Aug
18
2010
0

Getting the Associated Icon for a filetype in 3dsMax

Another snippet, just translated into a maxcript-friendly format.
If you need to get the file icon that is associated with a particular type, you can’t get this ordinarily from within a managed environment. There are some great examples on how to use the windows API so these can be added into maxscript by converting them into [...]

Written by LoneRobot in: DotNet |
Aug
18
2010
0

Capturing the viewport according to render resolution.

Another snippet!
For Rig Studio, I was faced with the problem of providing a method to not only render the view to the design surface, but capture it also. I felt that sometimes a full render wouldn’t be neccesary and users would want the option of performing a viewport capture for the UI background. If [...]

Written by LoneRobot in: DotNet |
Aug
13
2010
0

No Swear Box Required

 
Normally, colourful language should be left in the snooker hall, but when it comes to max, there’s nothing more potty-mouth inducing when a custom UI doesn’t sit with the rest of the application. In my previous post about Rig Studio (my IDE for generating selection dialogs) I talked about using the maxtoolbar renderer to [...]

Written by LoneRobot in: DotNet |
Aug
11
2010
0

That’s Shallot

If you’ve got lots of different layers in the layer manager, its fine when you are in the actual file, but when you start having sets, characters and props in the same scene, it is sometimes difficult to navigate the interface. This is another snippet with a macro for adding a prefix to selected layers [...]

Written by LoneRobot in: DotNet |
Aug
11
2010
0

Get Shirty

A while back there was a competition on the wonderful tech site http://tech-artists.org. Rob Galankis, Webmaster of the geek portal wanted a few designs to be made into t-shirts to give out at GDC. To cut a long story short, such is the 3D community’s affection for the humble teapot, that Piers Morgan could stick [...]

Written by LoneRobot in: DotNet |
Aug
11
2010
0

The camera sometimes lies

Just a snippet posting this time, sharing a small file callback to lock and unlock a camera’s position. If you need to make sure that a camera in a file doesn’t get moved when it is handled by a different artist, this could be useful. Locking a camera is simple, all you need to do [...]

Written by LoneRobot in: DotNet |
Jun
01
2010
8

Stuff the revolution, I’m thinking about a Character Selection Framework

UICrop

One of the most time consuming things always seems to be building UI’s in Maxscript. I recently developed a system that uses a basic IDE and DotNet Serialization to store the entire UI to XML. This is a small tutorial with code snippets on how I approached the task.

Mar
31
2010
0

Shameless Plug Alert! – HitchHiker is being used at Volition Inc

It’s not often that you get an email from a maxscript legend like Jeff Hanna so I did have to do a double take at my inbox when it arrived. But as it transpired, Jeff had been looking to update one of the pipeline tools at games company Volition Inc.

Written by LoneRobot in: DotNet, News, User Controls |
Mar
22
2010
10

DotnetObject “LoneRobot.Child”

I’d like to introduce the latest LoneRobot build – and it’s the one that I am most proud of.

Written by LoneRobot in: Characters |
Mar
16
2010
2

Floating Dialog Amnesty

WindowBoxUI
If you just just stopped taking away my dialogs, you wouldn’t have forced me to build this monstrosity.

Written by LoneRobot in: 3dsMax, DotNet, Maxscript, Tips and Tricks |
Mar
16
2010
4

Adding a post build event to Visual Studio

If you are developing dotnet tools for use in 3ds studio max, you will be used to a painfully slow method of evaluating your assemblies in max, unless you do something clever with dynamic compiling. Since the assembly cannot be unloaded after loading it you are forced to exit max, copy the assembly to the [...]

Written by LoneRobot in: DotNet |
Mar
16
2010
2

We have all the time in the world

Time is commonly understood as something rather more than a linear pattern of execution. Many theoretical physicists believe in Einstein’s relativity theory which states that we are all experiencing a personal time relative to our current position in space. This intrapersonal time structure can curve and run parallel to others in space-time, potentially creating an [...]

Written by LoneRobot in: Tips and Tricks |
Mar
16
2010
0

Clear out the dead wood from the layer manager

Occasionally, you end up with a load of layers in your scene that are no use to anybody, serve no function to society, and end up taking valuable space like an unwanted uncle at a wedding.

layermanager

Written by LoneRobot in: 3dsMax, Maxscript, Tips and Tricks |
Sep
27
2009
6

New DotNet control for download – HitchHiker

hhimage
HitchHiker is a VB DotNet/ 3dsMax User Control and is designed to provide automatic thumbnailing of directories containing a variety of media types.

Written by LoneRobot in: DotNet, User Controls |
Sep
15
2009
0

Shameless Plug Alert

areaLoneRobot control info featured on The Area

Written by LoneRobot in: DotNet |
Sep
15
2009
0

Supressing 3dsMax hotkeys in composite control assemblies

Using a DotNet textbox in 3dsMax isn’t a problem, you can disable hotkeys via maxscript, but how do you do it if the textbox is part of a composite control assembly?

Written by LoneRobot in: 3dsMax, DotNet, Maxscript, Tips and Tricks |
Jun
19
2009
0

FloatSpinner – A custom control to bypass 3dsmax value casting issues

Max natively casts a dotnet decimal into an integer. This could present a problem if you are using a numericupdown control with smaller increments. Here’s a way to get around it!

May
11
2009
7

Calling Maxscript Functions from DotNet


Dotnet Improvements in 3dsMax 2010

Written by LoneRobot in: DotNet, Technical Research |
Apr
24
2009
14

Automating Photoshop with a DotNet Class Library and COM interop

Control photoshop in any way you like using a custom COM wrapper from 3DSMax

Apr
14
2009
0

Generating PDF Documents via MXS and .NET

Using an open source dotnet assembly.