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3ds Max Plugin - IllusionCatalyst - IC.Shape

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  • boyluya
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    boyluya polycounter lvl 10
    SyncViewS wrote: »
    What a relief! I'm very glad you solved the issue. Thanks for the reports and for the support. I take the occasion to say your "Driller thingy" is really nice!

    If anyone is experiencing issues with new release, please let me know. I'm still trying to find the dds bug, so anyone can help me by providing a map that fails to load, for further investigation, I haven't been able to reproduce the issue yet. Thanks.

    Thanks Sync.

    Anyway, I have another issue with the new version. The selection tools don't work with an edit poly modifier anymore. I find it quite useful cause I work with lots of edit poly when I model.
  • SyncViewS
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    SyncViewS polycounter lvl 13
    Hi guys, a new release IC.Shape beta 11 is available for download, fixing the Edit Poly Modifier issue. I wish I had this report a while ago, because I'm not currently modelling or using IC.Shape, spending my whole time into the SDK. Please report any issue you may find as soon as possible and help me solve what I cannot reproduce on my machine. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.
  • boyluya
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    boyluya polycounter lvl 10
    Hey Sync, it's still not working. Actually, it's just the paint and pick command that don't work on an edit poly modifier.
  • SyncViewS
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    SyncViewS polycounter lvl 13
    Hi boyluya, it works fine on my system. Paint Selection never supported Edit Poly Modifier and you should see it greyed out, while Pick Selection should work fine.

    I don't know if something fails on your system, I think something is going wrong with the installer and files are not deleted/copied. Can you please try the procedure of manual uninstallation, like you did for previous version, then install beta 11 again and tell me if it works? Thanks.
  • boyluya
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    boyluya polycounter lvl 10
    I've tried doing the manual installation (repeated it about 5 or 6 times) and it's still not working. Maybe there's a problem in my system.

    Well, it's not really a big deal if the pick tool doesn't work for me, though it's still quite useful. Thanks again Sync!

    edit: I mean manual uninstallation
  • SyncViewS
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    SyncViewS polycounter lvl 13
    Hi boyluya, thanks for the tests. One uninstallation is more than enough, once files are gone, are gone :)

    Can you tell me if errors appear in the listener (F11) when you start the Pick instrument on an object with an Edit Poly Modifier? Does the whole script stop working?

    I'd like to know if anyone else is experiencing the same issue with beta 11. Thanks.
  • boyluya
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    boyluya polycounter lvl 10
    I mean 5-6 times of "re-installing."

    Nope, no error appears. Maybe the problem is in my comp. :poly142:
  • SyncViewS
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    SyncViewS polycounter lvl 13
    boyluya wrote: »
    Nope, no error appears. Maybe the problem is in my comp. :poly142:

    That is quite strange. In beta 10 there was indeed an error, but it appeared in the listener too and blocked the whole script. Last suggestion that comes to mind is to make sure your 3ds Max is updated to the latest service pack and hotfix.

    I hope the SDK development will lead to more predictable results than MaxScript... Just a (vain?) hope.

    If anyone is experiencing the same issues, please report them. Thanks.
  • LosPescados
    Hey, sorry for this stupid question but I ran the .mzp and it said it was isntalled, I restarted max but I don't have the IC shape window, how can you open it ?

    EDIT: never mind, found the option under all commands : "IC shape UI".
  • SyncViewS
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    SyncViewS polycounter lvl 13
    Hi guys, if you're wondering what's going on with IC.Shape 3.0 development, I made a short video to show a new ray-cast selection tool. It's a sort of enhanced "Pick" from current tool set.

    I hope you can understand my bad "accent", and forgive some errors here and there. Comments and suggestions are welcome. Thanks.

    IllusionCatalyst Dev Diary
  • Slum
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    Slum polycounter lvl 18
    That's really great SyncViewS. I love the quick quad loop selection.
  • SyncViewS
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    SyncViewS polycounter lvl 13
    Thanks Slum, I'd like to stress it works for Vertexes and Edges too. In the Edge case it allows to select both loops and rings. I didn't show them to keep the video short, but it's already there.
  • SpeCter
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    SpeCter polycounter lvl 14
    SyncViewS wrote: »
    Thanks Slum, I'd like to stress it works for Vertexes and Edges too. In the Edge case it allows to select both loops and rings. I didn't show them to keep the video short, but it's already there.

    Are we allowed to use parts of your code in our own scripts?This could give me a hint how to do certain things
  • SyncViewS
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    SyncViewS polycounter lvl 13
    Hi SpeCter, IC.Shape 3.0 is an entirely C++/SDK project and is meant to become a commercial product. I'm willing to help to the extents of my MaxScript knowledge, as many things can already be done with it. The SDK way is tangled and frustrating, and I advise against considering it unless it is strictly necessary.

    All the code published on my website can be freely used in your projects. If you need something more specific, just ask. I've already taken a look at your latest thread, but couldn't understand what you're trying to achieve. If you can define it a little more, I might be able to help.

    I'm sorry to point out another board, but the MaxScript subforum on CGTalk is a really good place to ask for this kind of help, full of proficient professionals willing to help. Tech-Artists should be another good one.
  • PolyHertz
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    PolyHertz polycount lvl 666
    SyncViewS wrote: »
    IC.Shape 3.0 is meant to become a commercial product.

    Noooooooo....
  • LosPescados
    I got a quite dumb question but I've been looking fr some time now. How can you assign the 'span' function to a hotkey ? All I can find under IllusionCatalyst ist "spin".
    Sorry for the stupid question but I don't seem to find it.
  • SyncViewS
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    SyncViewS polycounter lvl 13
    Hi LosPescados, the Action to associate a shortcut/button/quad label is called "Select Span".
  • LosPescados
    Awesome! Quite easy to find once you know it then !

    Thanks a lot!
  • PolyHertz
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    PolyHertz polycount lvl 666
    I've had this problem for a while where SplitRing will just not work on certain meshes. I've tried changing the scale and reseting the xform previously but with no luck. When his happens either the mesh will flash and then nothing will happen, or a single edge will be highlighted in blue and I can only place single verts.
  • SyncViewS
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    SyncViewS polycounter lvl 13
    Hi Greg, in this case having a geometry sample where SplitRing fails would help a lot, so I can trace what's happening under the hood. It would be hard to figure out if the script fails only on "some" conditions without meeting them. Thank you.
  • PolyHertz
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    PolyHertz polycount lvl 666
    Sure thing: http://www.polyhertz3d.com/forumjunk/revolve.max

    Also, attachNodes breaks if used on on 2+ (sometimes only 3+) instanced Editable Poly objects and 1+ primitive at the same time, and IC will need to be restarted (sometimes also resulting in max crashing/freezing). If you try to merge two primitives it'll also break it and require IC to be restart, but doing it that way hasn't crashed max before.
  • SyncViewS
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    SyncViewS polycounter lvl 13
    Hi Greg, I've seen the issues and they all seem to be related in some ways to Instanced objects. I'll investigate such issues and release a fixed version as soon as possible. Thanks for the reports.
  • divi
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    divi polycounter lvl 12
    was wondering if there would be a way to have a script or plugin or whatever for the unwrap UV modifier that automatically creates a rectangle with equal sides around all uv islands and updates it in realtime? would be really helpful when packing UVs to quickly see where you still have space left to put stuff without expanding the bounds.
  • Yozora
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    Yozora polycounter lvl 11
    axis project hotkey is crashing 3d max 2011 quite often.

    I don't really know how to repeat it, but generally it happens over time... the more I work on something, the more likely axis project will cause the crash (it has never occured during the first 10 mins of opening max for example).

    It would crash upon pressing the hotkey.

    Speaking of axis project, many times I have to reset xform and collapse a mesh in order to use it properly. I think I reported this a while back. Again I'm not sure what the cause is, but it generally happens when I'm scaling, attaching and detaching elements a lot.
    If I dont reset xform then the blue targetting dot for selecting which vertice to project with becomes impossible to target the actual vertex I want and it generally just jumps to the middle of the closest face, as if all the vertices are hidden (but they aren't, and I even tried the "unhide all" hotkey just in case)
  • SyncViewS
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    SyncViewS polycounter lvl 13
    Hi Tom, It will be an hard to find bug if its behaviour is so random. Did it make other 3ds Max versions crash as well, or is it peculiar of the 2011 (32 or 64 bits? what OS?). Do you use the standard shortcut association or one of the additional? As you describe it, seems related to the 3ds Max Undo system, but it is just a shot in the dark.

    About the scaling factor, it is not an IC.Shape bug, it doesn't support scaling at object level. If you need to scale objects, just do that in any sub object level to preserve the node transform matrix.

    I like to cite Borislav (Bobo) Petrov on this:
    [...] This is why Scaling At Object Level is FORBIDDEN on most civilized planets and in most VFX companies. It is the Root Of All Evil. It should not be done. The Scale icon should be banned and should have been disabled at object level since Max 1.0, instead the developers opted for a warning (which was then removed around Max 3 or so) telling the user he should probably use an XForm on the stack instead. Oh well :)

    http://forums.cgsociety.org/showpost.php?p=6007281&postcount=5
  • SyncViewS
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    SyncViewS polycounter lvl 13
    Hi Greg, I tested the file you provided and found what's causing the issue. Provided that MouseTrack system -used by Split Ring and other instruments- seems to have some problems with instanced objects, in your particular case the issue is related to Object Space Transforms. It appears (correct me if I'm wrong) you modelled the slice of the cylinder in top view, then rotated it by 90 degrees and instanced it to form the full cylinder. That is causing the issues with IC.Shape.

    If you Rotate the slice, then Reset its XForm and Move the pivot wherever you like, then Make the Instances, IC.Shape will work as expected.

    Flashing meshes and single vertex insertion should be another kind of problem I'd like to investigate if you can provide another mesh sample with those symptoms. Thanks.
  • Yozora
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    Yozora polycounter lvl 11
    The axis project causing max to crash is only for 3d max 2011 64 bit, win 7.
    The previous version I was using (max 2009 64 bit, win 7) had no crashing problems at all.
    I'm using the additional hotkey since I'm using Switcher.

    But it still did have that xform problem in both versions. I never knew about this object-level scaling problem.... I just find it's easier to scale the object as a whole instead of selecting all elements, changing the pivot-selection center thing, scaling, and then changing back the pivot center thing.


    Maybe its time to hotkey the pivot-selection toggle, at least it will save me from resetting xform all the time :p
  • LosPescados
    I don't know how comes, but when I click the buttons it works fine, but whenever I try to assign a hotkey it won't work (when using the hotkey combination)

    only is with selection (loop , span ) the nGon pop up works fine.
  • boyluya
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    boyluya polycounter lvl 10
    Hey Sync, any news on the next release?
  • PolyHertz
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    PolyHertz polycount lvl 666
    IC v2.0b12 is going to expire in a few days. Any word on an update?

    Also, not sure if this has been brought up before but exiting out of the paint selection tool crashes max2011 every time. and the Pick select, geoLoop, split Ring, shift loop, slice, pivot, (about half the tools overall) brings up a 'manipulate' caddie. Maybe there's a way to dissable that?
  • xXm0RpH3usXx
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    xXm0RpH3usXx polycounter lvl 13
    hey man, thx for bumping this thread up polyhertz :)

    i gave it a quick try and would suggest the following (although i wont guarantee to use this script in the future):

    if one uses infalte/raise/relax/... it affects ALL verts, even if you selected only a few.
    it would be much more conveniant if the tool would onlyy work with the selected verts or with all when there is nothing selected...
  • boyluya
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    boyluya polycounter lvl 10
    Still no news on the next beta? The current release has just expired. :(
  • PolyHertz
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    PolyHertz polycount lvl 666
    Seems Sync released a new beta on his site a few days ago, one that doesn't expire!
  • Stromberg90
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    Stromberg90 polycounter lvl 11
    Eh, does the www.illusioncatalyst.com site work for anyone else?

    I love this tool, but i dont have it currently after it expired, so i planned to download the new one, no luck for me then :P

    Would be nice if someone could host it on dropbox and send me a link or something :)
  • SyncViewS
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    SyncViewS polycounter lvl 13
    Hi guys, the contract with my hosting provider expired yesterday, and while I was waiting for a modification of the account before renewing it, they were so kind to completely take the site away and replace it with one of those ugly advertisement pages... I've just paid for another year, so hang in there, I think it will be up again on Monday. Thanks!

    A brief update on what's going on, for the ones who care (you know who you are :)

    I sent one curriculum at the end of August and got a job as Technical Artist in one of the major game companies in the UK. I relocated and been living in the midlands since last November. Now I've got almost no free time because of in house work and study. The good thing is I've been coding in C++ with the 3ds Max SDK for months, starting to get a good knowledge of how it works and learning from very proficient programmers. I know I've been saying this for a long time now, but I'm putting all my available time in a new modeling tool set. I started from scratch, so it will still take some time, but I hope to release something, at least some goodies, soon.

    Thank you for your support, I hope you still enjoy IC.Shape and my other scripts.
  • xXm0RpH3usXx
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    xXm0RpH3usXx polycounter lvl 13
    *i'm all excited*

    good to hear its going well on your side :)
    i envy you for the knowledge you gained

    you got some teasers what we can expect already?

    p.s.: day of the tentacle was an awesome game!
  • Stromberg90
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    Stromberg90 polycounter lvl 11
    Nice to hear everything is going great :)
    Even if you host was so kind to remove it they did good again, cause it's already back up ;)

    "Hold your horses, Seams to be a small problem with the download, guess it gets fixed pretty soon."
  • Mr GetDown
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    Mr GetDown polycounter lvl 18
    In 3dsMax2012 Many of the tools deactivate then the cursor is over the geometry.
  • SyncViewS
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    SyncViewS polycounter lvl 13
    Thanks for the heads up about the issue with 3ds Max 2012. I'll look into it as soon as I get the new version installed. It is probably an issue with the MouseTrack system or the RayMeshGridIntersect. Hopefully AD didn't change (break) some working component. ;)

    More on this as soon as possible. Thanks.
  • Parnell
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    Parnell polycounter lvl 18
    The download/page for IC Shape doesn't seem to be working.
    Is there a new link for it somewhere?
    Thanks
    B
  • miauu
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    miauu polycounter lvl 13
    I don't remember whether this is the latest version - with no expiration date, but try it. :)
    IlussionCatalyst
  • chrom
    thanks miauu work perfect with 2012
  • cptSwing
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    cptSwing polycounter lvl 11
    SyncViewS wrote: »
    More on this as soon as possible. Thanks.


    looking forward to whatever you cook up. while i have never used 3/4ths of the tools in your toolset, the other 1/4 are so immensely helpful (auto viewport / base obj / hotkeyable span select / the various inner & outer selections) ..
  • cptSwing
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    cptSwing polycounter lvl 11
    Any idea why span select might not be working in 2012?

    Correction: Actually it's just the keyboard shortcut that doesn't seem to be working.. the button works fine..
  • SyncViewS
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    SyncViewS polycounter lvl 13
    Hi cptSwing,
    I don't know the exact reason why IC.Shape has issues with 3ds Max 2012. I stopped working on it a while ago, about when 2011 was out. I started working on a new toolset since then. I hope to complete the core by next year Q1. I know it sounds like a long run and wait, but it involves some smart C++ coding and multi threading wherever possible.

    Meanwhile you can try this version of SelectSpan extracted from IC.Shape.
    Drag and drop it on 3ds Max viewports and find the shortcut under "IllusionCatalyst Tools".

    Cheers
  • cptSwing
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    cptSwing polycounter lvl 11
    seems to work like a charm! thanks a bunch, span select is indispensable to me (max's selection tools are still quite lacking). :thumbup:
  • cptSwing
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    cptSwing polycounter lvl 11
    heh, now my Auto Base Obj hotkeys stopped working after one of max's regular crashes.. the toggle button in the UI still works. random!

    probably an issue on my end though. can crashes corrupt mcr files or something? though a reinstall didn't fix it.

    EDIT: nevermind.. it started working again, out of the blue..
  • cptSwing
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    cptSwing polycounter lvl 11
    ok, it's gone back to not working, ever again. wonder if it's 2012's updates to the viewport, there were a couple of other scripts that stopped working with 2012 (regardless of whether i run nitrous or DX) ... again, oddly enough clicking Auto Base Layer in your UI works fine - just not assigning it to hotkeys. Any chance of having that ripped out as a single script as well? The span select you ripped works absolutely fine (and is an absolute necessity for me with Max's lacklustre selection tools) ! Pretty please? :)


    <3
  • leebano
    I cant download it from your site. Please, send it to me? leebano@gmail.com
  • miauu
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