Lightwave tools for Max?

[Chris]

er, what do they do?

[Triadis]

Check out www.scriptspot.com there's a lot of good stuff there. Be sure to download MeshTools and CSpolyTools. Also, go to www.harrydechering.com and click on Work In Progress. He's making something like BandSaw called Advanced Edge Connector. Should be pretty cool once it's done.

-Alex

[yog]

Meshtools over at http://www.s21net.com/meshtools/docu.html will cover the bandsaw functions.
"Edge ring select" will sellect a belt of edges and "Edge connect" will divide them like bandsaw. Like bandsaw you can specify multiple cuts at one time.

[visualboo]

Dont forget csPolyTools. Here (http://www.3dluvr.com/subagio/)

Meshtools and cspolytools are MUST HAVE's

What version of max are you working with?

[edit] just curious, but why is your post count at 2?

[derelict]

hi Ryan!

hows the hoard at Blizzard? All the best fer yer future Ryan.

May you Zug Zug us with your stuff!

Cheers

[Fielding]

If you need the colors of the Lightwave as an user-interface, let me know. Also what are you talking about: Extender?
Max has a similar thing: Extended Primitives:p

[ryanduncan]

Thanks guys...I'm surprised at how customizable Max is, I was having some trouble at first, but after spending a while setting up hotkeys, it's becoming a lot easier. The one thing I really miss as far as poly modeling is the "Extender," basically just extruding an edge, this is easy in maya. In lightwave you just select the points, hit extender button, and drag out the new polys. Maybe there is something like this already and I am missing it...

Ryan

[visualboo]

Well, if it's an open edge just hold shift and drag :)

What version of max?

[Chico]

Bandsaw and Extender plugins in Lightwave

damn you wont find anything like bandsaw in Max 4. It rules, I saw another guy using it not so long ago...Damn LW has some cool modeling tools. That said Max 5 has done pretty well, the cut tool is a good sent, just make sure you have edge and vert snaps on.

I want a Magic Bevel in Max:surprised

[butterfly_fx]

saw this bandsaw script for max in devellopement...can't wait it's finished ;)

For extender, max have it's way of doing it, pretty nifty way too.

Select some edges and press shift then move or scale em will "extrude" edges a la LW's extender. Cool thing is if you do that with meshsmooth on and working on the cage the new created edges are smoothed right away ;D

Donno if you are on max 4 or max 5 there but if you work in editable poly in max 4 you'll need a new tweaked epoly.dlo to be able to shift drag edges (available at www.maxplugins.de i think). if you are on max 5, this feature is implemented.
editable mesh support shift+drag edges this in both versions tho.

If you have max 5 i made a lill macroscript that simulate the smoothshift right click trick and move or scale the new created geometry. Not as handy as Lw's one cause of the different smoothing method but after a bit it almost do the same thing. Putting ignore backfacing on and you'll be able to select the vertices created and move em like you're using the drag point tool. If you have max 4 i doubt this macro will work.

for bandsaw the only way is to select an edge ring and connect with meshtools (or with the the implemented tools in max 5) not as handy as it cause you ll need to move your points or edges after that but better than nothing =P

[ryanduncan]

Awesome, thanks everybody for the info. Being able to extrude edges is so helpful to me, since I prefer to build outward instead of cutting up a box, for most things. I found the update to epoly on maxplugins.de if anybody else needs it, here's the link:

http://www.maxplugins.de/r4_files/epoly_42.zip

Thanks again guys!

Ryan

[ryanduncan]

One more question...I was wondering how most people here work with NURMS, do you have a hotkey to toggle it on and off while you are working? One advantage I see already over Lightwave is that max does not dislike odd geometry nearly as much as LW, in terms of rendering artifacts and funky knots in the mesh etc.

Ryan

[Joebount]

I do work with them :°)

To turn off the nurms, just click on the lightbulb next to the meshtool modifier's name(right click on it will allows you to turn it off only in the viewport, not in the renderer), Tadaaaaaaa ! If you want to switch it off by a hot key, well, I dunno, maybee with a script.

[visualboo]

Just throw a "toggle end result" in a quad.

Like this>
http://www.visualboo.com/movies/helpers/end-result-toggle.gif

[Flinch]

in max5 the nurms-smoothing-function is implemented in the editable poly object type. i've assigned a hotkey for activating/deactivating nurms. if you're working with 4.2 you have to make yourself a little script toggling the show end result button if you want to assign a hotkey to it. but i think that there's already a script that does this function, maybe it's included with meshtools (can't remember... it's a long time since i installed all these stuff)

[Chico]

in max5 the nurms-smoothing-function is implemented in the editable poly object type.

Its the wee things like this in max 5 that make me really happy :beer:

@ryanduncan, yea max can handle most polys while smoothing, where LW can only do Quads and Tris (?). This best if you stick to quads, but its great you can setp outside if you need to though. Just keep and eye on what the meshsmooth is doing though. can get a bit out of control if your not paying attention:cool:

[yk3d]

Hi all, I'm having a problem here
I just went and downloaded and installed Meshtools and cSTools, I basically added all of the scripts into one of quads. Thing is, from Meshtools, tehre is only EdgeLoop that works, and only three scripts do apper in my quad menu, other do not appear. Why is that? Same thing for cSTools, none of scripts work.
I'm on Max 4.2 - any ideas?

Thanks!

[visualboo]

ok first off.... any script you download that has the .MZP extention is a package. Just run that from inside max and it installs it automatically.

So, go back and make sure you have meshtools installed in the proper folders. After that run csPolyTools from max. Restart max.

If that doesn't work post a reply. oh and btw, make sure your in editable poly mode.

[riley_ag]

hey visualboo, I saw you have a rotate gizmo like the one in maya.... How do you get that in max? Thanks for the great visualization too, didnt realize it put it into a quad

[visualboo]

That's just max five. The default gizmos are totally changed.

[riley_ag]

well damn, I cant get a copy till december.... I do a robotics competition called FISRT and autodesk sends a copy each year to all the teams, I hope they send us 5... not the rest of their 4.2's...
Thanks for the info though:shrug:

[visualboo]

FREE? Are they full versions? or educational versions?

If they're full ones, I can't believe I missed that bandwagon :)

[riley_ag]

On the about file is says its commercial....
of course we had to find a serial gen to get it to work so that may be why... yea, we go to get the activation code and said someone had already registered with our copy... we had just opened the box. yea we got it free too. usfirst.org our team was also on NPR... that was cool, because they had a series about our school

[Steve Green]

YK3D,

that sounds like you're trying to use them with an editable mesh - you need to convert it to an editable poly object first.

- Steve

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