Quick Previews with the Max OSG Exporter

Posted December 5, 2017. Filed under Art Workflow. Tags: .

OSG-Quick-Preview

The OpensceneGraph exporter's toolbar is the best and quickest way to export and preview a Vizard/Visible scene in Inspector when working in 3ds Max. Adding the toolbar, and setting it up, is quick and easy.

If you'd like to quickly set up the rest of your OSG Exporter's settings to match what we use here at WorldViz check out the tutorial on Storing and Loading Your OSG Export Settings, which also includes a downloadable preset file.

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Let's get started.


Grab the Plugin
1. Install the latest version of the Max OpenSceneGraph Exporter plugin from the WorldViz download page. This exports to Vizard and Visible's native format.

DownloadBar

Go to the Customize Dialog
2. Once installed, open Max and go to Customize -> Customize User Interface.
CustomizeUserInterface

Go to Toolbars, Pick the Category
3. Go to the Toolbars tab. Set Group to Main UI and Category to OpenSceneGraph. You should see the OSG quick icons appear to on the left.
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Create Your Toolbar, Drag it On.
4. Create a new toolbar and give it a name, e.g. "OpenSceneGraph Exporter". Drag it onto the Max interface.

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Drag on the Icons Onto the Toolbar
5. Drag one of each icon onto the toolbar. The checkmark (Show OSG Export Options) lets you set the export settings without exporting. The single hexagon (Preview Selected with OSG Exporter) previews just the selection. The three shapes together (Preview Scene with OSG Exporter) previews the whole scene regardless of selections.

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Close the Dialog
6. Now that the toolbar is up and the icons are in, the Customize User Interface Dialog can be safely closed. After this, there's just one more step: setting the previewer to Inspector.

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Open the Exporter, Set the Previewer
7. Now the the toolbar is up with its buttons, click on the checkmark button to open the interface for the OpenSceneGraph Exporter. Under Output, make sure "Quick View Scene" is checked, and go down to Select Executable.

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From there, browse to Vizard's install location and select Inspector, typically "C:\Program Files\WorldViz\Vizard5\bin\Inspector.exe"

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And.. you're done! Now when you click on the preview scene or preview selected buttons, you'll see a quick preview of your object.
PreviewScene_20171205