Function to grow directionally

#1

Hi everybody.

I’m working for script that allow to manipulate easy skin vertex weight after weights are baked in skin as max skinning tools was updated long time a go. As far I doing well but I need function that will make grow vertex selection directionally.
Unlike skinOps.growSelection skin which make selection grow in both directions i will rather want to have two functions; - grow up and grow down - also shrink up/down. It would be easy if vertex order would be 1,2,3,4 etc but usually is 1,2,8,9 etc Do anybody has any idea how and is it possible to achieve that by maxscript ?

#2

in general, the idea is quite simple…

you must first find the bounding box of current skin vertex selection, and then make a standard grow…
after that deselect all that goes beyond the bounding box in a certain direction…

this can be done automatically by monitoring skin selection changes, for example using when construct

#3

Thank you, I don`t know if this idea may work a little slow when mix with my code but more less I grasp your idea however - " deselect all that goes beyond the bounding box in a certain direction" - this is the part which I have no idea how to conclude which are verticles are outside bindingbox and how to specify direction. So your idea is something like this ?:

fn vertsBindingBox=
 (
 currentmodeskin=(modPanel.getCurrentObject())
if selection.count == 1 and classof currentmodeskin == skin do
(
	theObj = $
	theVerts = skinOps.getSelectedVertices (modPanel.getCurrentObject()) -- as array

		xVals = #()
	yVals = #()
	zVals = #()
	   

	for v in theVerts do
	(
		vertPos =  polyop.getvert theObj v
		append xVals vertPos.x
		append yVals vertPos.y
		append zVals vertPos.z
	)
	
	theWidth = (amax xVals) - (amin xVals)
	theLength = (amax yVals) - (amin yVals)
	theHeight = (amax zVals) - (amin zVals)
	
	-- I dont know if this part is necesery 
	--avgPos = [(((amax xVals) + (amin xVals)) / 2.),(((amax yVals) + (amin yVals)) / 2.),(((amax zVals) + (amin zVals)) / 2.)]
	return [theLength, theWidth,theHeight];
)
 )



(
 StartingBindingBox=vertsBindingBox()
        for o=1 to 15 do (skinOps.growSelection (modPanel.getCurrentObject()))
 EndBindingBox=vertsBindingBox()
	 
	
	-- HERE I DONT KNOW HOW TO CALCULATE WHICH VERTEXES SHOULD BE DESELECTD AND HOW TO CALCULE DIRECTION
	
)
#4

here is how I could get bbox :

fn getSkinVertSelectionBBox sk: node: = 
( 
	if sk == unsupplied do sk = modpanel.getcurrentobject()
	
	if iskindof sk skin do
	(
		if node == unsupplied do node = selection[1]
		
		vv = skinOps.getselectedvertices sk 
		center = [0,0,0]
		pp = for v in vv collect 
		(
			p = polyop.getvert node v
			center += p
			p
		)
		center /= vv.count
		bb = box3 center center
		expandtoinclude bb pp

		--dummy pos:b.center boxsize:(b.max - b.min)
		bb
	)
)

fn growSkinSelectionUp sk: node: =
(
	if sk == unsupplied do sk = modpanel.getcurrentobject()
	
	if iskindof sk skin do
	(
		if node == unsupplied do node = selection[1]
			
		bb = getSkinVertSelectionBBox sk:sk node:node
		
		skinops.growselection sk
		ss = skinOps.getselectedvertices sk 
		ss = for v in ss collect
		(
			p = polyop.getvert node v 
			if contains bb p or (p.z >= bb.max.z) then v else dontcollect 
		)
		skinops.selectvertices sk ss
		ss
	)
)
/*
growSkinSelectionUp()
*/
#5

Another way is to do the growing/shrinking yourself.
You can find all neighbors for selected vertices. They are “growth candidates”… but we can only filter out those that are in a certain direction from the target vertex. If at least one target vertex causes a neighbor to grow in the specified direction, then this neighbor is included in the selection list.

This method looks much more promising… I would definitely go in that direction.

#6

I think second solution is way to go because the one with bindingboxes require quit a lot of extra calculations but how to know which vertex is “next to selected” I assume the only way is to check selected vertex against all existing but how to get direction, I made quickly snipped just to check if I can check sorrounding vertex anyhow - that should only grow(but wont work dont know why) and starting from one selected vertex for for the sake of simplicity but how to get direction?

currentmodeskin=(modPanel.getCurrentObject())

oryginalselection=(skinOps.getSelectedVertices currentmodeskin)
curentselection=skinOps.SelectVertices currentmodeskin #{1…($.numVerts)}
allverts=(skinOps.getSelectedVertices currentmodeskin)
skinOps.SelectVertices currentmodeskin oryginalselection

 Vertsarray=#()
for o in allverts do
 (
tolerance=15 
v1 = $.verts[o].pos
v2 = $.verts[oryginalselection[1]].pos -- first selected vertex 
a = distance v1 v2
if a < tolerance then (append Vertsarray o;exit) -- still not growing and no direction
 )

skinOps.SelectVertices currentmodeskin Vertsarray