Re: Tutorial proposal: basic Outliner (maxscript VS C# dotNet assembly)

[Christopher Diggins]

Hello Alessandro,

Welcome to the community!

This sounds excellent. I'd be very interested in seeing this kind of
tool added to the developer community. Since it is a sophisticated
project in continuous development (and used by lots of people) it
seems that it would make sense to give you commit privileges. Are you
comfortable using an SVN client (for more information see
http://code.google.com/p/3ds-max-dev/wiki/SourceCodeRepository)? Also
do you mind releasing the source code under the New BSD License?

Thanks,
Christopher Diggins

On Thu, May 26, 2011 at 12:03 PM, Alessandro Ardolino
<a.ard...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi to all,
> I'm Alessandro Ardolino, currently TD at Ubisoft Milan.
>
> I'm developing, among other tools, a custom outliner for the artists
> in the studio.
> I was starting this project using pure maxscript and dotnet controls,
> but after the basic steps
> I abandoned this way in favour of a C# assembly that calls maxscript
> commands.
> Using C# (and Visual studio IDE) speed up my workflow and the form
> creation, giving me the power to
> access virtually any kind of assemblies expanding the 3dsmax features
> set.
>
> It's interesting to compare both the ways, so here's my question to
> this community:
> would be interesting to us a written tutorial for the basic outliner
> (including source code) for both maxscript and C# ?
> I think so, because there are not so much resources over the web on
> the arguments...
>
> just let me know.
>
> ciao to all,
> Alessandro

[Alessandro Ardolino]

Good morning Christopher,
using SVN and release the code under the nBSDL are both ok for me.

Please give me some days to organize the files (we are a little busy
at work these days).
The first file I'll submit will be the maxscript+dotnet version of the
outliner with these main features:
-selecting and deselecting objects
-drag'n drop to parent the objects
-icons for the treeview nodes
-context menu upon the right click button
-callback system for data consistency
-pure dotnet UI

Next, I'll submit the Visual Studio solution of the C#+maxscript
version of the outliner.
And a tutorial will follow some day :)

later,
Alessandro

[Christopher Diggins]

Hello Alessandro,

You have now been given commit privileges. I'd like to hear any
thoughts about how we can arrange the structure of folders in the
repository for this project and others in a way that makes it easy to
manage. For example should we create folders for individual
contributors? Would you like an Alessandro folder? Perhaps within a
Ubisoft folder? That one I'd like to see a whole lot!

Christopher

[Alessandro Ardolino]

Hi!
I've just submitted the basic maxscript+dotnet outliner.
As you will see, I created a personal folder that will contain all the
script posted by me.
Please consider that as a test, try the script and later I'll add som
other comments in it and some
release notes such the license, usage and more...let's thinking about
that:)

I'll wait for a your approval.

later,
Alessandro

On 27 Mag, 20:04, Christopher Diggins <cdigg...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello Alessandro,
>

[Christopher Diggins]

Hello Alessandro,

Thanks for sharing the outliner code. I took a look at it, and I have
to confess that it isn't clear me what it does. Could you tell us a
bit about it? Perhaps you can write a Wiki page about it?

Cheers!
Christopher

[Alessandro Ardolino]

HI Christopher,
did you run the script?
as I wrote before, the tool isa a very basic outliner (as the Maya's
one).
It implements some basic features such drag and drop, context menu and
more.
It will be useful as example of dotnet controls used directly in
maxscript.

let me know if it works (please put some objects in the max scene
while running the script),
it would be a pleasure to me writing some notes in a Wiki.

later,
Alessandro

On 1 Giu, 21:51, Christopher Diggins <cdigg...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello Alessandro,
>

[Christopher Diggins]

Hi Alessandro,

I gave it a try and played with it a bit. I had to update the paths to
the icons. It is effectively a simple scene explorer, correct? Quite
nifty. I think that it is a very good demo of how to use .NET from
MAXScript to build something with an interactive UI. Currently does it
offer any functionality not be accomplished via the scene explorer?

Thanks!
Christopher

[Alessandro Ardolino]

We should not consider the script more than an example of using dotnet
controls from maxscript.
It's only a demo of some features anybody learning maxscript needs (in
my opinion :)).
It does'nt offer functionality over the max's scene explorer, but
could be used as a starting point for custom features.

let me know what's the next step.

later,
Alessandro

[Christopher Diggins]

Hi Alessandro,

I think that people are going to find this very useful. The next step
in my opinion is to add some more comments to the code, and fix the
hard-coded paths. Would you like me to go ahead and take care of this?
As soon as that is done, I'm going to talk about it on my blog.

Cheers,
Christopher

[Alessandro Ardolino]

Hi!
If you could take care of these steps I'll start to fix the code for
the C# assembly version of the basic outliner.
So we can show both the approaches to the tools creation.

I'll send you both the ms+dll and the visual studio 2008 project as
soon as possible (hopefully before the end of week)

later,
Alessandro

[Alessandro Ardolino]

Hello Christopher,
I've just uploaded in my svn folder the C# assembly version of the
basic outliner.
It works as the mascript version, but it shows how to call mascript
command using C# among other useful things.

I've included a precompiled version of the tool and the relative
maxscript code to run it. You'll find that in the "basicOutliner"
folder.
just copy this in the Script's max folder and run the msx.

let me know if everything works.

later,
Alessandro

[Christopher Diggins]

Hello Alessandro,

I apologize for the long delay. I have been swamped at work. I have
managed to do the update of the "outliner" example you wrote. I have
renamed it to "explorer", removed some dead code, and updated the
comments. I've checked it into "trunk\cdiggins\MiniSceneExplorer". I
submitted an official code review request via Google code. I'd be
curious whether that system works well for you, it is the first tiem
I've tried it.

I'll try to get to the .NET version this week.

Thanks a lot!
Christopher

[Alessandro Ardolino]

Hi!
don't worry about the delay :)
I've done the review, and all it's ok to me.
but I can't send a reply using gCode because the branch can't be void.
which is the right branch to choose?

Alessandro

On 27 Giu, 19:56, Christopher Diggins <cdigg...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello Alessandro,
>

[Christopher Diggins]

On Tue, Jun 28, 2011 at 1:26 PM, Alessandro Ardolino
<a.ard...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi!
> don't worry about the delay :)
> I've done the review, and all it's ok to me.
> but I can't send a reply using gCode because the branch can't be void.
> which is the right branch to choose?

I believe it should be 'trunk'.

Christopher

[Christopher Diggins]

I had hoped to review Alessandro's .NET project, but I just can't find the time, sorry!

I moved it to "\3ds-max-dev\sandbox\aardolino\c#assembly_basicOutliner".

 

I originally also hoped to rename it from an "Outliner" to a "Scene Explorer", but the amount of effort seems to be not worth it. Thoughts? Volunteers to help?

 

- Christopher