MAXScript Language Improvements in 3ds Max 6

Garbage Collector Improvements

Manual Garbage Collection

This change to MAXScript extends the light:true parameter behavior introduced in 3ds Max 5 to automatic garbage collection.

Structure Scope Set When Initializing

Structure Scope While Initializing

When initializing a structure, the scope will now be set to the structure's context. Note that this effectively lets you run a function within the structure when an instance of the structure is created!

Return Values and Exiting Loops

You can now call return() in macroScripts whose body is a single expression (i.e, old style macroScripts that don't use 'on execute do ...') to exit the macroScript.

For Loop

A new optional while <expr> test has been added to the for loop. The for loop will terminate if the test expression evaluates to false .

Loop Exit

Exiting a for ... do loop using a with <expr> returns the expression value as the result of the loop. In releases prior 3ds Max 6, OK was returned.

ArrayParameter values coerced to Array.

ArrayParameter Values

ArrayParameter values can now be coerced to Array.

mtl = standard()
mapsArray = mtl.maps as array

modPanel.ValidModifier Improvements

Modify Panel

The modPanel.validModifier method has been changed to return false if either the node/node collection or modifier/modifier class is 'undefined', or the node collection is empty.

Hide, Unhide, Freeze and Unfreeze Performance Improvements

Node Common Methods - Viewport State

The way the mappable methods hide, unhide, freeze and unfreeze are called when passed a node collection has been changed so that there is a single internal call passing a node array, rather than individual calls passing one node at a time.

The speed of these methods will be significantly higher than in older versions.

ActiveX

Setting Focus on User Interface Controls

The setFocus <rollout_ui_item> function can now be used with ActiveXControl UI items.