CG Tools - SoulburnScripts for 3dsmax

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http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_tools/scripts/3dsmax/soulburnscripts.htm

Updated: June 15th 2015

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Introduction
The SoulburnScripts for 3dsmax is a collection of scripts that I've written for my personal artwork at home. Some of
their concepts are based on scripts I wrote during my time at Blur Studio and released publicly as BlurScripts (however
the SoulburnScripts have been completely rewritten from scratch, giving them more features and better functionality),
others are totally new concepts. Thanks to the blur folk for giving me the inspiration to learn how to code.

Warnings
Feel free to install and use these scripts, however, I can't be held responsible for any problems that arise from their
use. I will try and fix bugs or add features that people want, but I have limited free time and so can only promise to do
my best. Thanks.

Installation
All the scripts come packaged into a single zip file of interconnected scripts, SoulCollection3dsMax_v0xx_Rxx.zip,
which includes all the scripts in the rest of the table below. Please download the most recent zip file only, and extract
them into your 3dsmax root directory, for example, c:\3dsmax. Make sure you have recurse sub directories on (it's also
called "Use Folder Names" in more recent copies of winzip). You may need administrator privileges to install these
scripts if running on Windows Vista or Windows 7. Windows should give you an error if you're not allowed to install the
scripts, so if you don't get an error, then the scripts should be installed properly. If you do get an error, either contact
your Administrator, or log on as Admin and then unzip the contents of the zipfile into a writable directory, then copy the
contents into your 3dsmax root directory.
The zip will then install a bunch of files and directories (Max 2013 to Max 2014, this example using Windows 7)...
c:\3dsmax\scripts\SoulburnScripts\images: This contains images required by the scripts.
c:\3dsmax\scripts\SoulburnScripts\lib: This contains libraries of functions required by the scripts.
c:\3dsmax\scripts\SoulburnScripts\scripts: The scripts.
c:\3dsmax\UI_ln\Icons: Adds a bunch of icons, they all start with the word "SoulburnScripts_".
c:\3dsmax\UI_ln\IconsDark: Adds a bunch of icons, they all start with the word "SoulburnScripts_".
c:\3dsmax\MacroScripts: the SoulburnScripts.mcr and SoulburnScriptsExtras.mcr files.
c:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Autodesk\3dsMax\2014 - 64bit\ENU\en-US\plugcfg\SoulburnScripts\presets:
This contains presets for the scripts, which you can save by hitting the "SaveDef" button on any of the UI mode
of the scripts (note, this directory only exists if you've saved some presets). Don't edit any of these files unless
you know what you're doing. To find your local path, replace "username" with whatever account you're using to
log into windows, and replace "2014 - 64bit" with whatever version of max you're running.
The zip will then install a bunch of files and directories (Max 9 to Max 2012, this example using Windows Vista)...
c:\3dsmax\scripts\SoulburnScripts\images: This contains images required by the scripts.
c:\3dsmax\scripts\SoulburnScripts\lib: This contains libraries of functions required by the scripts.
c:\3dsmax\scripts\SoulburnScripts\scripts: The scripts.
c:\3dsmax\ui\icons: Adds a bunch of icons, they all start with the word "SoulburnScripts_".
c:\3dsmax\ui\macroscripts: the SoulburnScripts.mcr and SoulburnScriptsExtras.mcr files.
c:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Autodesk\3dsmax\2009 - 64bit\enu

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\plugcfg\SoulburnScripts\presets: This contains presets for the scripts, which you can save by hitting the
"SaveDef" button on any of the UI mode of the scripts (note, this directory only exists if you've saved some
presets). Don't edit any of these files unless you know what you're doing. To find your local path, replace
"username" with whatever account you're using to log into windows, and replace "2009 - 64bit" with whatever
version of max you're running.
To uninstall the scripts, just delete all the files mentioned above. To install a new collection, just download the new zip
and unzip them again into your 3dsmax directory, saying overwrite current files. Or to be safe, uninstall the old scripts
first, then install the new pack. But overwiring the old pack should be fine.

Usage
All of these scripts are run as macroscripts, ie, as buttons, keyboard shortcuts, quad menus, etc, just go to Customize,
Customize User Interface, category SoulburnScripts. The SoulburnScripts CANNOT be run by choosing the
"MAXScript" menu and "Run Script" and then a script. You can also choose to run the macroscript called
"soulburnScriptsLister" to run any SoulburnScript. All scripts can be run in one of three modes...
UI Mode. Which brings up a user interface floater that lets you modify parameters before running the script.
Default Mode. Runs the script using the current default values. To change the default values, open the script
first in UI mode, modify the values, hit "SaveDef" to save the defaults, then close and run the script in default
mode. Also, if you run any of these scripts as a quad menu, it'll let you access the UI mode by clicking on the
mouse icon (with dark click button).
Argument Mode. This is for maxscripters only, it lets you run the script by supplying it with your own set of
values. This lets you integrate these tools into your own tools, or to bypass the default system.
Make sure to choose the version of the script with a "UI" at the end of it's name when making a button, a quadmenu or
keyboard shortcut if you want to run the UI version of the script.
For quick tutorials on how to use these scripts, click the "Help" button on the UI mode of any script.

Bugs
If you encounter any bugs running these scripts, perform the following checklist...
Try deleting any preset you may have for the malfunctioning script from your presets directory (see "Installation
section above for location).
Click the "Help" button on the UI mode of any script and read the "Known Issues" section to make sure your bug
isn't already mentioned as something I'm aware of.
Email me and give me a list of specific steps to reproduce the bug. I'll get back to you as soon as physically
possible.

Name

Date

Description

SoulCollection3dsMax_v097_R2013toR2016.zip 06/15/15 The SoulburnScripts For 3dsMax Collection 97,

compatible with max 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016
New Scripts: None
Updated Scripts: soulburnAssetLoader, sLib,
maxfileOldVersionSaver, iDSetter,
viewportToVFBLoader, texmapBaker
Extra Notes: None
SoulCollection3dsMax_v096_R2013toR2016.zip 05/17/15 The SoulburnScripts For 3dsMax Collection 96,
compatible with max 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016
New Scripts: None
Updated Scripts: soulburnAssetLoader, sLib,
maxfileOldVersionSaver, vraySamplingSubdivManager
Extra Notes: None

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SoulCollection3dsMax_v095_R2013toR2016.zip 05/09/15 The SoulburnScripts For 3dsMax Collection 95,

compatible with max 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016
New Scripts: None
Updated Scripts: soulburnAssetLoader,
maxfileOldVersionSaver, objectAttacher, objectDetacher,
vraySamplingSubdivManager
Extra Notes: Added SelectByColor and
VrayDisplacementMod macroscripts to
SoulburnScriptsExtras
Old Script Packs
SoulCollection3dsMax_v088_R9toR2012.zip

12/14/14 An older collection that's compatible with 3dsmax 9 to

3dsmax 2012.

SoulCollection3dsMax_v047_R8.zip

03/07/09 An older collection that's compatible with 3dsmax 8.

Scripts (79 scripts total)

aligner

Aligns one object to another. Similar to the Align tool in

max, but optimized to allow a variety of aligns with the
least number of mouse clicks necessary.

alignViewportToFace

Aligns the viewport to the selected face.

bitmapCollector

Collects all the scene bitmaps and places them into a

single directory, updating your scene to point to their
new home.

blendedBoxMapMaker

Creates a Blended Box Map for your selected objects.

Basically, it's box mapping, but the edges of the box are
blended so you can place the map on a curved surface
and not have horrible seams.

blendedCubeProjectionMaker

Applies 6 projections (Front, Back, Left, Right, Top,

Bottom) to the selected objects, hooks the projections
up to 6 maps, and then blends between each map.
Great for projecting details onto a set of objects, like box
mapping, but each side can be a seperate map, and the
edges of the box are blended so you can place the map
on a curved surface and not have horrible seams.

calculatorLauncher

Launches the calculator. Great for having quick access

to the calculator from inside the max interface, assign it
to a hotkey.

cameraFromPerspView

Changes an active perspective viewport into a camera

viewport.

cameraLensPackager

Lets you set the lenses (Focal Length) on all scene or

selected cameras based on 9 presets. The supplied
presets are for a Panavision C Series Anamorphic Lens
Package, but you can modify the presets to be your
favorite values.

cameraMapTemplateRenderer

Will render out templates for all selected cameras or all

cameras associated with a single cameraMapGemini
modifier. Automates the process so you're not stuck
rendering a lot of cameras and changing lots of render
resolutions by hand.

circleArrayMaker

Similar to array, but always rotates your objects to make

a complete circle.

cornerEdgeToVertexMap

Selects edges of a mesh based on the angle between

adjacent faces, and then converts them to a vertex map.
For example, you can select all the corner edges of a
mesh and then convert them to a vertex map for use
with a bump map or a mask to blend between textures.

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customAttributeRemover

Delete all Custom Attributes from selected or all scene

objects.

edgeDivider

Splits an Edge you select in an Editable Poly into equal

parts.

edgeSelectByAngle

Selects edges of a mesh based on the angle between

adjacent faces. For example, you can select all the
edges of a mesh for chamfer by placing a value of 90.

geometryBanger

Chooses a % of vertexes in an object and moves them

around randomly. Good for adding subtle bangs and
bumps to your geometry. The advantage this has over
say the Noise modifier is it only affect some verts, which
will give a more realistic result. Object Size
Compensation tries to bang smaller objects less, and
large objects more.

groupWithPoint

Takes selected objects and groups or ungroups them by

linking them to a point helper instead of using the max
group method. Very similar to the way maya handles
grouping.

iDSetter

Takes all selected objects and applies a material

modifier, modifies their object ID, or modifies their User
Defined Properties to either a random ID between the
high and low value, or a sequential set of IDs based on
selection order.

imagePlaneMaker

Creates a set of 2d image planes you can use to create

a 3d model.

instanceFinder

Finds instances of the selected object and does various

things to them such as selecting them, printing their
names, isolating them, etc.

instanceTrimmer

Takes a selection and reduces the selection to include

only a single instance from each set of instances.

layerCleaner

Deletes all empty layers from your scene.

materialFromSelectedObject

Gets the material from the currently selected object and

places it in the material editor. If multiple objects are
selected, chooses the material from the first selected
object.

materialInfoDisplayer

Displays various pieces of information regarding

material properties of selected objects or the active
material (such as the name of the Material on the
selected object, the used MatIDs on the selected object,
the map channels the active material is currently using,
etc).

materialMover

Lets you move materials from one place to another.

Some common uses: apply a flat grey material
(standard, Raytrace, Brazil, mentalray, etc) to all scene
objects in one button press. Clear out your material
editor with blank materials. Move all the scene materials
into the material editor. Move all scene materials to a
matlib. Assign a random material from the material
editor to a set of scene objects.

materialRemover

Removes the materials from the selected objects.

maxfileOldVersionSaver

Collects all of the max files in a directory and its

subdirectories and saves them as max files for older
versions of max.

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mirrorObjectAlongAxis

Mirrors the selected object along the X, Y or Z world

axis, with options for copy or instance. Like the mirror
tool, but lets you do some common mirror operations
with far fewer mouseclicks.

modifierUtilities

Lets you perform various modifier related tasks on a set

of selected objects. For example, takes all the selected
objects and adds / removes seperate instances of a
specific modifier. Or lets you find any objects in the
current selection that contains a specific modifier. Add
modifiers to your Favorites area for faster access.

nameManager

Lets you rename various things in your scene using a

variety of functions.

nodeTypeDisplayer

Prints the Class or SuperClass of selected nodes.

objectAttacher

Takes your current selection and attaches the objects

together. Works on geometry and splines.

objectDetacher

Takes selected objects (meshs, polys or splines) and

seperates all their elements into seperate objects.

objectDropper

Lets you drop objects onto another object. For example,

will drop a bunch of rocks onto an uneven ground
surface.

objectPainter

This script lets you paint objects (geometry, splines,

lights, helpers, etc) onto a piece of geometry. Like for
example, you can make 10 different rocks, and then
paint them in a random fashion onto a terrain.

objectReplacer

Replaces a selection of objects with a new object, or

randomly from a set of objects.

objectSelectorByMaterial

Finds all objects that are assigned the currently active

material in the medit and does various things to them
such as selecting them, isolating them, etc.

objectUniquefier

Takes any selected instanced / referenced geometry and

makes it unique.

parameterManager

Allows you to change parameter values for all selected

objects as a group. For example, you can change the
radius of a bunch of spheres together, even though
they're not instances of each other. Or you can change
the bend value for all selected objects that have a bend
modifier.

parentSelector

Selects any objects that are not parented to anything.

This is really useful if you want to select all the top level
parents in your scene or selection, maybe to later link
them to a master dummy object.

pFlowRemover

Even after deleting a PFlow Source object from your

scene, you can sometimes end up with cruft nodes that
are invisible to you, but exist in your scene, and can be
viewed if you try and merge your current scene into a
fresh scene. This scene flushes all of those nodes out of
the scene. Also includes some tools for finding and
printing out the nodes in case you need to delete them
by hand.

pipeMaker

Creates a big mess of pipes. This script uses a lot of

code from vidarn's "Pipe Dream" script
(www.creativetools.se), I've taken the basics of his script
and rebuilt it to do pipes that have more options on how
dense the final geometry is, the full volume the pipes
inhabit, etc. Maybe you'll find my changes useful too.

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pivotPlacer

Places the pivot of the selected objects in one of 27

spots such as center, bottom, top, high left side, etc. You
can also align pivot to currently selected vert, edge or
face.

polyCountSelector

Selects objects based on their facecount.

selectionRandomizer

Will randomly select objects based on a value provided.

snapShoter

Like the snapshot command, except turns your mesh to

an editablePoly when done, and a couple of other
goodies, like selecting the newly created objects. Only
for unanimated objects, does not let you produce an
object per frame like the max tool.

softSelectionControl

Toggles, or turns on or off the soft selection tool for

objects.

soulburnAssetLoader

A quick way to let you merge various assets into your

scene from a nice icon based interface (including
Environments that consist of lights and hdris, material
presets and individual models). I got the idea from
looking at keyshot, while keyshot is a nice piece of
software, it's quite limiting when you want to do
something more complex (like adding rust on an object
for example.) But it's great at quickly swapping materials
and rendering them in a realistic environment. So
hopefully this script can help you achieve the speed but
lets you to customize your materials and rigs more than
keyshot allows. Works with any 3dsmax renderer.

soulburnScriptsLister

Lets you run any of the SoulburnScripts from a handy

dropdownlist.

splineKnotManager

Takes all selected splines and converts all their knots to

a specific knot type such as "Smooth", "Corner", "Bezier"
or "Bezier Corner".

splineKnotToObject

Takes all selected splines and places a specified object

at their knots.

splineManager

Lets you modify various controls for all selected splines.

splinePainter

This script lets you paint splines on the surface of

another piece of geometry.

subdivisionAutomator

Quickly assigns a subdiv modifier (meshsmooth or

turbosmooth) to all scene or selected objects. This is
good if say you want to have all objects in your scene
converted into subdivs at rendertime without the need to
constantly select objects, find the right modifier, assign
the modifier, etc.

subdivisionIterationManip

Lets you increase or decrease the number of subdiv

iterations for selected objects.

subdivisionManager
texmapBaker

Lets you modify various subdivision controls on all

selected objects (both polyobjects and meshsmooth
modifiers)
Bakes any arbitrary map tree on a series of selected
objects. So say you have a vertex color map running
through a warp texture, and you want to use it as a
bump. Well, vertex maps don't create proper bumps, so
you bake the texture using this script, and then plug the
resulting bitmap into the bump slot, and now because it's
a baked texture map instead of procedural, the bump
map will work properly. Or say you have a super
complex diffuse map, you can bake part of the diffuse

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map network into a texture to speed render times up.

texmapPreview

Does a render of the currently selected texmap from the

material editor on the objects that it's applied to in the
scene. Think of it as something similar to the "Show Map
In Viewport" function, except it works with all
procedurals (Show Map In Viewport does not always
produce correct results) and does a full render instead of
doing the openGL viewport preview.

thinFaceSelector

Finds and selects faces that are really tall and thin.
Good for finding thin faces in a complex mesh, faces
that may be best to subdivide to make all your faces
more square.

transformRandomizer

Lets you translate, rotate and scale a group of objects or

modifier gizmos by a random amount.

transformRemover

Resets the position, rotation and / or scale of the

selected objects.

transformSelector

Lets you select objects based on their position, rotation

or scale.

twoDPlanView

Creates an orthogonal 2D Plan view of your scene,

perfect for creating 2d elements using max's tools.

uniqueObjectFinder

Finds objects in your selection that are unique, ie, that

don't have any instances of themselves, and then does
various things to them such as selecting them, printing
their names, isolating them, etc.

uVAreaDisplayer

Prints the area of the currently selected UV faces.

uVFlattener

Lets you flatten a selection of UVs, or in other words

aligns all selected UVs horizontally or vertically. The
advantage of using this tool over the one provided in the
Unwrap UVW editor is you can choose to align the UVs
to the average, the min or the max.

uVFlattenMapper

Applies Flatten Mapping (also sometimes refered to as

Automatic UVs), which is the same as the Flatten
Mapping in the UVWUnwrap modifier, but unlike that
one, can be applied to a selection of objects with each
object using their own map, or all the objects sharing a
single map. Good for just getting some sort of mapping
on all scene objects in one button press, perhaps to then
send to a paint app or to bake a texture map.

uVPlacer

Lets you modify the positions of selected uvs using a

handy dialog box.

uVTransfer

Transfers uvs from one object to the next. Useful if you

have two identical meshes, but their vertex order is
messed up (like perhaps in the situation where you
exported the object to a seperate application for uving
and that application messed up the vertex order.) This
script can transfer the uvs from the new object to your
original object in max, even if the order is different.

vertexAndEdgeConnector

Performs a number of Connect functionality in one

script. For example, in vanilla max, you can't assign the
same hotkey to both connect an edge and connect a
vertex. You also can't have one hotkey that both
connects in an EditablePoly and an EditPoly. This script
allows you to have one hotkey to do all of that, and it
detects what mode you're in to choose what action to
perform.

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vertexEdgeFaceSelectByNormal

Selects verts, edges or faces of a Editable Poly based

on an angle threshhold. This is identical to the tool on
the Modeling Ribbon, but now accessible as a
macroscript since the one in the ribbon didn't have a
macroscript available.

vertexMapDisplayer

Toggles or turns on or off the vertex map viewport

display for all scene or selected objects.

vertPlacer

Allows you to move the vertexes in an object or the

knots in a spline to a single value, either the average of
the current values, or a specific value. Good for
flattening out groups of vertexes.

vertSelectionToObject

Places objects at the positions of the currently selected

vertexes.

viewportControl

Lets you control the view you're currently seeing in the

viewport in a handy dialog box.

viewportToVFBLoader

Gets the currently active viewport and loads it into the

VFB. Most useful in Vray so you don't have to do a
render to set your render region. Originally written by
Dave Wortley (http://davewortley.wordpress.com/), I
added limited support for the scanline renderer and a
number of extra options like better resize quality and
overriding the viewport draw mode.

vraySamplingSubdivManager

Allows you to adjust the Sampling Subdiv value for

scene materials and lights all together, ensuring
consistency.

wireColorRandomizer

Changes the wirecolor of all selected objects to a

random value.

wireMaker

Creates a number of wires that travel through various

target objects. Useful for making bundles of wires for
robots or other mechanical devices in a few simple
clicks.

xFormResetter

Like the Reset Xform utility, but with a number of

improvements: 1) Works on hierarchies without messing
up the transformation, 2) Automatically flips the normals
of any object with negative scales, 3) Can either turn
instances to copies or references (like the Utility does),
4) Can Collapse Mesh To Poly after reset

Retired Scripts (9 scripts total)

Scripts I have retired because max now has a similar

feature, or it was a beta script that I never finished.

bitmapPagerManager

The Bitmap Pager controls have been removed from the

preferences of Max2010. This script gives you some of
that control back, especially the ability to turn it off,
which may speed up renders on 64bit OS's that have
lots of RAM. These functions don't seem to do anything
anymore in modern versions of max.

cameraMapGeminiRenderer

Will render out templates for all cameras associated with

a single cameraMapGeminiRenderer modifier.
Automates the process so you're not stuck rendering a
lot of cameras and changing lots of render resolutions
by hand. Replaced with cameraMapTemplateRenderer.

faceNormalDisplayer

Toggles, or turns on or off the face normal display for

objects. Worked incorrectly for too many objects inside
max.

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materialIDRandomizer

Takes all selected objects and applies a material

modifier to them with a random ID between the high and
low value. Replaced with iDRandomizer.

pointTracker

Attaches a point to a selected vertex and bakes out the

position information. Never worked properly.

powerSolidManager

Lets you modify the render and viewport approximation

controls on all selected Powersolids objects.
Powersolids no longer exists for modern versions of
max.

selectionHighlighter

This script simulates the Selection Highlighting mode

from Silo in max. The idea is if you hover over an object,
the object is selected, if you hover over a vertex, it
selects the vertex, if you hover over an edge, the edge is
selected, etc. No need for extra mouseclicks. Autodesk
has half added this feature, this script goes all the way
to adding full silo style selection highlighting. Never
worked reliably.

surfaceSnapper

This script allows you to move one object along the

surface of a second object. Great for placing objects on
a terrain. Replaced with Placement tool in max.

uVWMappingCopier

Copies a UVWMapping Modifier from one object to the

current selected objects. This works in world space
(unlike the current method of copying the modifier in the
modifier stack) so you can get exactly the same
uvwmapping modifier in exactly the same worldspace
position on all your objects. Never worked reliably.

Scripts I use the most for my own work (for the curious): aligner, blendedBoxMapMaker, blendedCubeProjectionMaker,
cameraFromPerspView, cameraMapTemplateRenderer, cornerEdgeToVertexMap, edgeDivider, modifierUtilities,
nameManager, objectAttacher, objectDetacher, objectReplacer, pivotPlacer, soulburnAssetLoader, soulburnScriptLister,
subdivisionAutomator, subdivisionIterationManip, texmapPreview, transformRandomizer, uVFlattener,
vertexAndEdgeConnector, vertPlacer, xFormResetter

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