Documentation Changes in 3ds Max 7
The following changes have been made to the MAXScript Online Reference:
Formatting
Reorganized the Modifiers list in the Contents tab into a hierarchy for easier navigation.
Regrouped by function and added group titles to the Editable_Poly Properties and Interface: EditablePoly topics for easier navigation. The groups are also accessible from the Content tab.
Added a large number of screenshots illustrating the Editable Poly and Editable Mesh methods examples.
Reorganized the MAXScript Extensions in character studio chapters and added topics documenting additional classes.
New Tutorials
Added the following tutorial to the "How To" chapter:
How To ... Develop a Vertex Renderer
Added the following Particle Flow tutorials to the "How To" chapter:
How To ... Transfer ParticleFlow Particle Motion To Scene Objects
How To ... Affect Particle Flow Particles by Mass
Added a new sub-chapter "How To ... Develop a Bitmap Painting Tool in NineEasy Steps"
to the "How To" tutorials chapter:
How To ... Develop a Bitmap Painting Tool - Basic Utility
How To ... Develop a Bitmap Painting Tool - Strokes Support
How To ... Develop a Bitmap Painting Tool - Brush Size and Color
How To ... Develop a Bitmap Painting Tool - Airbrush and Shapes
How To ... Develop a Bitmap Painting Tool - Smooth Brushes
How To ... Develop a Bitmap Painting Tool - Load and Save
How To ... Develop a Bitmap Painting Tool - Erase Changes
How To ... Develop a Bitmap Painting Tool - Unwrap UV Coordinates
How To ... Develop a Bitmap Painting Tool - 3D Painting
Added a new sub-chapter "How To ... Develop a Selected Objects Inspector using ListView
ActiveX Control" to the "How To" tutorials chapter:
How To ... Develop a Selected Objects Inspector using ListView ActiveX Control - Part One
How To ... Develop a Selected Objects Inspector using ListView ActiveX Control - Part Two
Added a new sub-chapter "How To ... Develop a Scene Browser using TreeView ActiveX
Control" to the "How To" tutorials chapter:
How To ... Develop a Scene Browser using TreeView ActiveX Control - Part One
How To ... Develop a Scene Browser using TreeView ActiveX Control - Part Two
Additional Examples and Information
Replaced the example snippets with full-blown working scripts that actually do something
in the following topics:
Edittext- BoxCreator - create boxes with user-defined names
Listbox- ObjectKiller - delete objects by double-clicking in a list
Implemented Skin Selection tools for Grow, Shrink, Loop and Ring using the unsupported
SkinUtils methods:
ActiveX Controls
Reorganized the ActiveX Controls topics into various sub-topics for easier navigation, added new topics describing
some typical control types.
Windows Media Player ActiveX Control
Point2 Values as "Twips" in ActiveX Controls
Added detailed documentation of the ListViewActiveXControl properties, methods and event handlers. See also the corresponding tutorials ListView ActiveX Controls Tutorials mentioned above.
Added detailed documentation of the TreeView ActiveX Control properties, methods and event handlers. See also the corresponding tutorials How To ... Develop a Scene Browser using TreeView ActiveX Control - Part One mentioned above.
MAXScript Frequently Asked Questions
Reorganized the MAXScript FAQ into various sub-chapters for easier navigation using the Content tab.
Added new topics to the MAXScript FAQ based on user requests:
How do I get a Space Warp by Binding?
How do I delete randomly a specified percentage of geometry objects?
How do I access UI elements to change their properties?
How do I make a vector from a vertex position?
How do I find the angle between two vectors?
How do I find the angle between 3 vertices?
How do I rotate a vector around the Z axis?
How do I align the UVW_Modifier's Gizmo to a selected face?
How do I display a value in a Rollout?
How do I batch-process multiple .MAX files?
How Do I Select a Face of an Editable Mesh by its Index?
How Do I Get Faces With Normals Facing Away?
How do I check if a string contains only numbers?
How do I link the rotation of an object to the scene time?
How do I remove duplicate arrays from an array?
How do I build Unconnected Edges Selections from EPoly Edge Selection?
How do I remove mid-edge EPoly Vertices?
Previously Undocumented Topics and Minor Fixes
Added previously undocumented system global variable preferences.dontRepeatRefMsg controlling the state of the animation system optimization introduced in 3ds Max 6.
Added previously undocumented Scripted Plugin Event Handler on clone do...
Added previously undocumented method setNumFaces to Mesh Face Methods topic.
Added previously undocumented parameter progressbar to the render() method.
Fixed the description of the hasNoteTracks method in the NoteTrack Value topic.
Fixed link from Contents tab to ActiveX by-reference arguments for methods and events which incorrectly pointed at ActiveX Controls in MAXScript Rollouts.
Added an example of finding the Angle between two Vectorsto the dot product description in the topic Point3 Values
Fixed the description and added an example of coercing Time Values to Numbers in the Time Values topic.
Added previously missing description of the setVertColor method to the Mesh Color-Per-Vertex Methods topic.
Fixed .scale property description of Wind : SpacewarpObject object. Added note about proper access of the object-level property which collides
with the node-level .scale property.
Added missing.mapCoords and/or .smooth properties documentation to C_Ext : GeometryClass, ChamferBox : GeometryClass, Gengon : GeometryClass, L_Ext : GeometryClass , OilTank : GeometryClass
Rewrote the documentation and replaced/added examples in the Selection Filters and Display Filters and ClassIdFilters topics.
Fixed the description of the .object property of the Pickbutton UI control. It was originally documented as read-only, but it can be set.
Added missing documentation for .fuse and .selectByID methods in the splineOps structure.
Added a note to the Interface: INodeGIProperties regarding Radiosity not processing hidden objects even when not excluded from GI.
Added an example of the optional keyword filename in Standard Open and Save File Dialogs.
Fixed wrong name of .character property in CharacterAssembly.
Fixed a bug in the FAQ example How do I Sort a MultiMaterial By Material ID?
Changed the reference to the "Animate" button to "Auto Key" in the topic animate and added a historical note for new users to explain the reasons for the current
naming.
Added a note to the topic ActiveX Controls in MAXScript Rollouts about the changed behavior of URLs in ActiveX controls introduced by Microsoft. All
URLs should start with "http://"
Added a new topic Customizing MacroScript Buttons describing the right-click menu and options for editing MacroScript Buttons.
Fixed broken example in CurveControl topic and enhanced the explanations of some Properties and Methods.
Added documentation of optional second argument of get and set handlers of tab type
parameters in scripted plugins. Also fixed minor errors in the documentation of types.
The optional on getDisplayMesh handler in scripted Camera Plug-ins was available since 3ds Max 5but was not documented. The same handler in scripted helpers is new in 3ds Max 7.
Removed From The Reference
Removed obsolete Notes describing missing MAXScript access from multiple classes
where these properties have been exposed in later 3ds Max versions.
Removed orphaned references to #draft renderer which was retired in 3dsmax 6.
Removed the ConvertToPatch topic which contained the same information as the Turn_To_Patch
topic (ConvertToPatch is an alias of Turn_To_Patch).
See Also
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