Py3dsmax vs 2014 extension python

Tools 3ds Max
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Hi,

I’m looking to get up and running with Python for 3dsMax, but I don’t know a lot about developing for Max, outside of doing a few Max Scripts (though we have an extensive tool package developed by our engineers).

Any opinions on whether Py3dsmax or an upgrade to 2014 extension, is the best way to go? I’d like to be able to talk to as much stuff as possible: SDK, C++ plug-ins, .Net, whatever. Remote debugging would also be very, very nice. PyCharm is the IDE of choice here, but we also have some Wing licenses.

We are currently on 2013 and in moving to 2014, I’m concerned about any issues with peoples workflows, as well required changes to in-house/3. party tools. That said, I’ve heard that you do not need to recompile plug-ins between 2013/2014. If this is indeed the case, I’m assuming that there are minimal/no changes to the API’s?

Our long term ambition is to do cross application tool sharing with minimal changes, like we already do between Maya and MotionBuilder.

Thanks!

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Hey, so let me try to tackle one question at a time, to my best knowledge.

Regarding 3dsmax SDK, check this: The Page You Were Looking for Was Not Found

As you can see 2013 and 2014 are compiled against the same version, so you shouldn’t have issues there.

I’m not sure about Py3dsmax since I never used it, but MaxPlus (the 2014 extension python) is still on it’s early ages, having that said, I believe that you can do most of the stuff you do with Maxscript with MaxPlus, even if the python equivalent doesn’t exist, you can use MaxPlus.Core.EvaluateMaxscript() to run native Maxscript code, ergo, you can probably even create .NET stuff, by eval maxscript in python! What a weird world :slight_smile:

I’ve been writing lots of stuff on MaxPlus, very basic, but on some of the articles I talk about MaxPlus and PyCharm, also about remote debugging. You might want to take a look: http://www.youcandoitvfx.com/category/blog/

MaxPlus currently supports PyQt and PySide, MOST of the packages work (zmq does not work for example, or at least I don’t know anyone that was able to make it work).

I would say that if you go with MaxPlus route, you will probably need to keep some level of updating on your 3dsmax versions, to get the best out MaxPlus, with new features and support, with Py3dsmax you probably don’t have that issue.

Hope this helps you!

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That’s very helpful, thank you! I think I’ll need to spend a few evenings to have a good look at both solutions myself. I’ll let you know what I find.

Cheers