[JDHill]

Maxwell for Rhino
Version 2.7.25 Release Notes

This version of the plugin introduces support for Maxwell MXS References, and increases interactivity for Maxwell Fire. Note that in order to use MXS References with Rhino 5, it is necessary to be running a minimum of Version 5 SR2 (5.2.30305.9115, 3/5/2013).

Changes

• Added support for Maxwell MXS References.
• Added support for more Maxwell Fire interactivity:

• • Objects (mesh & NURBS) may be translated.
  • Instances may be transformed (pos/rot/scale).

• Native light export has been re-worked:

• • Obj Props parameters are now used for lights.
  • Lights may be moved interactively in Maxwell Fire.

• Grass textures are now included in Pack & Go.
• Pack & Go no longer runs for Fire exports.
• Textures are now auto-enabled when assigned.
• Missing textures are no longer auto-disabled.
• Moved Refresh Viewport button to the Materials tab.
• Improved in-viewport Maxwell Fire behavior.
• Added Maxwell Fire "Save to clipboard" feature.
• Toolbar handling is now specific to V4 and V5.
• Empty layers are no longer exported into the MXS.

Fixes

• Fixed some problems with mxm-linking.
• Fixed some problems with custom cursors.
• Camera HUD was not updated with fStop changes.
• Materials were duplicated with recurring blocks.

Downloads (if I find these linked anywhere, I'll remove them)

• Maxwell for Rhino x86
• Maxwell for Rhino x64

Notes

• Just some comments on these changes (this is all mentioned in the manual, too).
  
  First, regarding MXS References: as mentioned above, you need to be using an SR2 build for MXS References to work on Rhino 5. How they operate should be fairly easy to understand: a reference is just a block definition containing a proxy representation of the geometry contained in the MXS file; each instance of this block will result in an instance of an MXS Reference in the exported MXS file. To create an MXS Reference, you can use the new button in the plugin's Functions toolbar, or the new Maxwell_CreateMxsReference command. To edit an existing reference, select it and look in the Maxwell page in Object Properties; here, you can switch the reference to a different MXS, open the MXS in Studio, and change how the reference is represented in Rhino. That is about it -- they should basically "just work."
  
  Next, regarding the new object interactivity in Maxwell Fire. When you move a mesh or NURBS object, it will now be moved in Maxwell Fire. For meshes and NURBS, this is limited to translation. For block instances, though, you can translate, rotate, or scale, and these changes will be reflected in Maxwell Fire. Furthermore, deleting/un-deleting, and hiding/un-hiding an object is also now interactive. There may be some surprises here, since these things depend on items being removed/added to the document, so for example, if you block a set of objects with Maxwell Fire running, they will disappear from the scene, since they have been removed from the document and put into a block definition; in cases like this, you will need to re-export as usual.
  
  Next, regarding export of native lights; this has been heavily re-worked. One change is that lights now (interactively) obey the Render Properties switches in Object Properties > Maxwell. Additionally, export now works a bit differently, mainly in the case of spot lights. Depending whether the material applied to a spotlight uses an IES file, the light will either be exported as usual (as a disc & cone, if not using IES), or as a 1cm sphere with the IES material applied. Furthermore, lights may also now be moved around interactively in Maxwell Fire, and in the case of rectangular lights, fully transformed (meaning, if you scale the plane, the light will be scaled in Maxwell Fire).
  
  These changes are pretty substantial, so just let me know if you find any new problems.

[AlexP]

JD, Thank you for that great update!

[polynurb]

thanks for this big update.

i just want to quickly mention that the 03/05/2013 is a RC-SR version, and people won't get that update except one downloads it manually or switches to "service release candidate" in the rhino update options.

[kami]

wow, sounds like a great update!
thanks very much.

[polynurb]

two little things:
a
hide in fire only works with the hide command, but turning a layer off does not have that same effect.
layer support would be great, because it is the common way of visually removing objects from the scene.
working with hide/show/selected to control visibility in bigger scenes often ends up in a big mess, at least with me

b
when i draw a spotlight, enable fire, add an ies emitter to the spotlight, ies is there just as the cone and disc will also stay visible. little thing but i guess not that uncommon to do it that way round (not assign ies first)

[JDHill]

Yes, you're correct, hiding a layer won't do it -- I'll see about adding support for that. On the IES question, the IES material needs to be assigned first, since that is how the plugin decides to create the geometry.

[polynurb]

thanks for looking into it!

the ies issue is not a big deal as one only has to reload the scene once then things should be fine.
but in dense and larger scenes, if this is not paid attention to, strange things will be going on in the render.

so as a low priority suggestion, if it not much work on your side, the plugin could maybe check if there is already an ies material assigned to a spotlight when a new one is assigned, and if not, simply reloads the scene instead of keeping on with the render.

[AlexP]

JD, in reference options it's not possible to set value below 1 for point cloud detail. I've often use it (eg 0.001) with maya to be able to insert lots of trees. Can you make it?

[JDHill]

This is not related to Maya, so don't pay attention to the actual number (internally, my range is 0.0-1.0). The question is: do you have an actual example where a detail value of 1 is creating too many points? If so, I would like to see a copy of the MXS, so I can review the strategy.

[AlexP]

Yep, 1M poly tree. Can send one, but have to upload.
More important thing, mxs reference point cloud is sometimes created on hidden layer. To reproduce it:
1. Create new file
2. Change default layer to "Layer 05"
3. Hide Layer "Default"
4. Create reference.
5. Geometry will appear on hidden layer

[JDHill]

Thanks, I'll see about changing it to insert the instance on the current layer.

[AlexP]

I'm not sure how it is working right now, is it taking first hidden layer?

[JDHill]

My code is not setting any layer at all, so the new geometry is just going wherever Rhino puts it. I might've assumed that would be the current layer, but I guess it is either the first layer in the list, or layer Default.

[EADC]

Had to revert the update, all my custom mappings got really messed up. Don't know if related to the SRC or the plugin. Now that i'm back at the last SR and 2.7.22 all is well again.
Pity really, the new features of moving and hiding objects and lights are really usefull.

[JDHill]

Could you please provide a reduced file and its textures, so I can try and find the problem?