Overview

A collection of MaxScripts written over an 8 year period for Autodesk’s 3dsmax (opens new window) which I used both in my own work and sharing with the amazing 3dsmax community:

• check the original posts and comments here (opens new window) or browse below
• view the code at github.com/davestewart/maxscript (opens new window)

Plugins

Animation

• Transform Presets
  Save and restore transformations as presets to objects such as cameras, IK handles, etc.
• Particle Visualizer and Papervision3D Exporter
  A script to visualize particle motion and export particle and camera data to Flash’s Papervision 3D
• After Effects Tracker
  Export 3dsmax objects’ tracking data (4-corner pin, 2 point track, position) directly to After Effects
• Camera Animator
  Animates a master camera thourgh a series of locked-off shots, and user-defined times
• Path Controller 2
  A scripted controller setup that allows you to animate the distance along a path in real-world units
• Filter Trackbar Keys
  Show only specific keys / tracks on the trackbar
• Animated Surface Align
  Stick one animated object to the animated surface of another, maintaining orientation in 3 axis
• Scripted Look-at Controller
  A 1-dimensional look-at; useful for trees, billboards, etc.

Cameras

• Transform Presets
  Save and restore transformations as presets to objects such as cameras, IK handles, etc.
• Network-Render all Cameras
  Automatically submit all cameras to a network render, rendering the correct frames, and save the output to the correct directories
• Camera Animator
  Animates a master camera thourgh a series of locked-off shots, and user-defined times
• Vertigo
  The classic Hitchcock “Vertigo” effect

Development Tools

• "List" struct
  Easily create associative array-like structures in 3dsmax
• Time Stamper
  A struct to make light work of timing tasks, benchmarking, etc
• Progress Bar Updater
  A struct to simply and easily update a progress bar by providing just start and end values, and calling update()
• UI Manager
  Save and load rollout settings, such as size, position, control states, items, etc to a preferences file
• ActiveX Inspector
  Lists all ActiveX controls, and lets you interactively test their methods and properties
• VMS Tidy
  Re-arranges and beautifies Visual MaxScript output
• Excel Functions
  A set of functions to get you started with communication with Excel

Fun

• MAXSnake!
  Use your mouse to play a variation on the classic arcade game ‘Snake’!
• Spherical Spline
  Create a perfect sphere using just one spline
• Z-buffer to boxes
  Visualize the z-buffer of an image using boxes
• Random 3D Spline
  A bit of fun that animates a line!

Functions

• "List" struct
  Easily create associative array-like structures in 3dsmax
• Time Stamper
  A struct to make light work of timing tasks, benchmarking, etc
• Multimaterial From Folder
  Create a set of multimaterials from a folder of textures

Materials

• Multimaterial From Folder
  Create a set of multimaterials from a folder of textures
• Random Multimaterial
  Creates families of slightly-random multimaterials
• MultiMaterial Propogator
  Creates a multimaterial from a folder of bitmaps, based on a template material
• Plane from bitmap
  Builds both planes and materials from a folder of images
• Default Material
  Applies a default material to objects on creation

Modelling

• Spline Tools
  Tools for easily editing the in and out tangents of a spline shape
• Spherical Spline
  Create a perfect sphere using just one spline
• Collapse and Replace
  Collapse multiple objects into one mesh, preserving materials, and optionally replace a single target object.
• Twist Profile
  Apply a curve-defined twist to any geometry

Particles

• Particle Visualizer and Papervision3D Exporter
  A script to visualize particle motion and export particle and camera data to Flash’s Papervision 3D

Rendering

• Network-Render all Cameras
  Automatically submit all cameras to a network render, rendering the correct frames, and save the output to the correct directories
• Render Size Presets
  A dockable toolbar providing controls to quickly render different sized images
• RenderWanger
  Save and load render presets

Text

• Text LOD
  Toggle the geometry of a text object with a bitmap for lightening-quick viewport updates
• Simple Credits
  Creates sequential text objects. Useful for credits, etc.
• Text Layout Tools
  Tools for quickly laying out (and naming) text shapes for modelling and animation

UI Design

• Progress Bar Updater
  A struct to simply and easily update a progress bar by providing just start and end values, and calling update()
• UI Manager
  Save and load rollout settings, such as size, position, control states, items, etc to a preferences file
• ActiveX TreeView Functions
  A set of functions for manipulating ActiveX Treeviews
• HTML Help Template
  An HTML template for a good-looking help system for your scripts
• Flash UI Examples
  Character select, graphing and joystick control examples of using Flash as a rich interface to 3dsmax
• HTML Interface
  A set of functions that allow you to run any MaxScript command from a rollout’s ActiveX HTML control
• Easy Icons
  A range of code-only icons to spice-up your UI and minimize distribution files

Utilities

• Soft Instance
  Instance an object leaving certain properties un-instanced. Useful to create families of objects with variations upon a theme
• Copy Hierarchy Names
  Copies names from one hierarchy to another, replacing text such as ‘left’ to ‘right’
• 3ds Converter
  Batch-converts 3ds files to max format

Widgets

• Copy Object Properties
  A quad-menu shortcut to quickly copy properties from another object
• Hide Objects According to Visibility
  Make objects properly “invisible” in the viewports when their visibility is 0
• AutoZoom
  Auto-zooms the display to the selected object
• Open all groups
  Recursively set all groups open or closed.
• Spinner Precision
  Quickly set the spinner precision

Workflow

• Show Last-hidden
  Unhide geometry in the order it was hidden
• Viewport Layout Manager
  Adds a toolbar that allows you to swap between viewport layouts on the fly, remembering settings per viewport between layouts.
• Open Most-recent File
  Opens the most recent file, be it an autobackup or a saved file
• Get Unmapped Objects
  Selects all objects without proper mapping co-ordinates
• Macro Lister
  Scans all installed macros by category, and creates a dockable tree-view
• Flash UI Examples
  Character select, graphing and joystick control examples of using Flash as a rich interface to 3dsmax
• Set and get paths
  Assign default paths to both scene and MAXScript directories