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| Would like to rename 'Project Folder' default folder names.
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I don’t necessarily like the default ‘Project Folder’ names. I’ve had a different folder structure for years and want to use my names.
I’d like to change them to something like this:
archives --to-- from_clients
renderoutput --to-- renders
sceneassets --to-- maps
scenes --to-- max_files
renderpresets --to-- presets
You get the idea. I have hundreds of projects with my favored directory structure and want to keep it the same. It takes time to go in and rename and delete folders every time I make a new ‘Project Folder.’
Can I change something in an .ini so that when I create a new ‘Project Folder’ I get my names?
I looked in the .ini’s and couldn’t really see where I’d make the changes.
I don’t need help reassigning the paths to ‘Configure User Paths’ in ‘Customize.’ That’s pretty straight forward.
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Windows 7 Professional x64 - Asus P9X79 Pro - Intel i7-3960 Extreme - 16GB Kingston HyperX DDR3 1600 - Corsair H80 Chiller - Nvidia Quadro 4000 - 3D Studio (preMax) thru Max 2013 Design
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Thanks for the link George. That looks great.
There really should be a way to do this in Max without the additional script.
Author: ekah
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| Replied: 01 July 2009 02:42 AM
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Abdullah Nasher
king of the out-rays
hi
it IS time to propose to max-development folk this proposal: it is good thing to provide an automation to the process of THE CALSSIC save as[...wither fix or incremental] to improve the backup old style by a deployment process to save the same scene into different directories with the same incremental names__but this backup deployment manger should give the user a wide array of file properties as an options like making a given folder none-changeable to play the role of a raw trace-back backup-folder, and the other folder to be server-based one as opposed to a folder dedicated to one workstation only. and the link to map folders should be a global from the final-render folder of the backup-file deployment manger, that is; no need to keep track the paths of map and other assets as long as that assets and map has and follow a good naming convention!
Author: A-nasher
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| Replied: 07 July 2009 03:23 PM
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George, that does work well but Max creates it’s folders in my Project Folder every time I launch it. I created the folders I wanted to with the script and all was fine. I deleted the folders that Max created and closed Max. Upon reopening, all the Max default folders are there again. Now my housekeeping task is worse.
Do you know of a way to keep Max from automatically recreating the default folders everytime I launch?
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Windows 7 Professional x64 - Asus P9X79 Pro - Intel i7-3960 Extreme - 16GB Kingston HyperX DDR3 1600 - Corsair H80 Chiller - Nvidia Quadro 4000 - 3D Studio (preMax) thru Max 2013 Design
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Rob,
You can’t that project folder info is coded into Max itself. If you know xml you might be able to figure out how to overwrite it but I personally don’t know.
Author: George Matos
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| Replied: 07 July 2009 03:18 AM
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It is possible, but takes a bit of messing to get it right.
Open Max, Customise | Configure User Paths and create a new, temporary project directory “tmp_prj_1”
Close Max
Open the newly created “tmp_prj_1.mxp” with notepad , and change the directory names as required. Do NOT remove any lines from the “[Directories]” section - if you do Max will reinstate the default lines with the default directory names. If you don’t want several of the directories I would suggest using a single “catch all” directory for all those you don’t want.
Save the file. Create the (differently named) directories manually as Max may well complain if they don’t exist.
Open Max, Customise | Configure User Paths and click Load, locate the .mxp file (you may have to go up 1 level), OK and close Max again.
ReOpen Max and you should now be able to create a new project directory with only the directories you specified in it.
You should now be able to remove the temporary project.
Max 4.2 through 2013.
XP-64 (SP2)
NVidia 9800GTX-512 (Driver 266.58).
Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz, 8Gb Ram, DX9.0c.
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Hi Steve,
“Bit of messing” is quite an understatement. I’ve been at it for several hours and Max just creates the directories it wants to. If we could just find the Max file that initiates the default folder creation and change that.
I followed your directions to the letter. I left all of the lines intact and just changed the names. It just won’t work for me. If you’d post your “tmp_prj_1.mxp” it might help as a reference but short of that I’m giving up and moving on to more pressing issues.
I’ll just stop using the ‘Project Folder’ feature by leaving is set to some out of the way path and then navigate to my beloved directory hierarchy.
Thanks for the input. Maybe some Autodesk tech will pick up this thread and then incorporate custom folders into Max 11.
Regards...Rob
Author: RobH2
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| Replied: 07 July 2009 02:46 PM
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Hmmm… It works here.
You can’t change the Names (the bit before the = ) just the directory names (the bit after the = ). My .mxp was very simple - I changed all the directory names to .\Scenes so basically everything was in one directory. This was just for the purposes of working out how to do this, I normally leave the mxp alone but set the project directory to the Max install directory (I hate stuff being umpteen levels down in Docs&Settings) so I don’t really use the Projects feature.
Here’s the contents of my tmp_prj_1.mxp
[Directories]
Animations=.\scenes
Archives=.\scenes
AutoBackup=.\scenes
BitmapProxies=.\scenes
Downloads=.\scenes
Export=.\scenes
Expressions=.\scenes
Images=.\scenes
Import=.\scenes
Materials=.\scenes
MaxStart=.\scenes
Photometric=.\scenes
Previews=.\scenes
ProjectFolder=C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\tmp_prj_1
RenderAssets=.\scenes
RenderOutput=.\scenes
RenderPresets=.\scenes
Scenes=.\scenes
Sounds=.\scenes
VideoPost=.\scenes
[XReferenceDirs]
Dir1=.\scenes
[BitmapDirs]
Dir1=C:\3dsMax2010-64\maps\Backgrounds
Max 4.2 through 2013.
XP-64 (SP2)
NVidia 9800GTX-512 (Driver 266.58).
Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz, 8Gb Ram, DX9.0c.
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Hi Steve,
Like you, I hate Windows extremely inconvenient default document locations. I bought a program that redirects all of that mess to the top level or whatever folders I want them to go to. It helps.
I like the idea of Max’s ‘Project Folders’ and was just hoping I could coerce them into working the way I work. I don’t know why I had so much trouble yesterday getting any good results. I must have been doing something wrong. I’m not a noob (not a programmer though either) so that frustrates me.
Let me copy and paste your .msp into mine and see what’s wrong. I could have inadvertently changed something ‘before’ the ‘=’ or something else that caused an error. I did it for two hours. I won’t have time to play with it today but I’ll attack it one more time.
Thanks for taking the time to return to this post. What I really need help on is for a project in another post I have going but don’t have a sufficient answer for. If you have any spare time don’t waste any more here. If you don’t mind give my other post a look and see if you have any idea what I can do. It’s called “Need to GROW NURBS Curve.” I spent all day yesterday on it and just cannot find a way to do it without losing the nice CV control points of the curve.
http://area.autodesk.com/for...need-to-grow-nurbs-curve/
As always Steve, thanks for your time here and your always fantastic assistance.
Regards...Rob
Author: RobH2
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| Replied: 08 July 2009 02:54 AM
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Feel free to copy it, but remember to change the ProjectFolder line to match your system, ditto the single Map path (you can delete that line and add the proper ones through the UI).
I’ve tried all the above again this morning and it definitely works here. Once set up I can create new projects (from the Configure User Paths dialog) and they get just the one directory - quite why it isn’t working there I don’t know.
As for the “growing Nurbs” - growing anything is a recurring problem. Slice would be great if the Slice Plane wasn’t infinite, but as you’ve noticed it affects the whole object, not just the bit which is growing. I’ll have a think about it, but don’t get your hopes up too high - it’s a long standing “problem”.
Author: Steve_Curley
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| Replied: 08 July 2009 04:18 AM
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Steve,
I was successful when I pasted your lines into my file. I was doing something consistently wrong I guess. I wish I had the files I deleted yesterday to compare them with yours to see what the problem was but they are gone. I tried to undelete them but a ‘defrag’ last night destroyed them.
I appreciate your help. I’ll be able to live with this now and do what I need. You are a great resource my friend...thank you…
Danpool posted a good solution for my ‘growing Tube on a Nurbs curve’ need. I’m embarassed by it’s simplicity. I frequently try to find complex solutions when I should slow down and look around more carefully before drifting over the edge of the cliff.
Regards…
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Windows 7 Professional x64 - Asus P9X79 Pro - Intel i7-3960 Extreme - 16GB Kingston HyperX DDR3 1600 - Corsair H80 Chiller - Nvidia Quadro 4000 - 3D Studio (preMax) thru Max 2013 Design
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1) I’m glad it helped. It took a while to work out because it seems (though I can’t prove it) that when you create a new project, the “template” used is the one in force when Max loaded. Changing the names in the UI doesn’t seem to work until you close and reopen Max, so maybe the script mentioned upthread somewhere does work if you close/reopen at the right time.
2) :blush:
3) Yes - I read that a few moments ago before I got to this thread. Nice solution - I blame the different timezones (I was asleep) for not thinking of it earlier ;-)
Max 4.2 through 2013.
XP-64 (SP2)
NVidia 9800GTX-512 (Driver 266.58).
Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz, 8Gb Ram, DX9.0c.
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Steve,
I’ve got the above listed script on project folders working really well; for instance, I can create not only the sub-folders it allows me to, but I can also get it to create sub, sub, sub-folders. Either way I’m still really confused on how the .mxp file is functioning because it keeps dumping all the original Autodesk folder structure back into my newly formed project folder that the scrip created. Basically, can you help me understand how to better work with the .mxp file? I’ve read what you have wrote so far, but it’s still kind of not clear to me on how to change Max’s .mxp; better yet, WHERE to change Max’s .mxp file.
Sorry to bother you with this, I know it’s kind of an old thread; although, I’m grateful for whatever insight you or someone else can offer.
Author: SuperCoon
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| Replied: 04 February 2010 02:28 AM
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I will have another look at this - but remember I am not using a script - the one mentioned upthread or any other.
AFAICT you simply cannot change the built-in defaults - what you can do is effectively override the defaults, but you have to make certain (again IIRC) that the modified mxp is the one which is loaded when Max starts, or it will use the defaults again.
Author: Steve_Curley
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| Replied: 04 February 2010 02:56 AM
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Ok - I think I may be understanding what is going on - a bit, at least.
The problem is, I think, trying to switch between differently configured projects. The trick to doing that is as follows.
Assuming you have the “defaults” currently - i.e. an old project with all the old paths, and you have a new project created as outlined above.
Load Max | Configure User Paths, browse to the project with the new structure, OK the browse window, Cancel the Configure User Paths dialog and close Max.
Cancelling the dialog is important. If you OK it, it will create any “missing” paths as per the current project, cancelling it seems to prevent that happening.
Open Max and check the paths - here they are exactly as I set them as you can see from the screenies below.
Switching between projects which have the same structure should just work, the problem is trying to switch between projects which have a different structure.
Max 4.2 through 2013.
XP-64 (SP2)
NVidia 9800GTX-512 (Driver 266.58).
Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz, 8Gb Ram, DX9.0c.
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