Select Similar

Instructions:

Specify your comparison object. Run the script. It will automatically populate the comparison object with your selected object. Click 'Select Similar' and it will find all OBJECTS (ie meshes/polys/patches / splines) meeting the desired comparison difference. I've included a ratio spinner to hone in on what you want - if you want set it to 0 and only totally identical objects will be selected - if you set it to .5 then anything within 50% to %150 percent of the object size and total number of faces/verts will be selected.

Requires:

Nothing if you have a version of 3ds Max newer than 2008. Older versions work best with the AVGuard extension installed. Specifically it requires version 5.03 or higher which most people would have installed anyways. However - if you don't have the extension - it will still work but it will use world bounding boxes instead of local bounding boxes. This is a problem if for instance you did a radial array of long thin boxes (imagine the spokes of a wheel). With the extension it will calculate the local bounding box of object and determine they are similar; without the extension each object's WORLD bounding box will be used and the only ones seen as similar would be the completely vertical or horizontal ones. Bottom line - get the extension for best effect.

Installation:

1. Click Maxscript / Run Script and choose wherever you downloaded this file to
1a. It will seem like nothing happened but that's exactly what it should do - you now need to assign a shortcut to it
2. Click Customize / Customize User Interface / Menus (tab)
3. Change the Category to 'CG_Tools'
4. Expand the menu category you want the script in on the right hand side of the dialog
5. Click 'Select Similar Objects' and drag it over into the expanded menu category.
6. Click Save and save your custom UI settings to a file - do yourself a favor and don't use the default.
7. That's it.