topic Re: How to generate objects based on a .csv or excel file in 3ds Max Forum

How to generate objects based on a .csv or excel file

Anonymous — Mon, 27 Feb 2017 12:26:35 GMT

Hi all,

I need to create >1000 objects in 3DSMax. All of them are cube shaped, but with different dimensions and textures.

I have an excel sheet with the object name and the dimensions in XYZ. I also have a folder with the textures for each face of the object, named in a way that corresponds with the excel file.

Is there a way to write a script to automatically generate these objects based on the data?

I've tried Google, but without much luck.

Many thanks in advance

Re: How to generate objects based on a .csv or excel file

irishman_team_kilber — Tue, 28 Feb 2017 13:23:35 GMT

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/3ds-max-forum/linking-3ds-max-design-to-excel-files/td-p/5459652

script http://www.scriptspot.com/forums/3ds-max/scripts-wanted/3ds-max-script-to-export-list-of-group-names-to-excel-file

search term https://www.google.co.uk/?gfe_rd=cr&ei=UHm1WLTpGKzP8Afo9Jr4Bg&gws_rd=ssl#q=3ds+max+and+excel%3F&*

Re: How to generate objects based on a .csv or excel file

leeminardi — Thu, 02 Mar 2017 01:23:19 GMT

Creating objects with data from an Excel file is fairly straightforward. The goal is to create 3ds Max instructions in Excel that can be run as a script.

The first thing I do is to turn on the Max Script Listener Scripting --> MaxScript Listener...

The next step is to do the action you want to duplicate with the script. Since you want to add a bunch of boxes I would add one box and see what the Max Script Listener shows. Here's an example"

Box lengthsegs:1 widthsegs:1 heightsegs:1 length:4.64166 width:7.40208 height:7.6287 mapcoords:on pos:[74.7074,-24.8917,0] isSelected:on

Let's assume my Excel file has the following layout for the box data:

By using the Excel concatenate function we can build the box creation command in G3. For this example it would look like this:

=CONCATENATE("Box lengthsegs:1 widthsegs:1 heightsegs:1 length:",A3," width:",B3," height:",C3," mapcoords:on pos:[",D3,",",E3,",",F3,"]")

Excel cell G3 would show:

Box lengthsegs:1 widthsegs:1 heightsegs:1 length:11 width:5 height:17.8 mapcoords:on pos:[25.738,24.075,16.81]

Fill this expression down to the other rows of data and then copy and paste the contents of column G to Notepad.

Save the Notepad file as a .txt file and then change the name of the file so that its file extension is .ms (for Max Script).

You can now use Scripting --> Run Script to execute the script and see the boxes!

Use listener to see how materials are assigned to objects and use concatenate to duplicate that process.

Good luck!

~Lee

Re: How to generate objects based on a .csv or excel file

Anonymous — Mon, 06 Mar 2017 16:37:58 GMT

Hi,

This will be perfect for what I need to do!

Thank you very much for your detailed response. It works in practice, I'll let you know how it goes when I implement it for everything.

Thanks again.

Re: How to generate objects based on a .csv or excel file

leeminardi — Mon, 06 Mar 2017 18:06:12 GMT

Be careful with the commas in Concatenate and that the result duplicates the the Max format.

I'd like to hear how this works out for you.

Lee

Re: How to generate objects based on a .csv or excel file

Alfred.DeFlaminis — Wed, 15 Mar 2017 23:12:23 GMT

Hello @Anonymous and welcome to the community,

I just wanted to follow up on this, did this work for you? (Excellent post btw @leeminardi!) If this did work for you, can you please let me know so I (or you) can mark the post as a solution for the next person who needs this information? Thanks very much!

Best Regards,

Re: How to generate objects based on a .csv or excel file

zvonimirpetrovic89 — Wed, 19 Jan 2022 07:06:49 GMT

How to generate objects with x, y, z coordinates and rotation from an excel file?

Maybe it requires just a small modification of this script? Thank you in advance.

Re: How to generate objects based on a .csv or excel file

leeminardi — Wed, 19 Jan 2022 19:29:26 GMT

Working with rotations in 3D is tricky. The order in which you do rotations can affect an object’s final orientation. For example, if a box is rotated first by 30° about the x axis, then 25° about the y axis and then 10° it will have a different 3D orientation than a box that is first rotated by 10° about the z axis then 25° about the y axis and finally 30° about the z axis. For this reason I would rather deal with an object’s transformation matrix. This requires that you know the direction vectors for each of the local axes of the object.

However, if you want to work with angle rotations then you can just use the following statements to rotate box Box001 by 30° about the x axis, then 25 about y and 10 about z:

Rotate $Box001 30.0 [1,0,0] Rotate $Box001 25.0 [0,1,0] Rotate $Box001 10.0 [0,0,1]

If you know the transformation matrix that you would like to assign to an object you can do that directly. For example, let’s say we would like to give Box002 the same orientation as Box001. The following will assign the transformation matrix of Box001 to the variable m.

m = $Box001.transform

The matrix m will look something like this:

(matrix3 [0.892539,0.157379,-0.422618] [0.0577152,0.889562,0.453154] [0.447262,-0.428849,0.784886] [200,200.0,100.83])

It consists of 4 vectors. The first three define the directions of the object’s local x, y, and z axes. These vectors are usually unit vectors if the object has not been scaled. The 4th vector is the position vector.
If we assign m to Box002 it will be at the same location as Box001 as well as the same orientation. To keep the position unchanged we extract the location of Box002 with:

m.pos = $Box002.pos

and now assign m to Box002:

$Box002.transform = m

Now Box002 has the same orientation as Box001 but its position is unchanged.
Depending on whether you would like to work with angles (knowing their limitations) or matrices is up to you. If you provide a sample Excel file with data for a few boxes and how you want to set their orientation I can take a shot at adding a column that generates a Maxscript.

Re: How to generate objects based on a .csv or excel file

leeminardi — Thu, 20 Jan 2022 16:15:49 GMT

@zvonimirpetrovic89

I've added the option to include rotation angles in an Excel worksheet that will be referenced when creating a Maxscript.

The content of cell J3 is:

=CONCATENATE("Box length:",A3," width:",B3," height:",C3," mapcoords:on pos:[",D3,",",E3,",",F3,"] isSelected:on",CHAR(13),"rotate $ ",G3," [1,0,0]",CHAR(13),"rotate $ ",H3," [0,1,0]",CHAR(13),"rotate $ ",I3," [0,0,1]")

Note that the CHAR(13) is used to add a carriage return to create a new line for the rotate functions.

To use the Excel file as the source of a Maxscript copy the contents of cells J3 down to a text editor. I use Notepad++. Before saving the file BE SURE TO DELETE ALL " MARKS (use replace " with nothing) then save with the .ms filename extension.

For best results, keep rotation angles between -90° and +90°.