click child, drag to parent, let go, then select that parent as a child again and drag to its parent, etc).

With Quick Parent Link, you simply pick a node, then it's parent, then that object's parent, etc... on up the chain. Each node is a single click instead of several hand motions. Or you can drag the mouse over object from child to parent to "paint" the chain. (Added in version 1.2). This means you can paint the hierarchy of dozens or more objects with a single mouse swipe.

There is also now a new macrosript called Quick Parent Selection that works on the current scene selection based on the order you selected them.

Download instructions and more usage instructions are in the link below.

Additional Info: 

Changelog:

Version 1.5

  • Added Quick Parent Selection macroscript. this is similar to Quick Parent Link except it works on the current scene selection. It has no visual feedback because it works on the objects you already selected, in the order you selected them.

Version 1.4

  • Added more color coding. Grandparents are now always some shade of blue.
  • Added support to overlap hierarchies and reuse nodes already in a stroke set.
  • Fixed false logical error when trying to parent a chain to another chain that unset a parent.

Version 1.3

  • Added visual cues about the objects you've linked.
  • Removed some bad copy-pasta that came from another script I wrote and used as template for this.

Version 1.2

  • Added ability to draw/swipe the parent chain across the screen. With this you can make a hierarchy of multiple objects with one stroke of the mouse.

Version 1.1


  • Fixes the script entirely. It was broken when I packaged it into a Macroscript. Since I didn't close Max during any of the development/testing (which was brief) I didn't notice the problem with the local variables. (Since the functions were originally written in the global scope and existed in Max even after I was testing with the MacroScript). Sorry about that.
Version Requirement: 
All versions (I think)
Video URL: 

Comments

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lightcube's picture

Good idea. I'll add that in

Good idea. I'll add that in the next version.

Thank you for the kind remark!

_______________________

Shawn Olson

Developer of Wall Worm

barigazy's picture

+1

Very nice demonstration, and even better tool.
You are speed up my workflow 80%. Thanks for that
One suggestion:
Lets say i use similar model like you with many small or big parts.It would be nice if the user can see what's already parented before start another parenting process. I saw you mark selection with red color. For the grand parent you can use blue color.

bga

lightcube's picture

Version 1.2

Added ability to swipe the parent chain. This lets you "draw" the hierarchy.

_______________________

Shawn Olson

Developer of Wall Worm

lightcube's picture

Oops...

Well I wrote this in between panels at a convention yesterday. And today, I retested it and see there is a problem with the way I wrapped the functions in the macroscript. I'll fix it later today.

Sorry for that.

_______________________

Shawn Olson

Developer of Wall Worm

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