The SoulburnScripts for 3dsmax have been discontinued as of March 24th 2021. Autodesk has made max 2022 their last piece of software you can buy, all future releases will be rental only, and I don't use rental only software. To read a more detailed explanation, please visit here: https://artofsoulburn.blogspot.com/2021/03/rip-soulburnscripts-for-3dsmax-time-has.html The scripts will remain on this page frozen in time, feel free to download them and continue to use them, but there won't be any more updates. Thank you for a wonderful 20 years, I appreciate all your support!
Introduction
The SoulburnScripts for 3dsmax is a collection of scripts that I've written for my personal artwork at home. Some of their concepts are based on scripts I wrote during my time at Blur Studio and released publicly as BlurScripts (however the SoulburnScripts have been completely rewritten from scratch, giving them more features and better functionality), others are totally new concepts. Thanks to the blur folk for giving me the inspiration to learn how to code.
Warnings
Feel free to install and use these scripts, however, I can't be held responsible for any problems that arise from their use. I will try and fix bugs or add features that people want, but I have limited free time and so can only promise to do my best. Thanks.
Installation
All the scripts come packaged into a single zip file of interconnected scripts, SoulburnScriptsPack_3dsMax_v0xx_Rxx.zip, which includes all the scripts in the rest of the table below. Please download the most recent zip file only, and extract them into your 3dsmax root directory, for example, c:\3dsmax. Make sure you have recurse sub directories on (it's also called "Use Folder Names" in more recent copies of winzip). You may need administrator privileges to install these scripts if running on Windows Vista or Windows 7. Windows should give you an error if you're not allowed to install the scripts, so if you don't get an error, then the scripts should be installed properly. If you do get an error, either contact your Administrator, or log on as Admin and then unzip the contents of the zipfile into a writable directory, then copy the contents into your 3dsmax root directory.
The zip will then install a bunch of files and directories (Max 2013 to Max 2019, this example using Windows 7)...
- c:\3dsmax\scripts\SoulburnScripts\images: This contains images required by the scripts.
- c:\3dsmax\scripts\SoulburnScripts\lib: This contains libraries of functions required by the scripts.
- c:\3dsmax\scripts\SoulburnScripts\scripts: The scripts.
- c:\3dsmax\UI_ln\Icons: Adds a bunch of icons, they all start with the word "SoulburnScripts_".
- c:\3dsmax\UI_ln\IconsDark: Adds a bunch of icons, they all start with the word "SoulburnScripts_".
- c:\3dsmax\MacroScripts: the SoulburnScripts.mcr and SoulburnScriptsExtras.mcr files.
- c:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Autodesk\3dsMax\2017 - 64bit\ENU\en-US\plugcfg\SoulburnScripts\presets: This contains presets for the scripts, which you can save by hitting the "SaveDef" button on any of the UI mode of the scripts (note, this directory only exists if you've saved some presets). Don't edit any of these files unless you know what you're doing. To find your local path, replace "username" with whatever account you're using to log into windows, and replace "2014 - 64bit" with whatever version of max you're running.
- c:\3dsmax\scripts\SoulburnScripts\images: This contains images required by the scripts.
- c:\3dsmax\scripts\SoulburnScripts\lib: This contains libraries of functions required by the scripts.
- c:\3dsmax\scripts\SoulburnScripts\scripts: The scripts.
- c:\3dsmax\ui\icons: Adds a bunch of icons, they all start with the word "SoulburnScripts_".
- c:\3dsmax\ui\macroscripts: the SoulburnScripts.mcr and SoulburnScriptsExtras.mcr files.
- c:\Documents and Settings\username\Local
Settings\Application Data\Autodesk\3dsmax\2009 - 64bit\enu\plugcfg\SoulburnScripts\presets:
This contains
presets for the scripts, which you can save by hitting the "SaveDef"
button on any of the UI mode of the scripts (note, this directory only
exists if you've saved some presets). Don't edit any of
these files unless you know what you're doing. To find your local path,
replace "username" with whatever account you're using to log into
windows, and replace "2009 -
64bit" with whatever version of max you're running.
Usage
All of these scripts are run as macroscripts, ie, as buttons, keyboard shortcuts, quad menus, etc, just go to Customize, Customize User Interface, category SoulburnScripts. The SoulburnScripts CANNOT be run by choosing the "MAXScript" menu and "Run Script" and then a script. You can also choose to run the macroscript called "soulburnScriptsLister" to run any SoulburnScript. All scripts can be run in one of three modes...
- UI Mode. Which
brings up a user interface
floater that lets you
modify parameters before running the script.
- Default Mode. Runs the script using the current default values. To change the default values, open the script first in UI mode, modify the values, hit "SaveDef" to save the defaults, then close and run the script in default mode. Also, if you run any of these scripts as a quad menu, it'll let you access the UI mode by clicking on the mouse icon (with dark click button).
- Argument Mode. This is for maxscripters only, it lets you run the script by supplying it with your own set of values. This lets you integrate these tools into your own tools, or to bypass the default system.
For quick tutorials on how to use these scripts, click the "Help" button on the UI mode of any script.
Bugs
If you encounter any bugs running these scripts, perform the following checklist...
- Try deleting any preset you may have for the malfunctioning script from your presets directory (see "Installation section above for location).
- Click the "Help" button on the UI mode of any script and read the "Known Issues" section to make sure your bug isn't already mentioned as something I'm aware of.
- Email me and give me a list of
specific steps to reproduce the bug, and I'll see if I can help.
| Name | Date | Description |
| SoulburnScriptsPack_3dsMax_v112_R2013toR2022.zip |
03/24/21 | The
SoulburnScripts Pack For 3dsMax
version 112, compatible with max 2013-2022 Updated Scripts: pipeMaker, modifierUtilities, objectPainter, materialMover Extra Notes: Updated for Max 2022 |
| SoulburnScriptsPack_3dsMax_v111_R2013toR2021.zip |
04/09/20 | The
SoulburnScripts Pack For 3dsMax
version 111, compatible with max 2013-2021 Updated Scripts: modelPreparer, vrayMatteManager Extra Notes: Updated for Max 2021 |
| SoulburnScriptsPack_3dsMax_v110_R2013toR2020.zip | 04/25/19 | The
SoulburnScripts Pack For 3dsMax
version 110, compatible with max 2013-2020 New Script: vrayMatteManager Updated Scripts: groupWithPoint, iDSetter, materialInfoDisplayer, modelPreparer, objectDropper, objectPainter, vertPlacer Extra Notes: Updated for Max 2020 |
| Old Script Packs |
||
| SoulburnScriptsPack_3dsMax_v088_R9toR2012.zip | 12/14/14 | An older pack that's compatible with 3dsmax 9 to 3dsmax 2012. |
| SoulburnScriptsPack_3dsMax_v047_R8.zip | 03/07/09 |
An older pack that's compatible with 3dsmax 8. |
| Scripts (86 scripts total) |
||
| aligner |
Aligns one object to
another. Similar to the Align tool in max, but optimized to allow a
variety of aligns with the least number of mouse clicks necessary. |
|
| alignViewportToFace |
Aligns the viewport to
the selected face. |
|
| bitmapCollector | Collects all the scene
bitmaps and places them into a single directory, updating your scene to
point to their new home. |
|
| blendedBoxMapMaker | Creates a Blended Box Map
for your selected objects. Basically, it's box mapping, but the edges
of the box are blended so you can place the map on a curved surface and
not have horrible seams. |
|
| blendedBoxMapManager |
Lets you change
parameters to any Blended Box Map inside the material you currently
have active or the objects you have selected. |
|
| blendedCubeProjectionMaker | Applies 6 projections
(Front, Back, Left, Right, Top, Bottom) to the selected objects, hooks
the projections up to 6 maps, and then blends between each map. Great
for projecting details onto a set of objects, like box mapping, but
each side can be a seperate map, and the edges of the box are blended
so you can place the map on a curved surface and not have horrible
seams. |
|
| blendedCubeProjectionManager | Lets you change
parameters to any Blended Cube Projection inside the material you
currently have active or the objects you have selected. |
|
| calculatorLauncher |
Launches the calculator.
Great for having quick access to the calculator from inside the max
interface, assign it to a hotkey. |
|
| cameraFromPerspView | Changes an active perspective viewport into a camera viewport. | |
| cameraLensPackager |
Lets you set the lenses
(Focal Length) on all scene or selected cameras based on 9 presets. The
supplied presets are for a Panavision C Series Anamorphic Lens Package,
but you can modify the presets to be your favorite values. |
|
| cameraMapTemplateRenderer |
Will render out templates
for all selected cameras or all cameras associated with a single
cameraMapGemini modifier. Automates the process so you're not stuck
rendering a lot of cameras and changing lots of render resolutions by
hand. |
|
| circleArrayMaker | Similar to array, but
always rotates your objects to make a complete circle. |
|
| curvatureMaker |
Selects edges of a mesh
based on the angle between adjacent faces, and then converts them to a
vertex map. For example, you can select all the corner edges of a mesh
and then convert them to a vertex map for use with a bump map or a mask
to blend between textures. |
|
| curvatureManager |
Lets you change
parameters of any Curvature Data Channel on your selected objects. Also
lets you propagate an existing curvature modifier to all selected
objects. So say you have 3 objects that have a curvature Data Channel
modifier and you add 2 objects to your model, propagating will copy and
paste that modifier to all 5 objects. |
|
| customAttributeRemover | Delete all Custom
Attributes from selected or all scene objects. |
|
| edgeDivider | Splits an Edge you select
in an Editable Poly into equal parts. |
|
| edgeSelectByAngle | Selects edges of a mesh
based on the angle between adjacent faces. For example, you can select
all the edges of a mesh for chamfer by placing a value of 90. |
|
| elementSelectByFace |
Once you've selected a
face of an Editable Poly, it will select the entire element the face is
associated with. Great for selecting elements without having to leave
face mode. |
|
| geometryBanger |
Chooses a % of vertexes
in an object and moves them around randomly. Good for adding subtle
bangs and bumps to your geometry. The advantage this has over say the
Noise modifier is it only affect some verts, which will give a more
realistic result. Object Size Compensation tries to bang smaller
objects less, and large objects more. |
|
| groupWithPoint |
Takes selected objects
and groups or ungroups them by linking them to a point helper instead
of using the max group method. Very similar to the way maya handles
grouping. |
|
| iDSetter |
Takes all selected
objects and applies a material modifier, modifies their object ID, or
modifies their User Defined Properties to either a random ID between
the high and low value, or a sequential set of IDs based on selection
order. |
|
| imagePlaneMaker |
Creates a set of 2d image
planes you can use to create a 3d model. |
|
| instanceFinder |
Finds instances of the selected object and does various things to them such as selecting them, printing their names, isolating them, etc. | |
| instanceTrimmer |
Takes a selection and
reduces the selection to include only a single instance from each set
of instances. |
|
| layerCleaner |
Deletes all empty layers
from your scene. |
|
| materialFromSelectedObject | Gets the material from the currently selected object and places it in the material editor. If multiple objects are selected, chooses the material from the first selected object. | |
| materialInfoDisplayer | Displays various pieces
of information regarding material properties of selected objects or the
active material (such as the name of the Material on the selected
object, the used MatIDs on the selected object, the map channels the
active material is currently using, etc). |
|
| materialMover |
Lets you move materials
from one place to another. Some common uses: apply a flat grey material
(standard, Raytrace, Brazil, mentalray, etc) to all scene objects in
one button press. Clear out your material editor with blank materials.
Move all the scene materials into the material editor. Move all scene
materials to a matlib. Assign a random material from the material
editor to a set of scene objects. |
|
| materialRemover | Removes the materials from the selected objects. | |
| maxfileOldVersionSaver | Collects all of the max
files in a directory and its subdirectories and saves them as max files
for older versions of max. |
|
| mirrorObjectAlongAxis |
Mirrors the selected
object along the X, Y or Z world axis, with options for copy or
instance. Like the mirror tool, but lets you do some common mirror
operations with far fewer mouseclicks. |
|
| modelPreparer |
Sets up your model to
have materials applied to it from the Soulburn MaterialAssetPacks using
SAL. |
|
| modifierUtilities |
Lets you perform various
modifier related tasks on a set of selected objects. For example, takes
all the selected objects and adds / removes seperate instances of a
specific modifier. Or lets you find any objects in the current
selection that contains a specific modifier. Add modifiers to your
Favorites area for faster access. |
|
| nameManager |
Lets you rename various
things in your scene using a variety of functions. |
|
| nodeTypeDisplayer |
Prints the Class or SuperClass of selected nodes. | |
| objectAttacher |
Takes your current selection and attaches the objects together. Works on geometry and splines. | |
| objectDetacher |
Takes selected objects
(meshs, polys or splines) and seperates all their elements into
seperate objects. |
|
| objectDropper |
Lets you drop objects
onto another object. For example, will drop a bunch of rocks onto an
uneven ground surface. |
|
| objectPainter | This script lets you
paint objects (geometry, splines, lights, helpers, etc) onto a piece of
geometry. Like for example, you can make 10 different rocks, and then
paint them in a random fashion onto a terrain. |
|
| objectReplacer |
Replaces a selection of
objects with a new object, or randomly from a set of objects. |
|
| objectSelectorByMaterial |
Finds all objects that are assigned the currently active material in the medit and does various things to them such as selecting them, isolating them, etc. | |
| objectUniquefier |
Takes any selected instanced / referenced geometry and makes it unique. | |
| parameterManager |
Allows you to change
parameter values for all selected objects as a group. For example, you
can change the radius of a bunch of spheres together, even though
they're not instances of each other. Or you can change the bend value
for all selected objects that have a bend modifier. |
|
| parentSelector |
Selects any objects that
are not parented to anything. This is really useful if you want to
select all the top level parents in your scene or selection, maybe to
later link them to a master dummy object. |
|
| pFlowRemover | Even after deleting a
PFlow Source object from your scene, you can sometimes end up with
cruft nodes that are invisible to you, but exist in your scene, and can
be viewed if you try and merge your current scene into a fresh scene.
This scene flushes all of those nodes out of the scene. Also includes
some tools for finding and printing out the nodes in case you need to
delete them by hand. |
|
| pipeMaker |
Creates a big mess of
pipes. This script uses a lot of code from vidarn's "Pipe Dream" script
(www.creativetools.se), I've taken the basics of his script and rebuilt
it to do pipes that have more options on how dense the final geometry
is, the full volume the pipes inhabit, etc. Maybe you'll find my
changes useful too. |
|
| pivotPlacer |
Places the pivot of the selected objects in one of 27 spots such as center, bottom, top, high left side, etc. You can also align pivot to currently selected vert, edge or face. | |
| polyCountSelector |
Selects objects based on
their facecount. |
|
| renderSizer |
Sometimes when you render
you want to do a test render that's smaller. But changing the render
size means you then have to remember what the old size was and re-enter
it when you're done test rendering. This script allows you to render a
smaller test render size (by percentage) without modifying your final
render size. |
|
| selectionRandomizer |
Will randomly select
objects based on a value provided. |
|
| snapShoter |
Like the snapshot
command, except turns your mesh to an editablePoly when done, and a
couple of other goodies, like selecting the newly created objects. Only
for unanimated objects, does not let you produce an object per frame
like the max tool. |
|
| softSelectionControl | Toggles, or turns on or
off the soft selection tool for objects. |
|
| soulburnAssetLoader |
A quick way to let you
merge various assets into your scene from a nice icon based interface
(including Environments that consist of lights and hdris, material
presets and individual models). I got the idea from looking at keyshot,
while keyshot is a nice piece of software, it's quite limiting when you
want to do something more complex (like adding rust on an object for
example.) But it's great at quickly swapping materials and rendering
them in a realistic environment. So hopefully this script can help you
achieve the speed but lets you to customize your materials and rigs
more than keyshot allows. Works with any 3dsmax renderer. |
|
| soulburnScriptsLister | Lets you run any of the SoulburnScripts from a handy dropdownlist. | |
| splineKnotManager |
Takes all selected
splines and converts all their knots to a specific knot type such as
"Smooth", "Corner", "Bezier" or "Bezier Corner". |
|
| splineKnotToObject | Takes all selected
splines and places a specified object at their knots. |
|
| splineManager |
Lets you modify various
controls for all selected splines. |
|
| splinePainter |
This script lets you
paint splines on the surface of another piece of geometry. |
|
| subdivisionAutomator |
Quickly assigns a subdiv
modifier (meshsmooth or turbosmooth) to all scene or selected objects.
This is good if say you want to have all objects in your scene
converted into subdivs at rendertime without the need to constantly
select objects, find the right modifier, assign the modifier, etc. |
|
| subdivisionIterationManip | Lets you increase or decrease the number of subdiv iterations for selected objects. | |
| subdivisionManager | Lets you modify various subdivision controls on all selected objects (both polyobjects and meshsmooth modifiers) | |
| texmapBaker |
Bakes any arbitrary map tree on a series of selected objects. So say you have a vertex color map running through a warp texture, and you want to use it as a bump. Well, vertex maps don't create proper bumps, so you bake the texture using this script, and then plug the resulting bitmap into the bump slot, and now because it's a baked texture map instead of procedural, the bump map will work properly. Or say you have a super complex diffuse map, you can bake part of the diffuse map network into a texture to speed render times up. | |
| texmapPreview | Does a render of the currently selected texmap from the material editor on the objects that it's applied to in the scene. Think of it as something similar to the "Show Map In Viewport" function, except it works with all procedurals (Show Map In Viewport does not always produce correct results) and does a full render instead of doing the openGL viewport preview. | |
| thinFaceSelector |
Finds and selects faces
that are really tall and thin. Good for finding thin faces in a complex
mesh, faces that may be best to subdivide to make all your faces more
square. |
|
| transformRandomizer |
Lets you translate,
rotate and scale a group of objects or modifier gizmos by a random
amount. |
|
| transformRemover |
Resets the position,
rotation and / or scale of the selected objects. |
|
| transformSelector | Lets you select objects
based on their position, rotation or scale. |
|
| twoDPlanView |
Creates an orthogonal 2D
Plan view of your scene, perfect for creating 2d elements using max's
tools. |
|
| uniqueObjectFinder |
Finds objects in your selection that are unique, ie, that don't have any instances of themselves, and then does various things to them such as selecting them, printing their names, isolating them, etc. | |
| uVAreaDisplayer |
Prints the area of the
currently selected UV faces. |
|
| uVFlattener |
Lets you flatten a
selection of UVs, or in other words aligns all selected UVs
horizontally or vertically. The advantage of using this tool over the
one provided in the Unwrap UVW editor is you can choose to align the
UVs to the average, the min or the max. |
|
| uVFlattenMapper |
Applies Flatten Mapping
(also sometimes refered to as Automatic UVs), which is the same as the
Flatten Mapping in the UVWUnwrap modifier, but unlike that one, can be
applied to a selection of objects with each object using their own map,
or all the objects sharing a single map. Good for just getting some
sort of mapping on all scene objects in one button press, perhaps to
then send to a paint app or to bake a texture map. |
|
| uVPlacer |
Lets you modify the
positions of selected uvs using a handy dialog box. |
|
| uVTransfer |
Transfers uvs from one
object to the next. Useful if you have two identical meshes, but their
vertex order is messed up (like perhaps in the situation where you
exported the object to a seperate application for uving and that
application messed up the vertex order.) This script can transfer the
uvs from the new object to your original object in max, even if the
order is different. |
|
| vertexAndEdgeConnector |
Performs a number of
Connect functionality in one script. For example, in vanilla max, you
can't assign the same hotkey to both connect an edge and connect a
vertex. You also can't have one hotkey that both connects in an
EditablePoly and an EditPoly. This script allows you to have one hotkey
to do all of that, and it detects what mode you're in to choose what
action to perform. |
|
| vertexEdgeFaceSelectByNormal |
Selects verts, edges or
faces of a Editable Poly based on an angle threshhold. This is
identical to the tool on the Modeling Ribbon, but now accessible as a
macroscript since the one in the ribbon didn't have a macroscript
available. |
|
| vertexMapDisplayer | Toggles or turns on or
off the vertex map viewport display for all scene or selected objects. |
|
| vertPlacer |
Allows you to move the
vertexes in an object or the knots in a spline to a single value,
either the average of the current values, or a specific value. Good for
flattening out groups of vertexes. |
|
| vertSelectionToObject |
Places objects at the
positions of the currently selected vertexes. |
|
| viewportControl |
Lets you control the view
you're currently seeing in the viewport in a handy dialog box. |
|
| viewportToVFBLoader |
Gets the currently active
viewport and loads it into the VFB. Most useful in Vray so you don't
have to do a render to set your render region. Originally written by
Dave Wortley (http://davewortley.wordpress.com/), I added limited
support for the scanline renderer and a number of extra options like
better resize quality and overriding the viewport draw mode. |
|
| vrayMatteManager | Allows you to turn on or
turn off the shadow catching Matte properites of selected objects for
vray. |
|
| vraySamplingSubdivManager | Allows you to adjust the
Sampling Subdiv value for scene materials and lights all together,
ensuring consistency. |
|
| wireColorRandomizer | Changes the wirecolor of all selected objects to a random value. | |
| wireMaker | Creates a number of wires
that travel through various target objects. Useful for making bundles
of wires for robots or other mechanical devices in a few simple clicks. |
|
| xFormResetter |
Like the Reset Xform
utility, but with a number of improvements: 1) Works on hierarchies
without messing up the transformation, 2) Automatically flips the
normals of any object with negative scales, 3) Can either turn
instances to copies or references (like the Utility does), 4) Can
Collapse Mesh To Poly after reset |
|
| Retired Scripts (9 scripts total) | Scripts
I have retired because max now has a similar feature, or it was a beta
script that I never finished. |
|
| bitmapPagerManager | The Bitmap Pager controls
have been removed from the preferences of Max2010. This script gives
you some of that control back, especially the ability to turn it off,
which may speed up renders on 64bit OS's that have lots of RAM. These
functions don't seem to do anything anymore in modern versions of max. |
|
| cameraMapGeminiRenderer | Will render out templates for all cameras associated with a single cameraMapGeminiRenderer modifier. Automates the process so you're not stuck rendering a lot of cameras and changing lots of render resolutions by hand. Replaced with cameraMapTemplateRenderer. | |
| faceNormalDisplayer | Toggles, or turns on or
off the face normal display for objects. Worked incorrectly for too
many objects inside max. |
|
| materialIDRandomizer | Takes all selected
objects and applies a material modifier to them with a random ID
between the high and low value. Replaced with iDRandomizer. |
|
| pointTracker | Attaches a point to a
selected vertex and bakes out the position information. Never worked
properly. |
|
| powerSolidManager | Lets you modify the
render and
viewport approximation
controls on all selected Powersolids objects. Powersolids no longer
exists for modern versions of max. |
|
| selectionHighlighter | This script simulates the Selection Highlighting mode from Silo in max. The idea is if you hover over an object, the object is selected, if you hover over a vertex, it selects the vertex, if you hover over an edge, the edge is selected, etc. No need for extra mouseclicks. Autodesk has half added this feature, this script goes all the way to adding full silo style selection highlighting. Never worked reliably. | |
| surfaceSnapper | This script allows you to
move one object along the surface of a second object. Great for placing
objects on a terrain. Replaced with Placement tool in max. |
|
| uVWMappingCopier | Copies a UVWMapping
Modifier from one object to the current selected objects. This works in
world space (unlike the current method of copying the modifier in the
modifier stack) so you can get exactly the same uvwmapping modifier in
exactly the same worldspace position on all your objects. Never worked
reliably. |
Scripts I use the most for my own work (for the curious): aligner, blendedCubeProjectionMaker, blendedCubeProjectionManager, cameraFromPerspView, cameraMapTemplateRenderer, curvatureMaker, curvatureManager, edgeDivider, modelPreparer, modifierUtilities, nameManager, objectAttacher, objectDetacher, objectReplacer, pivotPlacer, soulburnAssetLoader, soulburnScriptLister, subdivisionAutomator, subdivisionIterationManip, texmapPreview, transformRandomizer, uVFlattener, vertexAndEdgeConnector, vertPlacer, xFormResetter
This site is ©2023 by Neil Blevins, All rights are reserved.
