Updating a progress bar is fairly simple in conceptual terms, but it always takes a slightly different bit of code to do it right:

• What if the sequence is backwards?
• What if you're incrementing in units of 2, or 3, or 10?
• How big is the progress jump?

It makes sense to abstract the process and stick it in a struct. The progressBarUpdater does just that, and really is as simple as:

1. Create a struct instance
2. Initialize it with a reference to a progress bar, and the known start and end values of the calculation
3. Call update() for each loop iteration.

In code, starting with a 2-line initialization, it looks like this:

pbu = progressBarUpdater()
pbu.init pb1 startValue endValue

And to update the progress bar, this is the only command you need to place in the loop:

pbu.update()

The pbUpdater struct already knows everything it needs to know, so it's just one call.

Download

Download progressBarUpdater.ms.

A struct containing methods to save and load rollout settings, such as size, position, control states, items, etc
to a preferences file, as well as methods to accomplish UI control tasks for example keeping one spinner higher or lower
than another when editing ranges.

Usage

To manage a rollout or dialog, you simply:

1. create a struct instance
2. initialize it with a reference to a rollout
3. Manage the rollout by calling the struct's methods

In code, that's as easy as this:

ui = uiManager()
ui.initialize roTools
ui.loadPosition()

All settings are saved to an .ini file named after the rollout title, so in this case, an ini file named "Tools.ini" would be saved to your max installation's /plugcfg folder.

Methods

This is a work in progress, and will be updated from time to time with new methods.

Dialog functions

• savePosition - save the dialog position
• loadPosition - load the dialog position
• saveSize - save the dialog size
• loadSize - restore the dialog size

Rollout functions

• autoSizeFloater - resize the floater to exactly the size of all open rollouts
• toggleRollout - set one or several rollouts open
• loadRolloutStates - save all rolled-up / down states (not yet implemented)
• saveRolloutStates - load all rolled-up / down states (not yet implemented)

Control functions

• updateSpinnerPair - ensure that spinners react as a pair, eg one can never go higher than the other
• moveListboxItem - move selected Listbox items up or down, and have them remain selected
• moveMultiListboxItems - move multiple MultiListbox selections up or down, and have them remain selected
• getValue - abstract function to get a control's value (not yet implimented)
• setValue - abstract function to set a controls's value (not yet implimented)

Preference functions (WIP)

• saveValue - save a control's value
• loadValue - load a control's value
• saveAllValues - save all controls' values
• loadAllValues - load all controls' values

Downloads

Download uiManager0.52.ms. Place in your scripts/startup directory, or just include the file when you need it.

These example files will get you started:

• Preferences functionality - save and restore a dialog's position when re-running a script
• Floater functionality - open only selected rollouts, and automatically resize when opening rollouts

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MaxHtml provides methods to run max commands from an ActiveX HTML page. Also, provides simple methods to write back to the page.

Example uses:

• Run MaxScript commands as part of a help system
• Build a custom UI using HTML / JavaScript

It's form is a struct (function library) in conjunction with a JavaScript library. It is designed for programmers to use within their scripts.

Demo UI

Functions

This is just a base set of functions. I may add more at some point.

Implementation

HTML

• Include maxHtml.js in your HTML
• Construct your HTML links correctly, e.g. <a href="javascript:maxCmd('render()')">render</a>

3dsMax

• Include maxHtml.ms in your MaxScript
• Set up the ActiveX browser control to display your html page
• Use the control’s BeforeNavigate2 event to intercept the links in the web page
• Pass the url along to the maxHtml struct like so: maxHtml.parseUrl url

Explore the demo to see how things work. Be sure to change the path in the top of the demo.ms file to point to towards the html demo file!

Download

Download MaxHtml.zip

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