Lesson 21: Useful Add-Ons

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Overview

In this lesson, we will draw your attention to some useful and interesting scripts and plug-in modules for 3ds max. Before we proceed, we would like to give you a historical overview.

Even the early versions of 3D Studio for DOS implemented additional modules, known as IPAS-processes, to enhance system functionality. The built-in scripting language was also developed and available at that time. For some reason, however, it was not included in the first two versions of 3ds max (to be more precise, 3D Studio MAX 1.x). Instead, these included a complete version of Software Developers Kit (SDK), libraries used to develop custom plug-in modules. That situation, combined with the limitations of the first 3D Studio MAX version, led to an abundance of plug-in modules (most of which are free). Some of those modules later became part of 3ds max. At present, there are more than 700 plug-in modules available for different 3ds max versions, some freeware and some commercial.

Starting with version 2.0, 3ds max began to include the scripting language MAXScript, which was greeted by a storm of enthusiasm from 3ds max users with programming skills.

Currently, there are more than 600 scripts of various kinds. This process was aided by an excellent user manual on MAXScript that contains a large number of examples.

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