Download the new scene explorer expansion pack here.

Download the original scene explorer expansion pack here.

Please read the article here for more information about using the scene explorer and containers as a nested layer manager.

- Introduction
- Contents
- Installation
- Usage
- Conclusion
- Known issues

Introduction.

The scene explorer expansion pack is a set of scene explorer presets and scripts for use in 3ds Max 2010 to enhance the scene explorer capabilities. It contains a set of useful explorers like a light lister and a camera lister, and also some tools to help migrate you to using containers instead of the Max layer system and XRefs.

Contents.

The scene explorer expansion pack contains the following items;

- scene explorer columns camera expansion,
- scene explorer saved presets, containers, camera lister, and a light lister
- convert layers to containers MXS script
The camera expansion script must be installed to show the cameras explorer properly.

Installation.

- Download the mzp package from the link above
- Either run it from your maxscript drop down menu or drop it onto your viewport.
- Choose customize | customize user interface from the max drop down menus
- Select Toolbars from the tabs at the top of the dialog
- Press select to create a new toolbar and name is ‘Scene explorers’
- Select the category : JN Scripts
- Drag the three Scene explorer scripts onto the new toolbar. Max will need to be re-started for the icons to display correctly
- Drag the script ‘Convert layers to containers’ to the toolbar
- Place the toolbar wherever you would like it live
- re-start Max

Usage.

scene explorer saved presets.

The scene explorer saved presets consist of three scene explorers. These will appear under tools | saved scene explorers and are available whenever you start max. They are easily made yourself, and are just presets to get your started.

- containers.

This scene explorer is intended for use as an advanced layer manager instead of the existing Max layer manager. It’s feature list comes from the Max containers and scene explorer features and include:

- nested layers
- drag and drop objects
- import and export layers (containers)
- rename layer
- change multiple parameters at once
- interchangeable columns / parameters
- the ability to cache layers in the viewport for performance enhancement
- the ability to cache layers in memory for better memory management
- collaborative working and editing. Share you layers with other people

- cameras.

This scene explorer is a camera lister. It displays only cameras and camera properties. You can edit multiple parameters and objects simultaneously. Currently it will only work with standard Max cameras.

The next update will include VRay cameras and Maxwell camera properties.

I have now updated the script to include VRay and Maxwell camera properties. Please download again and overwrite the previous installation to update it.

I intend to update this to include Brazil and Final Render cameras but since I don’t use / own these renderers I cannot include them without a little help. If you like, you can post to tell me the camera properties by selectiing a brazil / FR camera, and typing;

 show $

in the maxscript listener. Then post the results and I’ll update the script. Alternatively you can do this yourself by following the instructions below under camera columns expansion script.

- lights.

This scene explorer is a light lister. It is intended to replace the existing light lister. It displays only lights and light properties. You can edit multiple parameters and objects simultaneously. This scene explorer is easily made yourself.

camera columns expansion script.

The script is loaded at Max run-time. It adds a set of commonly used camera parameters to the scene explorer such as the lens FOV and mm. You can add new columns within the scene explorer as per usual. The new columns available are (FOV, mm, show ranges, near range, far range, show horizon, show cone, orthographic projection). You can add more parameters to this file by editing it. It can be found in the directory:

…3ds Max Design 2010ScriptsStartupJN_sceneexplorer_add_camera_columns.ms

convert layers to containers MXS script.

This script will convert max layers into containers so you can update old files or process imported DWG or DXF files. Select the objects whose layers you want to convert and execute the script. Of course I would save your file before doing tihs. The script will not modify existing layers.

Conclusion.

I think it’s important to note that the intention of this pack is to promote a new work flow in Max and doesn’t actually offer anything more than is already available in Max. It simply packages and presents it is an easy to use way. The new containers feature in max offers many things that people have been requesting for a long time. What it doesn’t do is to promote itself in a way so that people know that these features are here.

Known issues.

There are one or two things that need to be updated. I’ll do my best to list them here.

1. No scene explorers on loading files from previous versions. THIS ISSUE IS NOW FIXED IN THE BETA

3ds Max saves scene explorers with files, so it is possible that you could load a file that doesn’t have any scene explorers at all, even the expansion pack. I’ll be working to fix this but you can fix it yourself by following these steps;

1- from the drop down menu: Tools | manage scene explorers.
2- Delete the lights and cameras scene explorers if they’re listed (ie, if you have the scene explorers installed for 3ds Max 2009)
3- Click ‘Load’ and load each of the explorers containers, lights, and cameras.

I’ll work at fixing isues as soon as possile.

Please post any comments or requests and I’ll do my best to help.

- Introduction.
- Optimizing the scene explorer.
- Creating an advanced layer system in 3ds Max 2010.
- Conclusion.
- Other useful scene explorers.
- Autodesk on containers.

Introduction.

In 3ds Max 2010 the team at Autodesk have introduced containers. These nifty little things are useful for many things including;

- working with others in a collaborative work flow by saving containers to separate files,
- saving system memory by only loading the end result of the modifier stack of objects inside the container,
- enhancing viewport performance by caching the final model in the container.

What they haven’t told us (but they have hinted) is that using containers and the scene explorer together gives us an advanced nested layer system. We can customise a scene explorer to show containers, get rid of the stuff we don’t need and we now have an advanced layer system.

Optimizing the scene explorer.

Autodesk have also greatly improved the performance of the scene explorer system since it’s humble beginnings in 2008. We can further improve it’s performance by removing unnecessary columns from it’s interface. I have removed the extra revit columns from the selectbyname interface to make it more usable.

Creating an advanced layer system using containers.

Let’s make a custom scene explorer to replace our layer manager.

- Create a new scene explorer; tools | new scene explorer

- Make sure that sync selection is activated from the selection toolbar (this is optional)

- Remove all the visible toolbars; scene explorer | customize | toolbars

- Activate the containers toolbar; scene explorer | customize | toolbars

- Remove all the obsolete columns by dragging them down into the blank space

- Add any columns you would like maybe; colour, hidden, frozen, and display as box. Just remember that the fewer columns we have the better the performance; customize | configure columns

- Open the manage scene explorers dialog; tools | manage scene explorer

- Rename your scene explorer and click save and save it under the folder ‘autoload’. This will make it always available under the saved scene explorers list under the Tools drop down list.

Conclusion.

This is our new layer interface. Now we have access to a variety of controls to manage our containers. We have all the features from the scene explorers interface, dragging and dropping objects, editing object names and the rest. We also have all the new benefits of using containers. If you like, you can unload them or save them out to disk to improve performance and make them available to other users, or we can leave as they are embedded in the max file.

Other useful scene explorers.

I’ve also created a couple more useful scene explorers. One to replace the old light lister which is pretty defunct, and I’ve used maxscript to expand the scene explorer interface to list cameras features so I can create a camera lister as well. Currently this lists only standard max camera features.

Download three scene explorer presets here, containers, light lister, and the enhanced camera lister. To install, just drop the file in your max viewport.

Autodesk.

This is an excerpt from the Autodesk New Features guide, which can be found here.

The new Containers toolset in 3ds Max facilitates collaboration and flexible workflows by enabling users to collect multiple objects of a complex scene into a single container. Place related objects―such as sections of a city―in a container and treat them as a single element. To improve scene performance, temporarily unload containers from the viewport display while maintaining their relationships to the scene and reload later when needed―saving memory, increasing viewport performance, and decreasing load and save times. Translate, delete, copy, or save container nodes; use containers to override object properties for scene organization without affecting layer organization (similar to a nested layer workflow); and reference multiple containers created by others into a single scene so users can work together in context. Users can access and edit each other’s container, allowing flexible workflows while also imposing constraints on what can be edited.