Maxscript alembic

While alembic support has finally been added to 3dsMax 2015 the maxscript documentation has yet to appear. With a bit of digging around this is what I have found.

Alembic Objects

selecting an object and using showproperties $ show these properties

 .source : filename
.object : string

Importing alembic files

files are imported using the ImportFile command. You can show a list of supported plugins by using:

 print importerPlugin.classes 

This will list Alembic_Import as a plugin class

 showInterfaces Alembic_Import 

Will show the following

Interface: AlembicImport
Properties:
.ZUp : boolean : Read|Write
.ImportToRoot : boolean : Read|Write
Methods:
Actions:

Interestingly while ImportToRoot IS included in the standard max dialog ZUP is not, and alas I cannot find a way to switch the time range options using max script.

Exporting alembic files

the exporter can be inspected in a similar way

 print exporterPlugin.classes 

This will list ABCEXP as a plugin class

 showInterfaces ABCEXP 

Will show the following

 

  Interface: AlembicExport
   Properties:
    .CoordinateSystem : enum : Read|Write
       CoordinateSystem enums: {#Max|#Maya}
    .ArchiveType : enum : Read|Write
       ArchiveType enums: {#HDF5|#Ogawa}
   Methods:
   Actions:

Again its not obvious how to access the time cache range shown in the Alembic Export dialog

Quick setup proxy and overscan sizes with my 3dsMax Camera resolution tool

Frankly the default 3dsMax render settings bug me. They don’t deal with modern cameras. The proxy settings are hard coded and can’t be changed. There’s no easy way to create over-scanned frame without a calculator. So I’ve written my own tool to fix these problems and you can download it for free. If you want to know more read my article on basic camera maths in 3dsmax

Check out the installation instructions here.

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How to quickly locate those pesky 3dsmax settings and folders

Max uses settings and folders tucked away in various windows locations. Sometimes it can be a little tricky to track things down, and even navigating the windows explorer can be tedious if the file is buried in a deep folder structure.

Typing this code into the maxScript Listener will open the Windows Explorer at the folder containing the 3dsMax.ini file.

shellLaunch ( GetDir #maxData )

(note: you can inspect backup and restore 3dsMax.ini settings with this MAXScript)
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