Introduction
Bonus Tools is a free collection of useful Maya scripts and plug-ins. After installing Bonus Tools, users will have a pull-down menu for easy access to the tools that cover all
aspects of everyday use: general UI, modeling, animation, texturing, rendering and cloth.
Downloads
(Download the appropriate Bonus Tools file for your operating system)
Installation Details:
Windows
1. Install the BonusTools85 package by double clicking on the icon and following the instructions. It will install to ....\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2009\BonusTools
Linux
1. As root, install the BonusTools2009 package with the rpm command (e.g. rpm -i BonusTools2009). It will install to /usr/aw/maya2009/BonusTools.
Apple
1. Extract the package from the disk image.
For All Platforms
1. If you have a userSetup.mel file in your scripts path, open it in a text editor and append the lines from the userSetup.mel supplied with the Bonus Tools.
New Features:
Align UV Shells
This tool aligns UV Shells.
Merge and Combine
This tool puts meshes together - after finishing with a mirrored instance, this will make the mesh back to a single piece.
Mirror Instance Mesh
This tool cuts a mesh in half and makes a mirrored instance for easy symmetrical modeling.
Mirror Soft Mod
This tool mirrors a soft mod node across a mesh.
Previous Releases:
Introduction
LayoutTools2010 (formerly known as "LevelTools") is a suite of tools that was originally designed with game level assembly in mind. Over time however, it has become apparent that these tools are being used by many people outside of the games industry for basic layout and assembly of objects within a scene (e.g. assembling sets, blocking out architectural spaces, populating environments with objects, game level layout, etc...) LayoutTools provides new functionality for object placement, alignment, snapping and display. It also consolidates many of Maya's existing features into one streamlined, easy to use interface. The interface itself is broken down into four sections: Import, Placement, Assembly and Display.
What’s New:
Compatibility:
LayoutTools2010 will work with Maya2010 as well as other more recent versions of Maya (e.g... 2009 and 2008) However, due to updates made along the way, certain features are not supported in older versions of Maya. See feature descriptions in help docs for more details. LayoutTools 2010 also works on the Mac platform but will require a manual install (see below.)
Downloads
Installation Details:
Windows
Mac
Hotkeys:
After LayoutTools is started the first time, hotkeys will be automatically created for quickly reopening the LayoutTools UI. Shift "L" will open LayoutTools as a floating UI, while lower case "l" toggles LayoutTools in the Channel Box.
Presets for cloth:
defaultSettings
setting from initial nCloth creation
betterSelfCollision
This sets only attributes for higher self collision quality.
tshirt
slightly stretchy medium cloth weight, medium friction.
heavy denim
stiff, non-stretchy, non-bendy, heavy weight, medium friction.
silk
non-stretchy, flexible, light weight, low friction
chiffon
low stretch, moderately flexibile, very light weight, medium friction
loose thick knit
moderately stretchy, very damped, medium weight, high friction, higher drag
burlap
non-stretchy, stiff, medium weight, very high friction, higher drag
thick leather
non-stretchy, very stiff, very heavy, medium friction
rubber sheet
stretchy, heavy, high friction, low drag
chain mail
non-stretchy, non-stiff at low angles, very heavy, low drag
soft sheet metal
very rigid, but can dent and deform on impact
plastic shell
somewhat rigid, but flexible without denting
solid rubber
somewhat rigid and bouncy with volume preservation
concrete
totally rigid
putty
stiff but plastically deformable with volume preservation
lava
somewhat stiff but will flow slowly with volume preservation
honey
will flow in a thick viscous fashion with volume preservation
water volume
like water contained withing a very thin extremely stretchy membrane
water balloon
like a balloon filled with water
beach ball
moderately stretchy membrane containing pressurized air
air bag
non-strechy membrane containing air at room pressure
pressurized air bag non
stretchy membrane containing pressurized air
Installation:
Unzip the nCloth folder and place it inside the folder "presets" in your maya install location. Usage:Select a mesh and do "nCloth: Create nCloth". In attribute editor for the nClothShape when you click on the button "Presets" the new presets should appear. Simply select a preset to apply it to that cloth. Note that these preset files do not set all attributes on the cloth node, but just a relevant subset. Thickness and self collide settings are generally not affected, for example. Also all these presets set the scalingRelation attribute to "object space". This allows the stretch to be more or less constant when applied to meshes of different resolutions. |