[MaxPlus] (2017) Adding Animation Constraint Targets

Tools 3ds Max
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#1

Hi!
I’ve been using Python with Maya in the last year and this week I’ve been getting into Python with Max.

Right now I’m able to add a position constraint to an object but I’m having a hard time figuring out how to “Add Position Target” to it.

import MaxPlus

boneObj = MaxPlus.Factory.CreateGeomObject(MaxPlus.ClassIds.BoneGeometry)
boneObj.ParameterBlock.Height.Value = 10.0
boneObj.ParameterBlock.Width.Value = 10.0
boneNode = MaxPlus.Factory.CreateNode(boneObj)
boneNode.WireColor = MaxPlus.Color(0.67843, 0.72941, 0.79607)
boneNode.Position = MaxPlus.Point3(20, 10, 5)

objCylinder = MaxPlus.Factory.CreateGeomObject(MaxPlus.ClassIds.Cylinder)
nodeCylinder = MaxPlus.Factory.CreateNode(objCylinder)

positionConstraint = MaxPlus.Factory.CreatePositionController(MaxPlus.ClassIds.Position_Constraint)
positionConstraint.SetTarget(boneNode)
nodeCylinder.AssignController(positionConstraint, 2)

That successfully makes a Position Constraint but there’s no position target in it’s list.

I saw this thread on Path Constraints:


It seems like he was able to make a Path Constraint target using a ParameterBlock.
I’m not sure how though.
I tried looking at the parameters available in a Position_Constraint:

for p in nodeCylinder.ParameterBlock.Parameters:
	print p.Name, p.Value

which gives me this:

and I see nothing helpful in the INode ParameterBlock.

What am I missing?
Any help would be appreciated.

Also is there any better documentation than this for MaxPlus?
http://help.autodesk.com/view/3DSMAX/2017/ENU/?guid=__py_ref_class_max_plus_1_1_i_node_html
It doesn’t seem all that helpful…
If you know of any useful resources for someone just jumping into Python with Max, I’d love to know about them!

Thanks,
Jesse

#2

eh is pymxs the thing to be using these days? MaxPlus outdated?

#3

Well, not exactly outdated, pymxs calls the MAXScript engine so you have all the MAXScript functionality and any variables and functions currently in the global scope at your disposal, while MaxPlus is a rather limited wrapper of a subset of the SDK. In my experience, python was the slowest language you could choose in 3ds max (outside just maths, if most of the time spent is on calculations, MAXScript will be worse) so I’d consider implementing the needed functionality in MAXScript/.NET (or even MCG) and just call it via pymxs.

#4

Thanks man, I’ll look into those choices before I go further
Just got anxious and wanted to jump in while I had time between projects

#5

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