Scripted Plug-ins And Max Creation Graph Tools
The Max Creation Graph system evaluates to DotNet CLI, but it integrates with 3ds Max and its User Interface via automatically generated scripted plug-ins. The type of the scripted plugin depends on the type of the tool being defined by the outout node of the Max Creation Graph.
- MCG Geometry creates a Geometry scripted plug-in.
- MCG Modifier creates a SimpleMeshMod scripted plug-in.
While the majority of the actual plug-in definition usually does not require manual tweaking, modifying the automatically generated User Interface code (Rollout definition and UI controls) is quite common and it is directly supported by the Max Creation Graph Editor. This allows the author of the Graph to include a custom MAXScript User Interface definition to produce the same manually adjusted controls with each evaluation and avoids the need to re-edit the scripted plug-in definition again and again.
Customized Max Creation Graph User Interface
The typical Max Creation Graph workflow looks like this:
- Create the node Graph including input nodes to be exposed in the UI.
- Save and Evaluate the Graph to generate all files including the .MS scripted plug-in file.
- Once the initial testing of the plug-in has finished and the UI controls are all exposed automatically, copy the rollout definition from the .MS file into the Custom UI tab of the Graph Properties dialog accessible via the Edit Menu of the Max Creation Graph Editor.
- Modify the rollout definition to reorder the controls, combine common controls into groups, tweak the appearance of the controls, and additional rollouts with info about the tool etc.
- Save and Evaluate the Graph to produce a tool with the custom User Interface and iterate further to tweak its UI appearance.
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