[coolfile]

the 1st question:

$A.pos = [1,2,3]
$C.pos = [4,5,6]
--the distance between a and c is 5.19615
--B is a child of A.
in coordsys world $B.pos = [1,2,8.19615]
--or
in coordsys parent $B.pos = [0,0,5.19615]

how to make the poses of B and C coincidednt by rotating A?
how to calculate accurately the amount of A.rotation?

the 2nd question:

when I set the pos and the rotation of an object by maxscript there will be different results if I change the sequence of setting pos and rotation.

for example, there are 2 boxes called A and B.


if the pos is set first, B.pos will be changed when B.rotation is set.

$B.pos = $A.pos
$B.rotation = $A.rotation

else B.pos will coincide with C.pos.

$B.rotation = $A.rotation
$B.pos = $A.pos

Why this happend? and How to get the right result while the pos is set first.

[Straxovich]

does anyone understand this?

and what does this have to do with generals?

[Flyby]

amazingly, yes, i understand what Coolfile is asking.

The problem is that I haven't done any scripting for almost 1.5 years and my knowledge is getting very rusty.

Coolfile, may I suggest posting that question on either the GMAX forum or on the 3dsmax support forum. There are a few VERY talented people out there that are kind enough to help other fellow scripters...

GMAX forum
http://www.gmaxsupport.com/forum/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi

3dsmax forum (best forum)
http://support.discreet.com/webboard/wbpx.dll/~3dsmax

[Chrizz]

No its wierd shit i dont know what he wants :s maybe he cloned box B and rotate the box and box A go's gotating to. if thats so he must dislink the boxes

[TylerD]

Its maxscript... I kinda understand the first few lines but then it goes right over my head... :/

edit: looks like everyone beat me to it :scared:

[coolfile]

Thank you, Flyby. I am going to those forums now.
BTW, please check you PM. and Rene too.

[Rene]

This should fix the positioning before rotation problem you have:

$B.pos = $A.pos
in coordsys local($B.rotation = in coordsys world($A.rotation))

[Rene]

Your second question took me some time to get right, mostly because of a different result between my calculator and gmax. I don't know if your familiar with matrix and vector calculations however I will use some terms that may not ring a bell. gmax has internal functions for all of these.

To map your point B onto point C using rotations you'll first need the vectors from the rotation origin (point A in this case). You can either calculate them manually or be a bit creative with the coordsys like I did. Now normally I would advise you to normalize these vectors but maxscript gives weird results when calculating with the normalized values. So we'll first calculate and then normalize.

You'll need the cross product between the vectors. This results in an rotation axis. Normalize the result.

Now you need the dot product and devide it by the product of the lenghts of the vectors (same result as calculating with normalized vectors). This gives the cosinus of the angle between the two vectors. Inverse it to get the actual angle.

All that's left now is to rotate the origin (point A) in it's local coordsys.


In maxscript this would make:

vAB = in coordsys $A.transform $B.pos
vAC = in coordsys $A.transform $C.pos

axis = normalize(cross vAB vAC)
angle = acos ((dot vAB vAC) / ((length vAB) * (length vAC)))

in coordsys local $A.rotation = (angleAxis angle axis)

[coolfile]

What a genius you are, Rene! Thank you very much.
BTW, have you read you PM? and would you like to try my new w3d importer? If yes, please give me your email via PM.

[EvilViking]

So you're scripting a new W3D importer? Sweet! Hats off to you guys, this is way over my head! :lol: