using zookeeper for sds-modeling with edit-polygon-modifiers

 
 
 
Posted by:gagliano
Data created:20 January 2014

i am evaluation the demo version of zookeeper and wonder if it is possible to accomplish an edit-poli-workflow, which i can´t do with standard-3dsmax-tools.

i use edit poly modifiers to modify parametric primitives. for example i pick some polygons of a sphere and make an inset. the resulting polygons will then be extruded.
to keep things manageable i keep the primitive parametric (instead of converting it to an editable poly) and stack the two operations into TWO edit polygon modifiers (instead of doing it with one).

now the target is to apply the modifications to an explicit set of polygons, which could be altered later.
is it possible to do this with zookeeper?
if not, is it possible to use lab and C# scripting for this task?
does zookeeper also offer scripted nodes which could do this?

it would also be nice to control the inset amount and the extrusion height parametrically. this can be achieved using "animate" instead of "model" as the "edit poly mode", but i experienced that this workflow becomes buggy at a certain point of stack complexity.

as i don´t have any scripting skills, i would prefer to do this with ordinary nodes, if possible.
if it is only possible to be done with scripted nodes, this would be a good point for me to get into scripting.

thanks in advance for any input
roberto

Hello Roberto,

 

You can do this through nodes in ZK and make a fairly paremetric setup. You would still need to use Animate mode in Edit Poly to activate what state you want to be in for each Edit Poly mod. 

Thanks

Michael

are there any tutorials or help files on this?

i found the edit poligon modifier node, but could not find how to adress specific polygons / vertices nor how to contol the modification prameters (extrusion height,...)

thank you

roberto

made some tests and it did not really work well.

i managed to use the edit poly node in animation mode, but there seems to be something wrong:

i made a box and added two edit poly nodes to the stack (one inset, one extrude). both values appear in the ZK edit poly nodes, but if i change the values there the modifier output is reset (as if the modifier was turned off). when again keying in the value, that was originally set in the max-modifier it works again and the modifier gives the correct output.

i attached a screenshot of the ZK window and the max file.

i still cannot find a way to explicitely adress the polygon to apply the two modifiers to.

any ideas?

any help would be appreciated, thanks in advance

roberto

max-file for the previous post


Attached Files:

>box_edpoly.max (241664 bytes),

screenshot file


Attached Files:
Image 1