[Swiss Tony]

Ah easy when you know how!

Thanks

[codygo]

I think that the plugin, and Maxwell have improved significantly since I've purchased it. However, I'm really missing the combined windows for scene materials, material browser, and material editor from the slightly older versions of the rhino plugin. Especially since it seems like if I directly double click an item in the material browser nothing happens, not even a right click option to open with rhino's material editor, which I find better than the standalone version.

[JDHill]

It sounds as if you're confusing the purpose of the browser windows. Basically, you've got:

MXM Browser:

- just used for browsing MXM files on your disk, so you can drag them into the scene. Optionally, you can start up MXED directly from here through the right-click menu, though I figure this would rarely be used. Nothing is supposed to happen if you double click a MXM file in this window.

Scene Materials Browser:

- shows the plugin Materials currently contained in the scene. The right-click menu in this browser has lots of functionality, and double-clicking a Material here will show the plugin's Material Editor, just as it did in previous versions.

These pretty much work exactly as they did in 1.5.1, they're just not housed in the same window as the Material Editor anymore. This actually is how it was in the first version of the plugin, and I got quite a bit of feedback wishing that the plugin could once again use separate dockable windows - that's what they originally were before I put them in tabs in the Material Editor in 1.5.1. So, you can run them now either as standalone windows, or as docking windows - in Plugin Options > Display Options you can control whether each of the windows is standalone or dockable. Here's a screenshot from the help files which shows the Scene Manager and Scene Materials Browser both docked to the right of the screen, which happens to be how I use them:



I run the MXM Browser as a normal window, and it's hardly ever opened - mostly I create Materials from scratch, by using the plugin's Material Wizard, or by importing a previously-saved Material Library. I'm sorry if you preferred it when the browsers were in the same window as the Material Editor, but I don't suspect I'll be moving back in that direction again.

JD

[kami]

I got a wish concerning the docking of the panels for the materials and for the scene settings:
The way it is now, both windows are always docked to the right side of the screen. You can undock them, hide them and they will pop up undocked until you restart rhino. But by restarting, they will always be back on the right side.
The only reason this is bothering me, is because my screen is not very big, so I always hide those windows for modelling if I don't have to adjust settings. And since my graphic card seems to be very poor, I takes quite a while for rhino to resize the viewport windows (up to half a minute while working on complex geometry).
I'd be great, if rhino could remember the position of the popped up window.

[JDHill]

Hi Kami,

As far as I know, they will always remember their position and docked/undocked status...if they're visible when you close Rhino. If you have closed them, then closed Rhino, then re-started, when you open up the dockbars, they will come in again at the default positions. I'll see what I can do about this.

This should only apply to dockable windows - if they're set to be regular floating windows, they should always remember their position regardless of any other factors.

Thanks,

JD

[kami]

Hello JD,

As far as I can observe, both dockable windows: the scene manager and the scene materials, aren't remembering their position, nor their visibility.

Just wanted to test it again and undocked them. Then I closed rhino with the toolbars visible and restarted it. Both windows were not visible then (which is ok), but when I enabled them, they were docked again. So this isn't the behavior they should have?
The material editor is remembering it's position fine.

Greets,
Kami

[JDHill]

Hi Kami,

No, something's not working right there - here, as long as I have them visible, it does not matter whether they are docked or not when I shut down - they will come back in the correct positions. It's fun things like this why I originally switched from dockbars to windows like the Material Editor. I'll try to theorize what's happening to prevent yours from working, but I'm really not sure what would cause it.

Let me know if you think of any other particulars.

Thanks,

JD

[JDHill]

One thing: is Maxwell the current renderer?

Under no circumstance will the plugin's dockbars remember their position/visibility if Maxwell is not the current renderer at Rhino's startup. As the plugin does take a good deal of time to load, and since it will always be loaded by Rhino whenever any document is opened which contains Maxwell data, I try to keep the load-up as light as possible when Maxwell is not the current renderer - and this means that the dockbars/windows are not loaded.

[kami]

Hi JD,

It is set as the current render, when I start rhino. So I guess the problem must be elsewhere
Interesting is though, rhino remembers the tab I used before in the Scene Manager (eg. Output Settings) when I reopen it.
Let me know, if I can provide you any information.

Greets,
Kami

[JDHill]

Yes, the settings like last-tab, all the standalone-window positions/sizes, and about a hundred other persistent things are all managed totally by the plugin, and it completely owns the objects in question. But dockbars are kind of a service provided by Rhino, so I have a bit less control over them. I've found a way to make sure they will always come in docked at the previous locations now, but if they're floating I'm not yet sure if I can specify the window-size...I'll keep looking into this though.

[svandru]

As a photographer, I would really like to see Maxwell extend the camera metaphor to using realistic numbers for F-Stops, Shutter Speed and ISO (or at least make it an option). When using various sliders, I'd like the values to change like a real camera (e.g., ISO and shutter speed 8/15/30/60/125/250/500, f-stop 1/1.4/2/2.8/4/5.6/8/11/16/22/32/44/64). As it is, it is much faster to type in a number than to use the sliders. For finer control, values could change in half- or third-stop increments like current digital cameras. If a user really needed control to .001 stop, then he or she could type in the value.

I'd like to see this in all the Maxwell apps, but I'd be happy just to get it in the Rhino plugin. Thanks for your consideration.

[JDHill]

Thanks for the input. I'll try to think of a way to do that, which does not also make the plugin operate in a fashion too different from Maxwell Studio and the other plugins.

JD

[polynurb]

just had a little idea...

how about a "open single/all textures in external editor" button in the material editor?

cheers,

polynurb

[JDHill]

Sounds cool. You can accomplish half of this wish by setting your editor as the default program for different image types. In the texture editor, there is a button at the top-right which causes the current texture to be opened in whatever program is the default viewer...usually Windows picture viewer, but you can make it be anything.

[caryjames]

It would be nice if they went back to just pop up panels that way you can move them out of the way. The scene manager especially is just too small in a dockable window, and when it is docked the render is smaller because the docked window changes the shape of the camera window. Just my 0.02 cents. Once you get the hang of this program it is AWESOME!!! Thanks for listening JD!
Cary