Thought I would share a few links to some really useful and productive FREE scripts and plugins for 3dsmax (2010 and up), which I find indispensable in my modeling and scene workflow, and use in almost every project.  Perhaps you have seen these before, but never tried them, or they might be something new to you.  These are listed in no particular order:

SuperExtruder - An awesome little script for quickly creating complex spline-guided extrusions.  I find it more useful than the standard extrude along spline feature in Max.

Super Poly Bridge - Extrude along spline and, for that matter, the SuperExtruder script above have their uses, but bridging faces isn't one of them.  This script is awesome.  I use this very often to create all kinds of shapes, from high-genus manifolds, to simple things like a coffee cup.  In a nutshell, it brings the kind of curve-function bridging operations you see in apps like Topmod into the 3dsmax workflow environment.  It's not quite as quick and easy as the shape interpolation bridging function in Topmod, but it does the same thing; bridge two or more faces along a bezier curve.  Very useful.

Poly Unwrapper - This free script really takes UV texturing in Max a step further, and more intuitive, than the standard unwrap tools in Max, in my opinion.  Worth having if you do a lot of texturing.

Aviz ATree3D - Great tool for quickly creating custom trees, which look a lot better than the AEC standard Max trees, and can be modified and customized to create bushes, grass, and other plants too.  While you're on their site, take a look at their other free plugin for creating tiles.  Good stuff.

The Puppet Tool - A great script for intuitively and quickly posing, animating, and manipulating characters rigged with either Biped or CAT systems.  Really makes it effortless to select and pose fingers, limbs, etc.

MathSurf 2 - A really cool script for exploring complex mathematical geometries from an aesthetic aspect.  If you're into Design Reform, like I am, you may want to check this one out.

Parametric Array - This one is the king of all the free scripts I use.  It might not be free for long, so download this one while you can.  As the title suggests, it's a very powerful parametric, generative array modeling tool that brings incredible surfacing and generative functionality to 3dsmax.  If you aren't familiar with parametric or generative  modeling, you may still find the node-based operators and array building ability this script offers to be quite handy for architectural projects.  This is very similar to the Grasshopper plugin for Rhino, but for 3dsMax.

These are some of the "secret weapons" I use often.  Hope you find something here useful for your own work.  Please share any links to free tools you may use to enhance your productivity, as there may be someone who also finds them useful. :)

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Thanks for these; I'm sure some of our members will find them useful.

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Jeff

Renderosity Senior Moderator

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Quote - Thanks for these; I'm sure some of our members will find them useful.

Thanks, Jeff.  I hope someone will find some of these as useful as I have.  I know some of these aren't exactly new tools, but I'm sure some people aren't aware of them.  Here are a couple more free plugins I find makes life a lot easier, and keeps your workflow editable:

MegaBevel - A really excellent, advanced bevel modifier.  Allows you to create multi-directional bevel orientations on selected polygons.  The fact that it's a modifier, also, is a plus in keeping your workflow parametric.  I use this almost every time in place of the standard Max bevel operation, even when I'm just looking to create normal bevel profiles.  The downside is that it can lag your system response if your modifier stack gets deep.

Clone Modifier - A really handy and flexible cloning tool; very useful for quickly kit-bashing an array, which you may need to tinker with or adjust after it has been created, or to aid in modeling complex generative structures.  It's a modifier, so this makes it completely parametric, which unlike normal array functions in Max, keeps the results modular, and modifiable at any point during the modeling process.  I've used this for many of my abstract sculptures, and found it to be quite stable.

 

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Hi LuxXeon..

Alaways nice to see a new face, well a new Avatar :)

Just to say thanks for those useful and interesting links and to say welcome.

I've been away over-seas for a while and haven't been visiting any Forums for several months.

Now I'm back and hopefully will stir things up !!

I'll read through all the controversy and fights  :) and see what's been happening.

Once more and in the meantime, thanks for your links and your posts so far.

 

 

 

Quote - Hi LuxXeon..

Alaways nice to see a new face, well a new Avatar :)

Just to say thanks for those useful and interesting links and to say welcome.

I've been away over-seas for a while and haven't been visiting any Forums for several months.

Now I'm back and hopefully will stir things up !!

I'll read through all the controversy and fights  :) and see what's been happening.

Once more and in the meantime, thanks for your links and your posts so far.

 

 

 

You're welcome.  Hope you find them handy.  I don't know too much about any controversy and fighting, but if you happen to find any, let me know.  School has been boring me lately; too much talk about hypersurfaces and holomorphic functions on irreducible topology for my liking this semester.  I can't wait to finish my preliminary thesis, and be done.

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Oh well, at least it will make using constraint expression controllers and  broken hierarchies, a piece of cake !!

I'll check out some fights for you. :)

I'm always looking for new tools to make things better. Works for me.

Talent is God's gift to you. Using it is your gift to God.