How do I delete randomly a specified percentage of geometry objects?
A user asked:
I'm trying to create a script that will delete a certain percentage of the objects
in a scene. I want the objects to be chosen randomly. I want the script to affect
only the meshes.
Answer:
Here is a possible approach:
SCRIPT
|
(
-- Collect the object of a certain type into an array, for example
-- this one collects all geometry objects, excluding the target objects
-- which are of Geometry superClass for pre-MAXScript historical reasons
candidatesArray = for o in Geometry where classof o != TargetObject collect o
-- Because you want to remove random objects, but a specified percentage,
-- it is a good idea to make the decision which objects will be deleted
-- BEFORE actually deleting any objects.
-- You can create a second array and fill it up with the actual
-- objects to be deleted:
deathRowArray = #() -- init. an empty array
thePercentage = 50.0 -- define the percentage
-- Calculate the number of objects to delete:
numberToDelete = (thePercentage / 100.0 * candidatesArray.count) as integer
-- Loop until the deathRow array is filled
-- with the desired number of objects:
while deathRowArray.count < numberToDelete do
(
newIndex = random 1 candidatesArray.count --generate new random index
--if not already chosen, add it to the deathrow array
if findItem deathRowArray candidatesArray[newIndex] == 0 do
append deathRowArray candidatesArray[newIndex]
)
delete deathRowArray --finally, delete the collected objects
)
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