3DS - Toolbars and Menus

Owned by thomas (Unlicensed)
Last updated: 30 Oct, 2013
4 min read

The functionality of the plugin is conveniently shown in a floating/dockable toolbar and a menu.

 


The RealFlow toolbar.


The functions of the buttons, from left to right:

  • A) Create BIN Mesh Object. Create a mesh object inside 3ds Max and loads its geometry from a sequence of BIN mesh files.
  • B) Export BIN Mesh. Export mesh data to a BIN file.
  • C) Export BIN Mesh Settings. Display the options dialog for the BIN mesh exporter.
  • D) Export PFlow Particles. Export one or more PFlow emitters as a sequence of BIN files. It uses the last settings stored in the scene if available or brings up an options dialog, just like the SD exporter. 
  • E) Export PFlow Particles Settings: Display the options dialog for the BIN particle exporter.
  • F) SD File Export. Export the scene using the settings stored inside the scene. If this is the first time the scene is being exported, or the settings have been lost for any reason, the button will bring up the settings dialog.
  • G) SD File Export Settings. Adjust the SD export settings.
  • H) SD File Import. Load an SD file into 3ds Max. No settings are needed.
  • J) RealFlow menu

The import/export of the SD and mesh files can also be done using 3ds Max File > Import… and File > Export… options.

 


RealFlow SD Import/Export using 3ds Max’s File I/O mechanism.


Users can configure their own toolbar by using the “Customize User Interface” dialog:

 


RealFlow toolbar actions are user configurable.

SD File Support

This section will discuss the usage of the SD component of the plugin and the ways in which it has been improved for this version.

Soft Body Objects

Soft body objects are now supported in 3ds Max. Please note that “RFSoftBody” object cannot be created manually by users. The plugin will create “RFSoftBody” nodes when importing an SD file that contains soft body objects which are not present in the current scene. If they are already present in the scene, the plugin will assign them positioning data (translation, rotation, scaling) and will only change the SD link file they point to and the SD object name they are linked to. “RFSoftBody” objects will use file offsets for each frame and will load geometry from disk when the current frame changes, ensuring optimal memory usage. A soft body object is linked to the original SD file through two properties: SD file name and SD object name (see image below). Changing the name of the object or the path to the SD file is not recommended, but can be used e.g. when the SD file has been moved to a different directory. Nodes with a broken link (bad file path or object name) will show up as a simple cube in the viewport. A soft body object can be used as a normal 3ds Max object, which means it can be instanced, copied or referenced and used in combination with different object or world space modifiers.

 

Soft body object properties.

MAXScript support

The SD functionality is also included in MAXScript. The command to import SD files is:

rfImportSD file:path_to_file


When using the command to export scenes, the export settings can either be taken from the scene, or explicitly specified. To use the settings stored inside the scene, execute the following command:

rfExportSD output:path_to_file


To specify the options explicitly, you can add one or more of the following arguments:

  • "deformation" (YES/NO): turns on per-frame geometry export on the exported objects. The default is “Autodetect”.
  • "camera": name to select which camera to use. The default is to use the active camera (if any).
  • "entireScene" (YES/NO): exports the entire scene or just the selected objects. The default is to export everything.
  • "firstFrame:number": specifies the first frame to export. The default is first frame from the active time segment.
  • "lastFrame:number":  specifies the last frame to export. The default is the last frame from the active time segment.

RealFlow-Specific Object Attributes

A RealFlow tab is added in the “Object Properties” dialog for the currently selected objects. RealFlow soft body objects, cameras, lights, and particle systems will have the options disabled since they are not supported. The tab contains attributes which control how the exporter treats the object:

  • Export deformation: this can be used as an object-level override for the deformation mode which is specified in the export options.

 

RealFlow-specific object attributes.

 

These attributes are dynamically added to the object only when they are set to a non-default value.

Progress reporting

Both the import and export processes report progress in the main 3ds Max progress bar (in the status line). The user can cancel at any time by pressing the ESC key. Please note that aborting an import before a frame has been read will leave all the imported objects at the origin.


RealFlow SD Export progress bar.

Miscellaneous improvements

Large file support. The plugin uses 64-bit offsets for file operations, so there are no restrictions in the size of the SD files. The plugin imports and exports UW texture coordinates correctly now.