CGTalk - Minimizing/Maximizing 3ds Max Window

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shibumenon

07-24-2007, 04:01 PM

Hi ...

Could someone show me some way to minimize the 3ds Max window using a maxscript (I searched a lot, but didnt find any), or anything else? Please note that I am not refering to the viewport, but the 3ds Max application window.

Why do I need this?
I dunno if this is known, but check this out :
When seen through task manager, mem usage of 3ds Max is huge, and never seems to drop much, even if you reset Max.
But when you minimize the window, it drops down to 3 - 7 MB.
Restoring the window again increases Mem usage, but very minimally.

example Mem Usage:

heavy file loaded into Max and did some work : almost 900 MB
minimize Max Window : approx 7 MB
maximize Max Window : approx 60 MB

In short, mem usage comes down from 900 MB to 60 MB !

I wish to insert some command inbetween my iterations/loops to minimize and maximize the window, so that I can manage to limit some Mem usage.

Thanks
shibu

ypuech

07-24-2007, 04:31 PM

In fact, it would be hard to do that in MAXScript because you have to access to window handles and messages (Max GUI is win32 absed) is limited. UIAccessor in Max 9 is a good idea but you have to use notifications etc...

But I've developed a small MAXScripts extension based on win32 utils functions several month ago. I think I will continue its development.

Rens

07-24-2007, 04:43 PM

As far as I know it doesn't actually make 3ds max use less memory that way, it just uses your HD swap space instead of physical memory. Well, something along those lines anyway. When you move the viewport and render a frame you should see the mem usage go back to its original level again as the objects/maps are loaded into mem again.
Minimizing/maximizing probably won't affect your system performance much.

Dave Black

07-24-2007, 05:22 PM

Perhaps a better solution would be to optimize what you are doing. Could you explain a bit what operations you are attempting and perhaps we can help reduce the amount of memory you are using.

-Dave

Ruramuq

07-25-2007, 12:50 AM

I do the opposite, I avoid to minimize max, it seems that the ram is marked as free, another program may use that ram and thats bad, max may crash because of memory issues. max has always been like win98 compared to winxp, you have to restart it often.

dellis

07-25-2007, 01:27 AM

You could always use the windows short cut keys:

windows key and d will minimize and maximize everything.

windows key and e will open up windows explorer.

I think there is a few more but i can't remember off the top of my head.

susanta

07-25-2007, 05:22 PM

try this...

obj = createOLEObject ("Shell.Application")
obj.minimizeAll()
--obj.undoMinimizeAll()
releaseOLEObject obj

shibumenon

07-26-2007, 12:36 PM

perfect ...
Thanks mate !
I see that the restore/maximize isn't there yet, I'll search for it.

Thanks again

cheers

erik_j

08-23-2007, 10:05 PM

could you move the max application window by this aswell?
using litestep max creeps up 20 pixels or so everytime I start it so I have to retrieve it from under my litestep task bar if I'm not careful.. very tedious.

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