SME material look

[zsomborAFFE3]

Hi,

I like to keep my materials in an organized way, so if I open a material I usually do the following:

1. RMB: Hide Unused Node slots

2. Double click on the material preview to show it in a larger size

3. RMB: Lay out Children

This way I get this look:

Since I am performing it often, I would like to create a script for this, but it looks like there are no maxscript access to these features.

Are there any other solutions?

Now for steps 1. and 3. I assigned shotcuts, but that is still a lot of step, that is way I would like to have a single button solution.

By the way SME could have a much better maxscript support overall.

Thank you,

Zsombor

[drew_avis]

For the two RMB commands, you can turn on the macro recorder and access them through the menu, and get the action name to execute them.  EG:

actionMan.executeAction 369891408 "40075"  -- SME: Hide Unused Nodeslots
actionMan.executeAction 369891408 "40076"  -- SME: Lay Out Children

Not sure about the node view size though.

Hope that helps,

Drew

[zsomborAFFE3]

Hi @drew_avis !

Thank you for the answer!

I tried to turn on the Macrorecorder and the following happened:

- if I performed the 'Hide Unused Nodeslots' and the 'Lay Out Children' commands from the RMB menu, there was no maxscript feedback in the Maxscript Listener

- if I used the hotkeys assigned to these commands, I got the same maxscript commands you've listed.

But on the other hand, if I selected the material nodes and run these commands, I got a 'False' feedback in Listener.

Does it acts the same on your end?

Thank you,

Zsombor

[denisT.MaxDoctor]

---

@zsomborAFFE3 wrote:

- if I used the hotkeys assigned to these commands, I got the same maxscript commands you've listed.

But on the other hand, if I selected the material nodes and run these commands, I got a 'False' feedback in Listener.

actionMan executes actions for currently on focus dialog. So we have to set focus on SME dialog first. The easiest way to do it is to 'open' this dialog with no difference that this dialog is already opened or closed

(
	if sme.isopen() do sme.close()
	sme.open()
	actionMan.executeAction 369891408 "40075"
	actionMan.executeAction 369891408 "40076"
)

there is another way to set focus by using Win API messages, but it might be too complicated for this level of question

[zsomborAFFE3]

@denisT.MaxDoctor Thank you! Now it is working!

What would be even better if these were the specific properties of an SME node.

I am curios @drew_avis, if in a case like this are there any tickets or ideas forwarded to the development team?

Because in many posts users are pointing to so incomplete part of 3ds max, and in most cases nothing is happening at all or for years.

Zsombor

[drew_avis]

Hi @zsomborAFFE3 , I suggest you create an idea for better SME exposure in MAXScript in the 3ds Max Ideas community (https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/3ds-max-ideas/idb-p/164) and gather some support for it.   The 3ds Max team takes user feedback very seriously, but we have to prioritize, so the more support an idea has, the more likely it will be addressed.  We do sometimes create tickets from threads in this forum, but usually it's for bugs rather than new feature requests.  

Hope that answers your question,

Drew