Tertium Organum CollectoREX

25 votes
Version: 
1.0
Date Updated: 
09/09/2019
Author Name: 
Tertium Organum

TOCollectoREX is utility replacing and supplementing standard Resource Collector.

**IMPORTANT**
After more than 10 years I've finally decided to turn collectorex from internal utility to a public open source project. In the beginning it was paid utility, now it's completely free and not binded to hardware. Please feel free to edit code and commit here, use it as you like, distribute it freely, I just don't allow to sell my software as your own. That's it.

It allows gather all scene resources together, put them in specified place, find where all missing files are used (exactly in which objects). It can find which files in specified place are no longer used by scene. It also allows convert bitmaps to jpg, etc.
Utility supports XRefs of all types and processes all scenes linked to current.
Unlike all other such scripts, it really finds all resources (images, HDR-images, Vray meshes, IES-files, shaders), not only some bitmaps (Relink Bitmaps, Resource Collector). Below there is full description.
Interface:

Utility functions
1. Collect resources – collection of all resources (images, HDR images, Vray meshes, IES-files, shader files) pointed by current scene or Xref-tree to specified folders and update scene links
2. Unused – search in collect folders files that no longer used by any scene (or whole Xref-tree) link. You can delete founded files or move them to "local recycle bin" - subfolder "$trash$" created in folder where unused file had founded
3. Relink to resources roots – attempt to rewrite all scene (or whole Xref-tree) links so that they poin to files with same names as before but within specified collect folders. If some file doesn't exist in corresponding collect folder, link pointing to it remains the same. This function is needed when you move the whole project or its resources to another location or even computer
4. Resolve links to existing – this function is for ascertainment of real file paths (instead of stored in scene) of resources used by scene (or whole Xref-tree) and for rewriting all scene links so that they point to really existing files
5. Missing files Identity – output full object trees of scene (or whole Xref-tree) entities, that point to missing files
6. Convert to JPEG/TGA – conversion ".tif", ".tiff", ".psd", ".png", ".tga" and ".bmp" files to JPEG or TGA (w/alpha, RLE-compressed) files; if converting file has alpha channel, user can choose operation variant

Why choose Tertium Organum CollectoREX?
Because it:

* allows collect resources of selected types only
* collects resources of different types to different folders (if you want, you may set one folder for all types)
* sujjests variant of operation, if file with copying file name already exists in collect folder, providing small view of file and info for you can choose what to do
* when compares files uses full image comparison with and w/o alpha channel - if it is image or HDRI - and CRC comparison - if it is not image
* collects only used in scene resources (bypassing Asset Tracking)
* if you want can skip Material Editor content which is not used in scene; utility can clear it before each operation
* skip resources from Scene States
* after collect updates ALL links to ALL collected resources so as they point to real files
* has many settings, which automatically save with current scene and later load from it
* allows to save settings as global defaults - in order not to make setup with each new scene
* allows to build workflow, based on periodical resource collect and semiautomatic maintenance of three or less collect folders (utility copies files to collect folders and can delete unused)
* makes backup files (one or many when increment backup is on), not using Max but working with file system: saving by Max sometimes cause crash and data loss
* automatically saves scene after operation complete: you may forget to save scene and so - lost data
* allows to find out which scene objects point to missing files
* allows to set new collect folders and rewrite all file links (without file copying) so that they point to files inside new collect folders - when you move your project to another machine or place it to another location within your machine you will need such relink to access moved resource files
* outputs information about real file paths and allows to rewrite wrong links
* allows (after collect operation) to view which files are unused by project and suggests to delete them or move to local recycle bin
* converts big images (".tif", ".tiff", ".psd", ".png", ".tga" and ".bmp") to JPEG or TGA+alpha - for less disk space usage and scene load speed increasing
* allows to process all scenes linked to current scene by XRef-links of all kinds, in batch mode
* has anti-crash mechanism for batch mode: stores its state before processing each file to be able to continue after crash, if one occures
* outputs (in files and in console) detailed log about all operations and their parameters; log file names contains incrementing number
* allows break every operation on every phase, including batch operation

Additional Info: 

Install
Unpack archive. In Max select MAXScript->Run script and choose mzp-file. Then select Custimize->Custoimize User Interface..., in window "Custoimize User Interface" go to Toolbars tab and choose "Tertium Organum" from Category combo box. Draq button "Tertium Organum CollectoREX" to toolbar. In order to view CollectoREX icon you must restart Max.

Version Requirement: 
3dsmax versions: 9 - 2020, both 32 and 64 bits
AttachmentSize
tocollectorex.mzp869.65 KB

Comments

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Tertium Organum's picture

From now on tool is

From now on tool is opensource and free, guys!

trick's picture

Thanks for pointing that

Thanks for pointing that out, but I did try them out for some while now. My problem is that I want VRay files (IES, HDRI and VRMESH) collected and redirected that are references by 4th party plugins like Forest Pro, VRayScatter and GroundWiz. For example: I can see all used VRMeshes in Max's Asset Tracker, but there is no plugin/script that can find them and do a good collect/direct job !!

Admin's picture

There are a couple resource

There are a couple resource collection scripts available although one that comes to mind first is Martin Breidt's - http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/mb-resource-collector

Christopher Grant
Admin, ScriptSpot.com

trick's picture

If only someone could answer

If only someone could answer emails, because Tertium Organum does NOT :(

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