topic Re: Expose values in the tools ui in 3ds Max Programming Forum

Expose values in the tools ui

Ihno — Tue, 19 May 2015 08:31:55 GMT

Is it possible to expose values in the tools ui? like this for example:

Re: Expose values in the tools ui

Swordslayer — Tue, 19 May 2015 10:15:44 GMT

Could you elaborate? The ui controls pictured are labels, they can either be static or dynamically updated, let's say from the event handlers of the controls the values that are displayed depend on. You can add them in the Custom UI section of the maxtool.

Re: Expose values in the tools ui

Ihno — Tue, 19 May 2015 11:18:09 GMT

Thans for the quick Answer.
For my modifire i need to set min and max values.
I originally planned to use the local rotation of a bone to change vertexcolor of an Muscle-Object.
Now i know that i can´t get a proper local rotation in relation to the parent, i´ll have to find another way, maby the distance (with offset) between the child and the parent of my bone-object.

Anyway, i´ll have to define a min and max value.
Originally i wanted to create Buttons to do that, but there is no Parameter: Button note.
So, propably i´ll have to set it manually.
In order to do so, it will be nessesary to see the current value while moving the bone.
And it would be nicer to see that in the modifires UI than in the script listener.
To cut a long story short, it will have to be dynamically updated.

Re: Expose values in the tools ui

Swordslayer — Tue, 19 May 2015 23:20:25 GMT

Well, my experience with MCG is limited but I don't think there's currently a way to pass values/information to rollout controls. If you want to make the modifier in MCG anyway, you could just add simple custom attributes block to it which would show the info you want.

Re: Expose values in the tools ui

Anonymous — Sun, 28 Jun 2015 07:23:45 GMT

are you after something like this ? Where I display Resultant Cols = (Cols *2) + 1

Re: Expose values in the tools ui

Anonymous — Sun, 28 Jun 2015 08:27:36 GMT

also mcg Buttons here, I'm no maxscript expert but I just chucked something like this in the Custom UI for the hell of it...and it works...

button btnFaceOri "Face Orientation" width:135 height:20

on btnFaceOri pressed do macros.run "xView" "xView_Face_Orientation_Checker"

Re: Expose values in the tools ui

Ihno — Mon, 29 Jun 2015 09:47:01 GMT

Looks prommissing i´ll take a look onto this.
Maby you could post the MAXScript of the cols lable?
I´ll take a look into your SimpleWave graph on ScriptSpot anyway.
But for other "Graph Explorers" it would be nice to have something to mark as solution in here.

Re: Expose values in the tools ui

Anonymous — Mon, 29 Jun 2015 12:26:38 GMT

maybe i'll wait and see if it solves your problem coz i thought what i did was sooooo simple...nah it wouldn't be the answer...

Re: Expose values in the tools ui

Ihno — Mon, 29 Jun 2015 14:07:08 GMT

Ok, this thing needs a Parameter node as input.

In my chase it would be nessesary to print a dynamic value form the graph without a direct connection to a Parameter node.

But its good to now.

I allready have tried to get a lable to print a var witch i set in the graph but somehow the UI part it dosent find it.

I´m realy not into MAXScript or a nother lanuage anyway.

I wish someone could make a sample Graph witch shows and explanes every possible ui element you could get out of it.
Dropdown would be nice for example.

I´m very corious about the Extension/s for max 2016 hopefully the MCG gets more sophisticated.

I guess at the moment i´ll have go on using with my simple workaround witch is a activatable print node with string label. It still prints to the listener but you can turn it off and name it witch helps alot.

Re: Expose values in the tools ui

Anonymous — Thu, 15 Jun 2017 19:59:45 GMT

I am also interested to see if it is possible to expose a value computed inside the graph to the UI. For a modifier MCG. Custom UI is very handy and i see no problem adding functons nested in the UI rollout definition. Those functions and/or custom lables/buttons could only access variables from within the UI rollout itself (i.e. mcg params exposed in UI). I could not find a way to acces a value computed in the graph, from within the UI rollout.

If anybody knows how this can be done, please share the knoledge. MCG is great, it would be really helpful to be able to access local variables from ui or from outside maxscripts, for modifiers not only for function MCGs