slate material editor: change the node default width?

[mpowers]

Is there a way to change the node default width to show the full name of the node in the slate material editor?

It would also be great if bitmap nodes would auto-name themselves to their bitmaps...

Thnx 

[dominique.bouthillette]

Hi @mpowers,

Thanks for the post!

You can change the default width of any node in the Slate Material Editor by clicking and dragging out the corner icon in the lower-right area of the node (marked with lines like this "////").

As for auto-renaming nodes with their current Bitmap names, it may only be possible via scripting. You might see this post from some other Max users on the topic here: Rename diffuse maps according to their bitmap name.

If this is a feature/toggle you'd like to see in the future within 3ds Max, please feel free to add it to the 3ds Max Ideas forum so others can vote for it there as well. 

I hope this can help!

[mpowers]

Thnx Dominique,

I am currently doing that. However, I would like to change the default width which all nodes are created with. As they are rarely wide enough to read node names that are accurately descriptive. Also every time I neaten my nodes they revert to the too narrow state.

[dominique.bouthillette · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the clarification on this @mpowers. I spoke with a few of my colleagues from the development team, and it seems this is not something that can be changed inside of 3ds Max (as a default parameter setting at least).

However, they did mention that it may be possible to change the default size of the node via scripting, as there is a .size value for nodes in SME (Slate Material Editor). This property can be found within the 3ds Max Help Documentation which may be helpful for a custom script: Interface: SME

SME: Interface: WndBase

[mpowers]

Thank you. That will work!

[dominique.bouthillette · Accepted solution]

No problem at all, very happy to help! 

[mpowers]

Dominique, I think these only affects the window's size and position - not the material node's. 

Interface: WndBase

Properties:

.position : point2 by value : Read|Write 

Get/set the Position of the Node View.

.size : point2 by value : Read|Write 

Get/set the Size of the Node View.

[dominique.bouthillette]

Thanks for the reply back on this @mpowers. 

@ads_royje could you perhaps chime in on a scripting property that could be used to change the default SME node size? Thank you!

[ads_royje]

Hi @mpowers , @dominique.bouthillette ,

as you noted indeed, the .size property is for the Node view, not the Node.

My mistake as I misinformed Dominique 😕

Unfortunately, the size (or width) of Slate Material Editor Nodes is not exposed to Maxscript.

The Node's exposed properties are the ones documented ; .name, .position, .selected and .reference.
Nor is it exposed in SME.ini (C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Autodesk\3dsMax\2019 - 64bit\ENU\plugcfg_ln\).

It would be a nice addon though! 🙂

Regards,

[mpowers]

Thank you. If there was an autoscale to text width function...

[shinodem]

so there is  no solution for that?

by the way editor is very laggy on 4k in full screen

[zsomborAFFE3]

Why is two of the posts marked as solution, since none of them are a solution??

It is misleading.

Also, there should be an option in the forums, where the thread is closed because that feature is not supported or not available in the program. (like in this case now).