Drag & Drop Reference Images
For modeling in 3ds Max I like to use image planes textured with reference images of my object. Not only for blueprints, but even any reference, because on my laptop screen space is very limited and this way I don’t have to switch between applications, just move my view a little. Setting up those planes is annoying, because you would have to create a material for each and then a plane with the right aspect ratio. This script automates all this, by giving you a little window where you can drag and drop any common image type onto. The reference planes will then be created on a line and you can specifiy whether to align height/width of all images. You can also choose a material type and the gamma value that the images are loaded with.
Explanatory video:
dragNDropReferences MAXScript from Christoph Bülter on Vimeo
22/08/13: Added scaling option for planes; Script now remembers its settings
03/01/13: Set plane segments to 1 on creation
05/12/12: Removed axis checkboxes, added option to align width or length of the planes, updated image, tightened UI
18/11/12: Removed self-illumination from Standard material. which made things too bright (thanks to DeaDog)
13/10/12: Added option to choose the material type (mr arch&design, standard & vraymtl)
06/10/12: Disabled Real World Scale for maps, added Gamma correction option using a color correction map (thanks to miauu, Kinofaya)
29/09/12: UI checkbutton fix, thanks to Anubis
27/09/2012: Now recreates image from Base64 string (method by LoneRobot.net, thanks to barigazy); now uses “maxOps.canImportBitmap” thanks to Anubis
Download “dragNDropReferences” dragNDropReferences11.ms – Downloaded 17718 times – 35 kB
FAST AND USEFUL !!!!!!!! thank you
Hi, can you please share this plugin? seems interesting one, would like to test it.
Link is back online.
Thank you Christian! That was quick.
Excuse me, not Christian but Christoph.
Love this script, such an amazing time saver, thanks.
I’m probably being a bit greedy now but is it possible for it to create a multi sub material for each batch of images dropped in?
Also wondering would it be difficult to have the materials and planes named after the bitmaps.
I have hundreds of bitmaps to drop in as product and this makes life so much easier but it would be soo much better with the above.
Cheers.
Hey Gary, thanks! The renaming part may make sense to add to the script, the MultiMat thingie I am not sure. But for now you can use the script below to do both after you dragged in your images (make sure the planes are selected before executing, MultiMat will appear in first slot of Material Editor):
(
matPlanes = for s in selection where s.material != undefined collect s
materials = #()
for matPlane in matPlanes do
(
mat = matPlane.material
append materials mat
case classof mat of
(
Standard : (mat.name = matPlane.name = getFilenameFile mat.diffuseMap.filename)
Arch___Design__mi : (mat.name = matPlane.name = getFilenameFile mat.diff_color_map.filename)
VRayMtl : (mat.name = matPlane.name = getFilenameFile mat.texmap_diffuse)
)--end case
)--end for
multiMat = MultiSubMaterial numsubs:matPlanes.count name:"DragNDropRefImages_MultiMat"
multiMat.materialList = materials
meditMaterials[1] = multiMat
)
Amazing! Thank you Christoph. That works great for renaming everything. Unfortunately the multi sub mat is just a multimat of copied materials so cant be assigned without setting all the ID numbers to the planes but not to worry I think I have a work around that will work.
Now that everything is named I’ll attached all the planes to create the main multi sub and then detach all elements by named material.
Thanks a lot this has been a great help.
Great, was just about writing similar, but I found yours ! Time saver !
maybe one suggestion only – will be nice to add icon so it can show up nicely in Toolbar.
Thanks for usefull script.
Hello Christoph, will the script work with 2016 max?
Thank you
G
Hi garry, I see no reason why it should not work in 2016. If you encounter problems, shoot me a mail via the contact page please. Cheers
Awesome script ive been using it for years now without fail. i was wondering if it is compatible with 3DS MAX 2017
Awesome thanks, working in 2018
Help! The script kinda works but it tiles my Ref image hundreds of times on the plane!
How can i fix this?
nevermind, I just had to uncheck “Real world map size” in the plane settings ^^
Thank you for the scripts. It’s really helpful