What are your "essential" plugins/scripts

I keep on finding plugins and scripts I wish I had years ago… no doubt there are more! What are your favourite plugins and scripts?

1. Vray :wink:
2. RPManager
3. incrementalSave.mcr
4. RandomTransform (soulburn or blur)
5. I would add PFlow box-1 and MapLayers, but typically, as soon as I bought them, they were added in the next version of max!

Scripts

Solid Rocks
Matte Render

VRay
Soulburn
-modifierUtilities
-objectPainter
-materialMover
-transformRandomizer
-selectionRandomizer
BerconMaps

Between the development of VRay and the Soulburn pack, my list has gotten very short!

I used to rely on quite a few others that have been assumed by one or the other.

good old blur scripts (particularly: planter, random transform and material stuffer)

Polyboost$$
NodeJoe
LPM

Free:
modifier modifier zorb
quick mask
soulburn/blur
advanced painter
relink bitmaps
Lele’s VRay tools
VRayMtl converter
VRay Light Lister (the replacement for the original mcr)
plus tons of little tools I write for specific repetitive tasks…

SolidRocks
NodeJoe
PolyBoost
AutoGamma

vray
vray
vray
vray
texporter
vray

- Soulburn
- Random Transform
- Relink Bitmaps (All of mine in my cig) (Actually I use all of mine very frequently, but my favorites of my junk and the ones that get used the most are:
    “Batch Merge”
    “Relink Bitmaps”
    “SelectObjsByMaterial”
    “EasyVRayCameraAlongPath”
    “EasyCameraAlongPath”
- and of course Lele’s scritps particularly “VRayPhysCam” stuff!

I’ll add the Colorcorrect plugin, as well as the Itoo clone and glue plugins. Glue is particularly useful for sites with contoured terrain. Are people using the built in color correct in max 2009 or sticking with the plugin?

ColorCorrect

Itoo Plugins

I’ve migrated to the max plugin as it means I don’t have to worry about keeping another plugin up to date on my farm. It seems to work pretty nicely.

Good to see all your contributions. An interesting read! Thanks.

Incremental Save
Make instance (Not sure where this came from) http://buchhofer.com/upload/files/MakeInstance.ms
Make Unique (blurscript)
Select Instances (blurscript)
PivotPlacer (blurscript)
LPM http://lukashi.com/LPM.php
Relink bitmaps (Colin)
Copy objects to file / Paste from file http://scriptspot.com/3ds-max/copy-and-paste-objects
Shuffle objects http://scriptspot.com/3ds-max/shuffle
Autogamma
VrayLightCalc filenames Sunday Sketching, 11-2

tons of other little junk I’ve made over time to randomize and mass edit various things..

I’d like to add Groundwiz and Simcloth to the list.
Also, VRayRT when it comes out. That plugin rocks!

Plugins:
- GroundWiz
- PolygonMap
- NodeJoe
- DesignConnected Manager (once it supports Max objects as a replacement for assetmanager)

Scripts:
- 3pointRotate and 3pointScale (Sergo)
- PolyBoost
- NameManager (Soulburn)
- RenderMask (Requiem)
- MatID Dashboard (Sam O’Hare)

Plugins:
FumeFX
Afterburn

Scripts:
modifier modifier zorb

I created a few custom button in my custom toolbar and I keep my toolbar up to date accross my four computers by using windows live sync. Any change made to my ui folder (under C:\Users\Yourname\AppData\Local\Autodesk\3dsMax\2010 - 64bit\enu\UI) will be automatically mirrored on all my computer by windows live sync.

And here are my buttons:

from right to left:
random wirecolor
object see-through on
object see-through off
add symmetry modifier
unlock all transform
lock all transform
unhide all faces
hide selected faces
bakePFlow2Obj (a free bobo script that is used to scatter anything (like vray proxies) haven’t try yet though
solidrocks (just started to try the demo)
fly wizard (same as above)
display last rendered vray buffer
convert all scene materiel to vray

in max 2010, polyboost is integrated as graphite tools.

I’m going to try renderflow, a node based pass creator still in beta though. and also the free schematic material editor. Both use lumonix helium node based UI.

Have you had any luck getting the Schematic Material Editor working in max 2010? I updated helium but it still doesn’t work.

VMC [Vray Material Control] Olly…you have saved my sanity by eliminating the most mundane & repetitive tasks…thanks mate!!! I’ll shout you a beer if you ever come to Australia!:wink:

yes it works happily =) just make sure to update the helium plugin