call multi-sub materials

Hey,

thanks a lot.

working fine. I also made it recognize vray materials.

I'll try to find some other script now to keep practising.

Awsome help there.

cheers

You're right - the code I wrote would in effect only toggle a standard map *within* a multi-sub material... Here's a possible fix (take note that now my IF statement is getting complicated with an if/else) there are a lot better ways to do this but oh well, this works too...

-- function to toggle the showtexturemap function. accepts a map parameter and a on/off parameter
fn toggleShowTextureMap m mapstate = try (showTextureMap m m.diffuseMap mapstate) catch()
 
--get selection of objects as array
objs = selection as array
 
for o in objs where o.material != undefined do-- loop through object array only when objects have a material
	if classof o.material == Multimaterial then -- check if material assigned is multimaterial
		for m in o.material do --loop through sub materials
			if classof m == Standard do 	--check if a material is a standard material
				toggleShowTextureMap m on --toggle the map using our function above
	else if classof o.material == Standard do -- else check if mat is standard mat
		toggleShowTextureMap o.material on --toggle the map using our function above

Still have the problem that it only works for multisubmaterials. As far as I can get it is only checking standard materials inside the multisubmaterial, am I right?

I found some nice resources about scripting, but about using functions didnt find anything yet. Soulburnscripts are awesome, but they are written in a very different way from what I've been learning..its all about functions :)
For instance I made a randomizer script with the same functionalities as the one from soulburnscripts, but its written in a completly different way.

Thanks a lot for all the help:)

Actually you'll find the code I posted already checks for standard materials - it just does it in a different spot from the multi-material check.

Here's some pseudocode (programmer lingo for summarized english translation of code)

- create a list of selected objects in memory
- loop through those selected objects, check if there is a material applied
- check if material is a multi-material
-loop through the multi-mat sub materials
- check if submat is a standard material
- toggle the texture map display of submaterial diffusemap

...

As far as how to learn - the MAXScript help is a great place to start - so is ripping apart existing, working scripts. Seeing how other people do things is one of the most useful ways to learn (IMHO).

There are also several huge MAXScript forums
- CGTalk MAXScript & SDK - http://forums.cgsociety.org/forumdisplay.php?f=98
- The Area MAXScript - http://area.autodesk.com/index.php/forums/viewforum/59/

And of course there's ScriptSpot and I'm glad you found your way over here. :-) While there are some other script repositories, this is the biggest (and oldest). That means its also a great way to learn because there are so many different tools you can just rip apart and figure out what they're doing.

Here are some links to training resources:
- Free Video Tutorials - http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/tutorials/free-video-tutorials
- Commercial training options - http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/tutorials/commercial-training-options

Alright, here's a quick version ... Minimal error checking but I've tried to include comments for educational purposes. :-)

To run the code below, copy/paste to the maxscript listener and hit Ctrl+E (evaluate) to run it.

-- function to toggle the showtexturemap function. accepts a map parameter and a on/off parameter
fn toggleShowTextureMap m mapstate = try (showTextureMap m m.diffuseMap mapstate) catch()

--get selection of objects as array
objs = selection as array

for o in objs where o.material != undefined do-- loop through object array only when objects have a material
	if classof o.material == Multimaterial do -- check if material assigned is multimaterial
		for m in o.material do --loop through sub materials
			if classof m == Standard do 	--check if a material is a standard material
				toggleShowTextureMap m on --toggle the map using our function above

Thanks a lot, got it working fine for the multimaterials.
I was just trying to make it work also for standard materials that are not in a multimaterial.

I guess I should add something to this:
'if classof o.material == Multimaterial do ... '

Tryed to do:
'if classof o.material == Multimaterial do or classof o.material == StandardMaterial ... '

I didnt get to the functions yet, dont know exactly how they work.
Do you recommend any book/tutorials that talk about this stuff for beginners?

All tutorials I've done dont use functions.

I have soulburnscrits installed, but the scripts seems to be written in a different way I've been learning, its all about functions...really hard to understand without any programming theory background.

Thanks a lot for the help. I'm really enjoying to start scripting but feel quite lost, so complex and just a few resources to help... hopefully this forum has been helping a lot:)

You'd need to download / install Neil's script pack since the function I'm calling "sLibGetAllMaterialsOnSelectedObjects()" is something he wrote...

I suppose I shouldn't have been so lazy but his code is great and allows for all kinds of exceptions. Why reinvent the wheel ya know?

This isn't exactly what you want to know but I depend on Neil Blevins' script pack in my daily workflow and he's got a ton of function pre-written as part of his file slib.ms ... So once you install his scripts, you'll have all kinds of functions available that you can call.

Link to download Neil's scripts - http://www.neilblevins.com/soulburnscripts/soulburnscripts.htm

In this case, he has a function called sLibGetAllMaterialsOnSelectedObjects which gets all the materials on the selected objects... If your object has a multi-mat with 10 sub mats his function will return 11 materials (the root mat and the 10 subs).

The code would go something like this:

selmats = sLibGetAllMaterialsOnSelectedObjects()
for m in selmats do try(showTextureMap m m.diffuseMap on) catch()

The try/catch statement is lazy mans way of avoiding errors. The proper way to code it would be to check the material class with classof but in this case I don't have any idea what kinds of materials you use in your workflow so its just easier for me to write it this way for you...

Hey Christopher,

Thanks a lot for the reply:)

I tried the code you wrote, but got error 'Call needs function or class'. Anyway I'm a beginer in scripting, so maybe its something basic that is missing and I cant see it. I'll have to do some research.