Over the past few months I've created a completely new applink from scratch for use between 3DSMax and 3D-Coat, but after having posted about it for a while in the old applink thread it's about time to give it its own dedicated one.
Automatic Installation:
1. drag-drop mzp file onto max window, or go to Scripting/Maxscript > Open Script and run the mzp from there.
2. After install is successfully completed, find the app under Customize > Keyboard/Toolbar tab > Category: GregsScripts.
Manual installation:
1. Open mzp file like a regular zip file (using 7zip, winrar, etc.) and extract the "3DCapplink" folder
2. Copy the .BMP files to your max icons directory (search for "Icons" or "IconsDark" in you Max directory depending on your theme).
3. Create a folder inside your Windows Documents directory called "Applink_Max3DC", and copy all the .MAT, .MS, and .TXT files there.
4. Run the file "GregsScripts-g_3DCappLink.mcr" the same way you would the mzp during auto-installation.
5. After install is successfully completed, find the app under Customize > Keyboard/Toolbar tab > Category: GregsScripts.
-------------------- Creating a custom material preset:
1. Create you're material however you want, as any type you want (except for DirectX materials).
Multi-Sub materials are fine too, just don't use a multi-sub inside another multi-sub.
2. Create a series of blank/dummy texture files named as follows:
color.jpg , opacity.jpg , rough.jpg , gloss.jpg , specular_color.jpg , metalness.jpg , normal.jpg , emissive.jpg , ao.jpg
3. Add these files to your material where ever you want the corresponding 3D-Coat maps to be plugged into.
The maps from 3D-Coat do NOT have to be jpgs, but should all be one format (tga, png, etc.)
4. In Compact Material Editor on the top menu bar go to Material > Get Material. Or if in the Slate Material Editor the "Materials/Map Browser" window will already be visible on the left.
In the "Material/Maps Browser" click the top left down arrow > New Material Library...
Save the Material Library file to the Windows documents folder named "Applink_Max3DC". The material file can be named whatever you want, but it must have the ".mat" extension.
Drag-drop the material from the Material Editor on to the newly created Material Library listed in the "Material/Map Browser"
Right click on the Material Library (ie. the ".mat" file in the "Material/Map Browser") > the file path > save.
5. That's it, you're done! Next time the applink is started your preset will be shown in the drop down list be ready to be used. Material preset Utility:
-Right click on the material presets drop down menu, a new menu will appear that lets you assign scene settings to each preset.
-Right click on any arrows to reset that setting to 'ignore' (ie. don't do anything to that scene setting when using the material preset)
-If you assign a setting to "CURRENT SCENE" it will take affect immediately, but for any other selectable presets you need to press Accept or OK button for them to be saved.
Material presets known limitations:
-Unused maps from preset need to be maually removed (opacity.jpg, emissive.jpg, etc.), so only include the ones you're sure you will be exporting from 3D-Coat when using that preset.
-Material presets do NOT support materials that use "bitmaps" instead of "bitmapTextures". What's the difference? A bitmapTexture lets you mess with the bitmaps settings (like output curves), Bitmaps however don't (in DirectX materials for example).
-If a preset fails to load on import (like if it requires vray and you don't have vray installed) the objects will use the Default preset (ie. no preset) instead.
-Presets should not be multi-sub materials, because then you can end up with multi sub materials inside other multi sub materials, and that hasn't been tested. It -might- work, but I'm really just not sure.
Changes:
-Now supports multiple languages. Languages can be chosen from top menu bar under "Options".
--Users can copy and edit the existing language files in the Windows Documents Applink_Max3DC folder to create their own.
--Thanks go out to Puntoit for the German translation!
-File menu bar added. Features;
--File; Just includes 'Exit' , is so users can exit the Applink directly from docked mode.
--Options; Access all language and extended options settings.
--Help; Access help files and the main forum thread if have questions.
-Now auto-detects "AppLinks" folder introduced in the most recent versions of 3D-Coat. Suggested for anyone running 3D-Coat v4.5.37 or newer.
-Additional options added for "Auto Clear Temp on Close". Can now select "Clear all found temp directories" or "Clear only the selected temp directory"
-Fixed a bug with "Import Only Materials" feature that happened in 3DC 4.5.37 and newer due to changes in the content structure of the textures.txt file.
-Now fully tested to work in Max 2017. Previous versions worked, but had some very minor UI issues.
-Applink can now work even if main settings INI cannot be read from / written to.
-Additional Import option added that lets users choose to import from selected Temp directory, or check for the latest files in all know temp directories.
--Work around for 3D-Coat fractured export bug, where generated txt files will be created in two completely different folders.
Pack of dummy textures file is not available for download
3DS Max Applink - Complete Rewrite
in 3DCoat AppLinks
Posted
Pack of dummy textures file is not available for download