topic Re: disable layer creation in active scene when adding new xref files? in 3ds Max Programming Forum

disable layer creation in active scene when adding new xref files?

Anonymous — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 04:40:31 GMT

Hey users and staffers,

In 3dsmax 2009,

Since loadMaterialLibrary function does not accept a .max file argument string (although the material editor allows it),
as a work around, I wrote a function that:
* adds a file as an xref scene using xrefs.addNewXRefFile
* reads in its materials
* deletes that xref scene.

Unfortunately, if I employ this in a loop over a large list of scenes, I end up with my original scene
having a copy of every layer from every xrefscene I referenced and deleted.

In some simple tests, layermanager.count is as high as 76 (76 empty layers) when I am done.
But I am sure in my production environment, our staff could find a way to make that much higher.

I have 4 questions:

1. is there a built in, documented or undocumented method, by which I can load a .max file as a material library?
(if so, I can skip using my function)

2. is there a way to disable automatic importing of layers when I xrefscene a .max file?
(if so, I can disable that and continue happy).

3. if neither 1 nor 2, are the left-over empty layers considered a bug or a feature of the layermanager and xrefscene nodes?

4. if neither 1 nor 2, is there a better work around? Since I have to pay most of the cost of loading the scene anyways, I am open to ideas.

Best regards,

-epu

Re: disable layer creation in active scene when adding new xref files?

Anonymous — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 01:56:33 GMT

I use this all the time to clean up cad layers 😉 .. the deletelayerbyname will only delete empty layers.. so its safe to try it on everything in the list.


--Delete all layers that have no objects in them and are not the current layer

LayDelete = #()
for i = 1 to (LayerManager.count-1) do 
(
    append LayDelete (LayerManager.getlayer i).name
)
print LayDelete
for i = 1 to LayDelete.count do
(
    LayerManager.deleteLayerByName LayDelete
)

Re: disable layer creation in active scene when adding new xref files?

Anonymous — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 05:33:31 GMT

Thanks, you're right!
Empty layers can be cleaned easily.

Hopefully the bugs and features can get addressed in another version of 3dsmax.