A question: would that kind of feature will be also useful for someone in Maya or some other software? Please let me know.
26 Aug 2023: BMAX Connector integration allowing to copy models and hierarchy 3ds Max <-> Blender in 2 clicks. Demo. Instructions for installationa are below.
What script does.
The problem you might met is when you export model from Blender to 3ds Max using fbx you lose all the collections hierarchy when you probably expect to preserve this hierarchy as layers.
This addon does exactly that:
It also has option to export 3ds max model hierarchy and import it as collections hierarchy in Blender.
You can also use this addon to save current Blender / 3ds max hierarchy, play around with it and take it back. This is useful if you use FBX that loses hierarchy information and you want to preserve between Blender / 3ds max projects.
Extra Blender Tools.
I’ve also added the version that contains some Extra Blender Tools which includes some other Blender tools you might find useful:
1) Prepare for multimaterial – adds all selected materials to all selected objects. Sorts them in alphabetical order. Why you might need it – it will allow to transfer all your materials to 3ds Max as ONE multimaterial with different indexes for the different objects. If you won’t use it then 3ds Max will create separate materials.
2) Remove unused materials – removes all unused materials from the selected objects. Basically it undoes “Prepare for multimaterial”.
3) Update face strength vertex colors – colors all vertices by related face strength. Why it could be useful – as you might know Blender has this feature “Face strength” which allows you to specify which face is more important in terms of adjusting normals and then Blender will take that face strength thing into account when you apply “Weighted Normal Modifier”. “Update face strength vertex colors” allows you to work with it visually – you can select as much objects as you want and then run the thing and it will color code object faces based on their face strength (weak = red, medium = blue, strong = green). Face colors saved as vertex colors you can find in object data properties -> attributes. Example you can see at the screenshot below.
4) Clear face strength vertex colors – undoes “Update face strength vertex colors” by clearing vertex colors related to face strength.
5) Toggle draw final vertices normals – draw vertices normals after all modifiers applied for the selected object. Meaning it will allow you to see weighted vertex normals before applying them – it could be useful so you can adjust the face strength and see result immediately. This feature is kind of experimental and works only for ONE selected object.
