Primitives Library

Primitives are standard 3ds Max Design objects such as cylinders or boxes.

In addition to the standard dimensional parameters associated with primitive objects, you can set a material channel to automatically apply to the object. This channel ID refers to the CivilViewObjects material. Civil view also applies mapping coordinates automatically.

Any series of parametric objects placed from a single OPS Style Element are instances of each other. This means that altering a parameter on any one of these objects affects them all. This can be useful; for example, with a series of posts where the height of each post should be consistent with all objects in the series. You can use the Position Controller rollout to manually unlink objects, making their geometry independent.

Object INI File Structure

Primitive Object INI File

[Parameters]

Length=

Width=

Height=

 

[Object]

Primitive=

MaterialChannel=

Preview=

 

[Group]

Name=

 

[Parameters]

Length / Width / Height
Set the dimensions of the object. The Length and Width values must be positive. The Height value can be negative or positive.
Note: For circular primitive objects, use the Width parameter to set the diameter.

[Object]

Primitive
Sets the type of primitive object to create. The valid choices are:
  • Box
  • Cylinder
  • Pyramid
  • Sphere
  • Teapot
  • Geosphere
  • Plane
MaterialChannel
Sets the CivilViewObjects material channel to apply to the object. Valid values are numbers between 1 and 10, which is the basic number of channels in this material.
Preview

Names the thumbnail image to use as a preview in the Object Placement Style Editor. If this entry is blank or the file cannot be found, the editor displays a blank thumbnail. This thumbnail image bitmap must exist within the /objlibs/previews folder within any current Civil View resource kit.

[Group]

Name
The name of the category sub-group in which this object should be listed. If no name is specified, the object will be listed as ungrouped.

Adding Custom Primitives to the Library

Create an INI file in the format described above, and add it to the /objlibs/primitives folder within any current Civil View resource kit. (Because 3ds Max Design provides the object geometry, this is all you need to do.)

Please also refer to the general instructions on object library customization in Civil View Object Library Overview.

Parent topic: Civil View Object Library Overview