Maya zPipeMaker Script

chriszuko · May 2013

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/no/yb6t0fhik8mk.png

To download or buy click here!

Finally Got it all setup. Ended up just doing a buy it now button that links with mailchimp to auto-respond to buyers emails. The price is $10.00 for the advanced version and the simple version is free! Main reason for not going with creative crash is because creative-crash takes 45%and has a minimum selling price of $20.00. At that point it wouldn't even be worth the price increase for anybody. It would just be making you guys spend more money for no reason. Anyhow Enjoy all the videos and happy pipegasm!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9kyQCIyOV8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4Gjpz40W34

HOW TO INSTALL ----
Move the script to the documents/maya/scripts folder
Copy and Paste this section of code to run. Make sure you set it to python.

import zPipeMaker
reload(zPipeMaker)
zPipeMaker.gui()

If you are using the simple version of the script use.

import zPipeMakerSimple
reload(zPipeMakerSimple)
zPipeMakerSimple.gui()

Things in the works eventually.
1. Split pipe option.
2. Independent radius controls.
3. T-Intersections
4. Entire "rig-based" system with control curves instead of sliders.
5. Convert to Curve then back to bend deformers. (This one would just be terrifyingly powerful)

Thanks to everyone who downloads the basic version and purchases the advanced version.

Toast · May 2013

I love you chriszuko.

JohnnyRaptor · May 2013

Dude, this is awesome! thanks for sharing!....and for the mean end credit music!

Bertmac · May 2013

To much !!

chriszuko · May 2013

Bal wrote: »

Two things I noticed :
1. When you "Finish Pipe", the result you get has hard edges between the pipe segments, not sure if this is voluntary or not? Easy to fix anyways, just seems like it should do it by default.
2. The UVs you're generating are probably good enough with a regularly subdivided pipe, but when you use the Optimize option, the resulting UVs are still regularly laid out, despite the quads not being all the same size in 3D, maybe you could do a quick horizontally constrained Unfold on the result at the end (again this is easy for the user to do himself, but seems like it would be nifty if it did it automatically).

That can definitely be done pretty easily with the script.. The UV one is something that I might have to make an option cause I can see a case or 2 where that would piss me off and I would have to re-Unitize the pipe.

Thanks for the feedback!
And thanks everyone else again for the awesome comments! Glad you enjoy it!

chriszuko · May 2013

rick wrote: »

Omg thank you! your a life saver!
little thing I noticed: when changing the sub axis from 12 to 13 the normals seem to smooth. No problem ofcourse, it just seems a little od :P

That is also interesting.. XD Maya likes to really do weird things all the time.

passerby · May 2013

smoothing is based on a angle, so 12 to 13 subdivisions must create a small enough of a angle for it to smooth out.

got to Normals>Set Normal Angle will set it on the selected shape, or you can set it globally somewhere in the preferences

chriszuko · May 2013

Ah that makes more sense. I'll just apply a smooth when finishPipe is hit. Thx!

explodingseashells · May 2013

1. This is so freakin incredible. I do mobile games, fast turn around and low poly so this is invaluable.
2. How the hell is this free? I would seriously pay out the nose for this. I'm at work atm but will donate when i get home.
3. Amazing beat box at the end bro.
4. Seriously, once again thankyou for this script!!!

Meteora · May 2013

Oh my lord, this is amazing.

chriszuko · May 2013

Thanks again peeps!
@Explodingseashells Very much appreciated!

Here is another Update.

V1.3
1. Curve Amount shows up in degrees for all versions now instead of radians.
2. Added Unfold Option on finish pipe.
3. Added Automatically smoothing the pipe normals when it finishes.

It will probably be a bit before I hit up the other advanced features of the script. I am now thinking that I will have an advanced version and a simple version. The simple one will remain free, whereas the advanced one will be some sort of price or a "pay what you want" type deal. Not sure just yet.

Anyhow Download V1.3 Here

Keep up the feedback and bug reports! Its been super useful!

ZeroStrike · May 2013

This script is really cool. I'll check it out, tomorrow. Thank you very much.

VeeJayZee · May 2013

I love you, brother!

agentfx · May 2013

sweet script!
An update feature you might think about is loop extrude face to make pipe connectors, it could be random on count, or at ends. Just an idea... awesome job on this, very well polished.

chriszuko · May 2013

@agentfx Thats not a bad idea. I'll see if there is an easy way to do that. Putting that in my memory banks.

Thanks again everyone!

Mark Dygert · May 2013

Another cool addition would be something like the branch tool in max, only it wouldn't taper, unless you wanted to use it to make branches instead of pipes, which could be another cool use for this script.

http://youtu.be/6nDAWf01i6c?t=8m9s

PhilipK · May 2013

This looks fantastic!! Downloading now, thanks so much for creating and sharing this. Looking super useful

MartinH · May 2013

HNNNGGGGAAAaahhhhhh

i just accidentally all over my desk.

seriously though, this is great

chriszuko · May 2013

@Mark Dygert: Hmmm... thats getting my brain cranking a bit. I could probably do something similar where you just move a thingamabob and as you move it, it just generates the pipes on the fly. ... that'd be nuts.

As always thanks for the feedback everyone!

@MartinH... ... glad to help.. not helping you clean up though XD

Brain Zapped · May 2013

This is fantastic. Great job!!

heyeye · May 2013

Hey man this is awesome, and a suggestion came to my head while I was trying to play around with making quick wrought iron/ornamental metal designs(for gates and junk).

I think it'd be cool to add a feature which lets you "flare" one end of the pipe, and maybe continuing that flare's modifiers onto the base of the next pipe created.

Thanks again for this it's really amazing.

chriszuko · May 2013

@heyeye: That is also not a bad idea. Probably the easiest so far mentioned to implement. Will See what I can do.

Thanks for the ideas and feedbizzle!

Ryan Spinney · May 2013

This looks really great Chris, I'm going to try it out now!

JoelStransky · May 2013

This looks freakin awesome! It really shows consideration for existing workflows. Thanks for not half-assing it.

Ravenok · May 2013

My god you probably have girls ALL OVER U right now. If u don't give me a call I'll set it up. Least I can do.

Will it have custom shape support? I'll throw in a couple of guys if it will.

ljsketch · May 2013

awesome script. Is it Mac compatible?

chriszuko · May 2013

It should work on mac.. however I haven't tested it so if you have any issues please hit me up and I'll try to help you out and fix it. Thanks! (:

@Ravenok: Where are you getting these girls? What time? What place? Will I remember it? XD

Thanks a million polypeeps!!

Grimm_Wrecking · May 2013

Feature request.

Alternate Finish Pipe. Just delete endcaps/combine/uv.

Now if the curve is a little tight it always (and sometimes not so tight) creates a pinch point where all the edges collect to a single vertex. Maybe I have a setting off somewhere, but even if thats the case, it'd still be nice to have.
The auto optimization is a bit ~~ at times, so being able to have one thats like you want where you can do the good ol' fashioned hand opto, would be nice, without having to dup -> delete endcaps -> merge -> fix uvs -> optimize -> fix uvs final time.

Awesome job tho. Just being greedy

Ravenok · May 2013

I will get them wherever you want me to get them from dude. Just remember no questions. ^^

Great job dude, these plugins are really useful and well executed!

chriszuko · May 2013

@Grimm_Wrecking
Sounds like the Merge Vertex Command isn't set correctly for you grimm. I'll be adding in a settings thingamabob later, but for now you can open up the script and at line 631. it says

cmds.polyMergeVertex(fp_Name+".vtx[0:5000000]",d=0.5 ,am=1,ch=1)

You can mess around with the part of that line where it says d=0.5 and replace the number to be a little lower. The "d" stands for distance.

If you could also do me a favor? Can you tell me what your units are set at? Meters? ft? Thanks

Lastly, yes the optimize pipe will be based off of a number value in the future and also will work on a scaled pipe and not just curve rotation. Still messing around with that stuff. Remember that you can change the subdivision height on any pipe as long as you don't have "auto optimize pipe" on and don't hit "Optimize all pipes".

@Ravenok Thanks! Much appreciated!

Grimm_Wrecking · May 2013

It's set to centimeters in the scene I was working in, and the pipes were being used to create some electrical wire, so the r value was 1 (tiny!).

I shift around between, mm, cm and meters, depending on the scale of what I'm working on and how accurate it needs to be. (Ain't the metric system grand)

I assumed it was with the distance value, like when using "merge vertex" independently, but I wasn't about to go poking around in all that py code haha.

Also, I didn't have auto optimize and didn't hit optimize, but maya was also being shaky that day (just one of those days).

Oh and it was v 1.0 fo pipe script.

Maya 2012 sp 2 (i think).

chriszuko · May 2013

Well I highly recommend getting the latest version of the script anyways just because I did a bunch of fixes having to do with the scale being in cm. Maybe that will help maybe it wont? I am unsure. Thanks for the info and I'll keep it in mind for when I am making future improvements in the next week or 2.

thijsw83 · May 2013

divi wrote: »

that looks super nice now somebody make it for max! :P

I think max is already doing well on making pipes. Just draw your lines, and sweep modifier that bastard, there's your pipe.
Maya was a bit clumsy with this way of making pipes. Extruding along line was the only one i think, but took a longer setup.
This script is awesome, really should donate for it. I think it was a lot of effort. Thanks a lot!

Goobatastic · May 2013

Great script but i m running into some problems. I'm running it on maya 2013-2.5 in meters and when i scale down the pipe when i go to add another pipe that pipe blows up and isnt the same scale. I have tried scaling the group node but still the same results. Any suggestions?

chriszuko · May 2013

Sadly.. right now you can't scale the group node like that. You have to adjust the width of the pipe and the curve scale using the sliders. Its not smart enough to take on those attributes. I'll put that on the list though and see if I can do anything about that. You can however move the main group node still.

chriszuko · May 2013

@thijsw83 Thanks! Much appreciated!

4th-child · Jun 2013

awesome stuff!! this is going to come in handy!

chriszuko · Jul 2013

A little bit of an update here. zPipeMaker 1.5
I have just implemented the following features.

1. Curve Length Slider.
2. Fine tuned optimization logic that works with curve length, scale, and amount.
3. Optimize Threshold allowing you to tweak how optimized the pipe is.
4. A settings menu that allows you to tweak Min and Max sliders and Collapsible frames.
5. A config file that remembers all of your settings, collapsible frames, selected control pipe, check-box values, and optimize threshold values.

This update is only available to people who have donated any amount so far. The plan is anyone who donates will get free updates for the script's existence. In the future when there is a free simple version and a non-free advanced version, all contributors will be rewarded with the non-free advanced version regardless of the amount they donated. I hope that seems fair for I have really been putting a ton of time into making this script as powerful as I can imagine it. The more contributors, the faster I will work to get in as many requested features as possible.

Donate link is here (: much much appreciations to anyone that donates! Emails to the download link will be sent out to contributors shortly.

Thanks Everyone!
Whats next? CUSTOM MESH SWAPS! Should be implemented in the next week (:

If the plan that I have for this sounds dumb to you please feel free to speak up about it.

chriszuko · Jul 2013

Pretty excited. Made a breakthrough today with the script. Still needs alot of interface and other kinks to work out, but it is possible now! WOOT! A ton harder than I thought it would be but now I know what I need to do. :poly142:

This will be pre-released soon as well. Not at the moment because it is too unstable.

passerby · Jul 2013

Good, job looks asowsome will check this update out when I get home.

Bal · Jul 2013

That looks awesome Chris, looking forward to the update.

chriszuko · Jul 2013

Thanks! The update should be pre-released soon. Working out the UI still to make all of this work intuitively.

Alphavader · Jul 2013

very nice man - thanks for sharing this awesome tool!

tristamus · Jul 2013

This is some seriously impressive shit. Good job man...!!

chriszuko · Jul 2013

Many many thanks! After you donate, I usually get an email out to you within a few hours. I am still working on setting the paypal button up to give you the link. (:

chriszuko · Jul 2013

annnnd BOOOM! Update V1.7 Has Custom meshes. This is also a donation only download since I have a few things left I want to do before I release it. I need to setup the site, setup the new simple free version, add a couple more features, and it should be good to go. So while I work on the finishing touches, contributors can try it out. It should be stable, but there may be a few bugs left in there that I don't know about.

Here is what is new.
1. Custom Mesh Swap
2. Custom Mesh List Editor (Replace, Add, Update, Move Up, Move Down, and Clear Meshes)
3. Added Ability to scale the main group node and add pipes to the chain.
4. Added Twist Pipe Sub Axis functionality to go below 3 for any type of object that you may need it for. (This allows you to control the twist a little bit more)
5. Changed Pipe Width to a float so that you can have a more controllable width.
6. Change Scale min to be 0.001 instead of 1
7. Fixed Twist pipe to actually find the most unobtrusive curve amount. Didn't realize it, but this whole time its been off by 1 segment.

I will be uploading a video of how to use it shortly as well as writing documentation on it. Overall, it is fairly simple and I hope it is super easy to get used to and learn.

Emails to contributors will be sent out shortly.
The donation link is here and will now automatically send you a link as soon as you complete your donation.
Thanks and stay tuned!!:poly122:

rube · Jul 2013

would this work for something like a race track? is there enough control to keep the flat bits flat and tilt corners/loops etc? That was the first thing that came to mind when you posted the first version.

chriszuko · Jul 2013

It works up to a point. Because there is automatic twist(roll) and no control over specific twist amounts, you may run into an issue. I do plan on adding individual twist controls per piece just so that you can get as specific as you need. I had stumbled upon that issue when I was trying to make a roller-coaster track earlier today. It works wonderfully for things like simple roads and intersections etc.

Mayalicious · Jul 2013

How to download the script?

chriszuko · Jul 2013

You will get a link to the download if you donate any amount using the donate link here Thanks!

wailingmonkey · Jul 2013

will be sending you a digital 12-pack once paypal gets through
dicking around with my money. (none in account, but can't use
credit/debit card associated with paypal accept to go through
paypal...can't just send it from my bank card....lame f*cks...
anyhow.)

Script looks tasty!

Maya zPipeMaker Script

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