MAXScript support in UltraEdit

MAXScript support in UltraEdit

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NewbieNewbie
11

    Jan 28, 2023#1

    Hello!

    This is my first post here and I hope this is the right place to share some stuff.
    I am a 3D artist and my primary software for work is Autodesk 3ds Max. 
    I started learning MAXScript a long time ago with the aim of expanding the possibilities of the existing tools in the program itself.
    The MAXScript enthusiasts have created an excellent community which is similar to this one, where you can share freely new ideas and knowledge. 
    A few years ago 3ds Max added support for Python but MAXScript is still most used language.

    For those who are not familiar, MAXScript is the built-in scripting language for 3ds Max and with it you can:
    • Control 3ds Max interactively through a command-line shell window and integrated MAXScript Editor which supports both MAXScript and Python.
    • Build custom import/export tools using the built-in file I/O or .NET, also batch-processing tools, such as batch-rendering scripts.
    • Write procedural controllers that can access the entire state of the scene, also different type of tools for modeling, animation, materials, rendering, VFX and so on.
    • Great support for third-party plugins
    All in all, the MAXScript language is specifically designed to complement 3ds Max. It is object-oriented, and has several special features and constructs that mirror high-level concepts in the 3ds Max user interface. These include coordinate-system contexts, an animation mode with automatic keyframing, and access to scene objects using hierarchical path names that match the 3ds Max object hierarchy.
    The syntax is simple enough (no case-sensitive) for non-programmers to use, with minimal punctuation and formatting rules.

    UltraEdit already support MAXScript, but it doesn't work properly and is very outdated. Other text editors which supports maxscripts have similar problem and compared to UltraEdit, they are very difficult to customize or they have some limitations. (Don't support large number of syntax and limited amount of colors.)

    In this *.zip file I prepared:
    • maxscript.uew ... syntax highlighting wordfile with all keywords of the latest version of 3ds Max 2023.
      Previous 3ds Max versions also support more than 95% of syntax and keywords for third-party plugins are not included.
      Auto-complete works great and the Function List view lists all functions and structures.
      I added functionality for highlighting user defined variables which starts with underscore symbol "_"
    • maxscript-tpl.xml ... template file which has some useful MAXScript snippets prepared for everyday use.
    • As bonus, there are three themes customized for MAXScript, Python, XML, INI, CSS, HTML, C++, C#
    Maxscript_UltraEdit.zip (1.29 MiB)   3
    ZIP file with syntax highlighting wordfile maxscript.uew and template file maxscript-tpl.xml for MAXScript, the three theme files and the Markdown and text Readme files
    ArcticTheme.png (409.13KiB)
    Arctic is semi-dark theme inspired by Nord theme
    MistTheme.png (401.64KiB)
    Mist is semi-light theme inspired by Tokyo Light
    NocturnalTheme.png (410.91KiB)
    Nocturnal is dark theme inspired by Tokyo Night Storm