mskin Posted February 27, 2007 Share Posted February 27, 2007 Is there a way to align to a surface? the align tool seems to limit the alignment in relation to the pivot point of an object, not its surface. i want to drop a tree onto an irregular terrain - a couple of hundred times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alias_marks Posted February 27, 2007 Share Posted February 27, 2007 Good Question, been wondering about this one for a long time now. I know FormZ has exactly the "face extend" tool you're looking for, but I would love to hear if anyone has found something similar in Max. Would definitely be a good plugin if it doesn't exist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mskin Posted February 27, 2007 Author Share Posted February 27, 2007 there is a x-tree creation plug in ( i cant remember the name of it) that has neat feature. after you have placed all of your trees (on the same plane) there is an option to "plant" your trees. it plops all the trees on to your terrain model perfectly. of course, this only works on their trees and not others... but there must be away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
only3d Posted February 27, 2007 Share Posted February 27, 2007 there's the 'scatter' tool and there's 'glue-3d' plug Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mskin Posted February 28, 2007 Author Share Posted February 28, 2007 scatter doesn't let me manipulate the seed number of the objects, ill check out glue 3d - thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vizfx Posted February 28, 2007 Share Posted February 28, 2007 Hi If you need to create, merge or import objects on the surface of other objects then AutoGrid is a good choice, because it lets you automatically create objects by generating and activating a temporary construction plane based on normals of the face that you click. This serves as a more efficient way of stacking objects as you create them, rather than building objects and then aligning them. Best regards. Mihai Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nisus Posted February 28, 2007 Share Posted February 28, 2007 Check out the script 'Move To Surface'... It does exactly what you want... It works best as a button in a toolbar: 1) Select the objects you want to be on the surface 2) click the button 3) pick the surface Done ,-) nisus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy L Posted February 28, 2007 Share Posted February 28, 2007 Beware the glue-tool. It can be very handy and all of a sudden, very weird. It sometimes messes with the display properties of a file and the graphics driver has problems with recognizing face normals. But if its having a good day, its great! Nisus, do you know where one could download the move to surface script? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koper Posted February 28, 2007 Share Posted February 28, 2007 not gonna read through all the posts, i just scanned and it seems you still don't have an awnser. well, until now. you do this by using the normal align (check the image) first pick the object (well, the face that should be aligned) , you'll get a blue arrow, then pick the face it should be aligned to (green arrow). the two arrows will be the same points. ps, keep the mouse button in to see where you want the arrow to be Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nisus Posted February 28, 2007 Share Posted February 28, 2007 Nisus, do you know where one could download the move to surface script? download??? it should be in your max already ,-) gonna do a search... not gonna read through all the posts, i just scanned and it seems you still don't have an awnser. well, until now. **"çe"yeh"e--WHAT?--"é"é§!?é"çè"é§** nisus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chad Warner Posted February 28, 2007 Share Posted February 28, 2007 For a couple hundred objects, I would use the "glue" plugin from itoosoft. It's meant primarily for splines, but works with meshes also. If it's the same thing as referenced above (glue 3d) Iv'e never had any problems with it. As far as normal align goes, it's great for several objects, but not for several hundred. Way too time consuming. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nisus Posted February 28, 2007 Share Posted February 28, 2007 Here is the original script... it IS in the help files... (Maxscript reference) Because I think most people are NOT familiar with implementing maxscripts... here is a small description how to do it... 1) copy the script in a *.txt file and call it 'a name'.mcr 2) place it in your scripts startup directory 3) restart max The macroScript will be called MoveToSurface. To use the script, you can go to Customize... and drag the script from the category "HowTo" to a toolbar, a menu, a quad menu or assign to a keyboard shortcut. For a description how to use it: see my above post... and here is the script... macroscript MoveToSurface category:"HowTo" ( fn g_filter o = superclassof o == Geometryclass fn find_intersection z_node node_to_z = ( local testRay = ray node_to_z.pos [0,0,-1] local nodeMaxZ = z_node.max.z testRay.pos.z = nodeMaxZ + 0.0001 * abs nodeMaxZ intersectRay z_node testRay ) on isEnabled return selection.count > 0 on Execute do ( target_mesh = pickObject message:"Pick Target Surface:" filter:g_filter if isValidNode target_mesh then ( undo "MoveToSurface" on ( for i in selection do ( int_point = find_intersection target_mesh i if int_point != undefined then i.pos = int_point.pos )--end i loop )--end undo )--end if )--end execute )--end script If it doesn't work... RTFM... (ow hell... and who got busted because he said RTFM a while ago... told you... it IS in there... a tremendous amount of information VERY well documented... moeha!) rgds, nisus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bborne Posted February 28, 2007 Share Posted February 28, 2007 Complementing Koper´s post. Check the attached JPG you´ll see that Normal Align works great for this. + Bruno Borne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nisus Posted February 28, 2007 Share Posted February 28, 2007 Yes, I agree... but I have also read the original post well... i want to drop a tree onto an irregular terrain - a couple of hundred times. it says: TREES --> no rotation, stand up vertical and COUPLE OF HUNDRED TIMES --> I don't wanna do that manually! (Got a few hours? Sure not, I wanna go home tonight...) I recommend the script rgds, nisus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bborne Posted February 28, 2007 Share Posted February 28, 2007 True... moving trees individually won´t cut it for large areas. Gogo fast replying, heh. I remember using Glue from Itoo for something like that a while ago but your script seems to be better. + Bruno Borne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nisus Posted February 28, 2007 Share Posted February 28, 2007 Just to make it clear: it is NOT my script, I happen to have found it somewhere in the superb manuals ,-) (I myself DID make a more advanced script though: a real database-driven objectpainter in a 'click-an-asset' style with advanced options like placements on terrains and levels, random rotations etc. Have it since max3, now finally re-written for max9... but NO it's not publically available...) rgds, nisus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scollins Posted September 21, 2007 Share Posted September 21, 2007 Check out the script 'Move To Surface'... It does exactly what you want... where can i find this script? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DelfoZ Posted September 23, 2007 Share Posted September 23, 2007 where can i find this script? im going to Quote nisus " RTFP" ( just scroll this post and u will find where the script is) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scollins Posted September 24, 2007 Share Posted September 24, 2007 im going to Quote nisus " RTFP" ( just scroll this post and u will find where the script is) Well that's embarrassing. There was a second page. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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