4
What do I need to know to use the plugin?
The Maxwell for Rhino plugin has been designed to work in as simple a manner as possible. Wherever appropriate, unnecessary items
have been optimized away, leaving what is intended to be a very simple and straightforward, yet complete, interface to Maxwell from
within Rhino. Most of the functionality contained in the plugin is accessed via one of several plugin windows, all of which may be
opened or closed using the Maxwell entry in Rhino’s main menu, or by using the buttons located in the plugin’s Tools toolbar:
Scene Manager
The Scene Manager window holds the parameters used to define the Maxwell scene; that is, it contains the values which will be
written into the MXS files the plugin produces. It also contains parameters used to determine how and where the scene is to be
written. The Scene Manager may be used either as a floating window, or as a Rhino dockbar using the plugin option Dockable Scene
Manager.
Database Manager
The Database Manager window provides an MXM Browser, as well as several object-specific catalogs for storing individual material
components (i.e. BSDF, Emitter, etc.). You can drag MXM files into the scene, drag materials from the scene into the MXM Browser to
save them as MXM files, or drag components back and forth between the Material Editor’s layers tree and the applicable pages in the
Database Manager to build new materials using saved components. The Database Manager may also be used either as a floating
window, or as a Rhino Dockbar using the plugin option Dockable Database Manager.
Material Editor
The plugin implements a native-to-Rhino Material Editor which is designed to work in a way very similar to Maxwell’s MXED MXM
editor.
Camera LCD
This tool is provided for convenience in managing the most common camera parameters; it is made to resemble the LCD back-panel
of a digital camera.
Log Viewer
As you use the plugin, it keeps track of various actions by printing messages to this window. Some of these messages can be useful
for diagnosing any possible issues you may encounter. Should you run into an issue you can’t resolve, you can email a copy of the
current log directly to support using the Log Viewer’s right-click menu.
Help Viewer
If you open the Help Viewer, the cursor will change to a ‘help’ cursor when the mouse hovers over many of the parameter-labels in
the various plugin windows. Clicking (left or right) on any of these parameters will show help specific to the selected parameter in the
Help Viewer. The Help Viewer may be used either as a floating window or a Rhino Dockbar using the plugin option Dockable Help
Viewer.
Maxwell Toolbars & Commands
In addition to the various windows mentioned above, the plugin also provides several toolbars and commands. The toolbars may be
shown by clicking main menu > Maxwell > Plugin Windows > Show All Toolbars. If you have modified the toolbars and wish to return
them to stock configuration, you can use the command Maxwell_ToolbarReset. In addition to the commands used by the plugin’s
toolbars, there are several other Maxwell-specific commands provided and you can get a complete list of these by typing
Maxwell_GetCommandList into the Rhino command-line. If you show the built-in Rhino help-viewer (use the command
CommandHelp) then context-sensitive help will be shown for the plugin’s commands when they are invoked.
Comentarios a estos manuales