BONUS TOOLS???????????

# 1 10-03-2006 , 07:13 AM

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OK, I just got a news letter from 'auto-desk' telling me how great the future will be now Alias has joined forces with them..??

Be that as it may, while there I downloaded the bonus tools (which by the looks of it I should have done ages ago) for unlimited 6.5.

Q; I loaded them straight from the C:/temps/zip folder, into C/mirek/documents/Maya 6.5.

they seems to have made their way there OK and there's a folder called 'bonus tools' (funny about that) within the maya 6.5 folder located; C:/my documents/mirek/Maya 6.5/ bonus tools.

Is this all i have to do, there was a confusing paper from whence it came explaining how to load the tools properly. 'go to the text editor, do this and that, the plug ins folder, blah blah??'

can some one tell me how or what to look for to see they are correctly placed. I can't see anything new in; preferences/plug ins.., within the Maya app, eg; windows, preferences/ plug ins.

there are some tools in the app I thought were new but I just may be wanting to see what I want to see in ignorant hope.

Any advice??

how do I use them, I don't mean a tut, just what's the best way to learn. I noticed there is a lot of referance material within the bonus tools folder anyway, I'll get to that when I am sure they are actually functional.

take it easy and life will be easy

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# 2 10-03-2006 , 02:03 PM

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well, this isnt really about helping you but what kind of computer do you have?

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# 3 10-03-2006 , 07:31 PM

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The only thing I can suggest is have you pressed the space bar?? the menu might be in the hot box (Up and to the right), not got the bonus tools but I saw a tut and the menu was there?????

On the PcCside mines on its last legs AMD Athalon 2.0GHZ 1GB RAM 266 FSB, now thats performance!!!!!!

feels embarrassed!!!

Last edited by gster123; 10-03-2006 at 07:34 PM.

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# 4 10-03-2006 , 11:57 PM

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my computer?

something I wacked together, there is no name except for the cards in; My PC;

has a pent 4 2.4 gig CPU
2 gig RAM
300gig HD (spread between separate drives, C&D)
ATI Power Colour power pro 9600 XT
terra tec EXW 24/96 sound card
XP home edition OS
pinnicle capture card
fire wire, usb, and various bells and whistles, scanner, printer, two screens, blah blah

I'll check the hotbox, the alias/autdesk news letter had a few demonstration streaming video tuts (1 1/2 min each) about these tools. They look relatively useful. One reminds me of poser or DAZ where you key the bounding box for animation to create walk cycles and then you can press a button called 'locomote' and the character walks (whatever) for the amount of frames keyed in the time slider. something like that, think you can loop the cycle but this 'locomote' has the character moving forward starting on what appears to be a motion trail but then continues past it. I think the trail is there to key the character for the cycle.

anyway I'll look into it more.

another has a view that shows any normals that are in the opposite direction, they show up red and you press a button or two and it 'fixes ' it ready for rendering i guess.used a violin model as a demo,

take it easy and life will be easy

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# 5 11-03-2006 , 01:18 AM

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couldn't find anything inth hot box?? I'll look at the little movies again and read the instructions.

take it easy and life will be easy

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# 6 11-03-2006 , 01:22 AM

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wow, decent computer thats deffently not the problem. my computer i made and i am going to but a build a computer from www.newegg.com i want to get a 400 GB 256 video card and a ton of there sweet stuff.

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# 7 11-03-2006 , 01:55 AM

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good computer, great performance but a lot of blue screens???

take it easy and life will be easy

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# 8 11-03-2006 , 02:47 AM

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refresh my memory what is a blue screen?

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# 9 11-03-2006 , 06:22 AM

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The blue screen of DEATH. You may not have seen it if you are new to computers or very very careful..?? It appears sometimes when the computer crashes. A blue screen appears with white writing and starts a memory dump. No-one bothers usually and simply presses the reset button on the tower, Next comes Microsoft’s standard error report dialogue which informs you your computer has crashed and offers you to send an error report.

take it easy and life will be easy

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# 10 11-03-2006 , 08:02 AM

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this is the rave that's supplied with the tools..,

Extract the appropriate BonusTools_65 archive to the user's Maya home directory:
Sample Windows path:
C:\Documents and Settings\user_name\My Documents\maya\6.5
The appropriate subdirectories should be maintained and the files within them.
2. Using a text editor, edit the BonusTools file from within the user's maya/6.5/modules directory. The bonusTools6.5 file has a sample line for each operating system and has this basic format:
+ bonusTools 6.5 "absolute path to BonusTools6.5 directory"
Uncomment the line that starts with + by removing the //. Replace the user_name from that line with the login name of the user. Save the file.
3. Go on to Step 1 of For All Platforms.

1. If you have a user Setup.mel file in your scripts path, open it in a text editor and append the lines from the user Setup.mel supplied with the Bonus Tools.
2. Restart Maya and set any of the Bonus Tools plug-ins that you wish to use to auto load.
Note that the contents of the BonusTools menu will

1. If you have a user Setup. Mel files in your scripts path, open it in a text editor and append the lines from the user Setup. Mel supplied with the Bonus Tools.
2. Restart Maya and set any of the Bonus Tools plug-ins that you wish to use to auto load.
Note that the contents of the BonusTools menu will vary according to which main menu set (Animation, Modeling, Dynamics, Rendering, Cloth) is active. You may change this behavior with the Bonus Tools->Toggle Menu Style command.
3. Enjoy. You may refer to the bonusTools601.html file (located in the docs directory where the Bonus Tools are located) for an overview of the tools.

take it easy and life will be easy

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# 11 11-03-2006 , 08:31 AM

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this part has me stumped. i've edited the user name a;ready.

If you have a user Setup. Mel files in your scripts path, open it in a text editor and append the lines from the user Setup. Mel supplied with the Bonus Tools.
2. Restart Maya and set any of the Bonus Tools plug-ins that you wish to use to auto load.

take it easy and life will be easy

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# 12 11-03-2006 , 08:58 AM

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got it. I didn't bother with the part i didn't understand because it said in the file, 'edit at your own risk' that was enough to make me close the file
What i did was opened in 'word' not 'office word' the notebook style 'word', the file named 'module' that unzipped with the bonus tools zip file, there's another folder there called 'bonus tools; I didn't touch that.

I deleted the // and added spaces to make up the deleted space, don't know if it's needed but that's what I did. I put my name where it said 'users_name' and saved the file as is.

opened Maya and as gster said the bonus tools are situated right top of the hot box. I opened them and my god, there must be 50 tools there and apparently there are different tools depending on what menu you are using at the time.

At this time I would suggest any-one have a look at it. I'll put up a picture next time and you guys can check it out. I'm impressed.

take it easy and life will be easy

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# 13 11-03-2006 , 09:07 AM

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for some reason 'paint' wll not capture a snap of the the bonus tools?? only Maya and the hotbox controls. This has gappened before when I wanted to grab snap from a DivX tut, the DivX part was black??
codecs and protection i should imagine.

take it easy and life will be easy

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# 14 11-03-2006 , 05:45 PM

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yeah i might have seen it once. the blue screen

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# 15 12-03-2006 , 02:38 AM

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i see it twice a day..?? it's getting less, often they appear after one of microsoft's glorious and no doubt pre-planned upgrades or updates.

I'be probably got a lot of compatibility problems i haven't addressed at all. there is so much stuff connected to this machine, from MIDI interface to .., all sorts of things. For example, there is a problem with the pinnacle capture TV card and EWX 24/96 sound card. if I open 'audio; in pinnacle's prefs while the sound card is enabled, the machine dies, well the app does. I have to disable it and enable the realtek AK 97.
I think the main thing is the explorer where it happens most often and makes me wonder if there is some lurgy virus that's beat my security.

take it easy and life will be easy

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BONUS TOOLS???????????

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