Guidance Introduction
This module of the documentation is intended to enable a developer to learn to accomplish a specific task in programming 3ds max. There is a section on the 3ds max plug-in architecture that provides a diagram of the principal classes. There is a section describing information common to all plug-in development. This module provides How To sections for several of the plug-in types including procedural objects, object space modifiers, space warps, controllers and system plug-ins. These sections include commented source code and descriptions of categories of methods developers must implement to create each plug-in type.
There is a section for experienced 3D Studio IPAS programmers making the transition to MAX. This section discusses the similarities and difference in the IPAS and 3ds max programming architectures. The changes in development environment, plug-in/system control flow, user interface, and graphics programming support are reviewed. This section also discusses the six types of IPAS routines possible under 3D Studio DOS and how they may be implemented under the 3ds max plug-in architecture.
The General Terminology section defines terms used throughout the SDK documentation. These terms also appear as popup help in other parts of the documentation.
The Advanced Topics section presents detailed information about key concepts in using the APIs. The topics presented in this section cross class boundaries, and are instead based on specific implementation issues developers need to understand when designing plug-ins for MAX. Developers getting started with the SDK should take a look through the various Advanced Topics sections to become familiar with what information is available.
There is also a section on commonly-encountered problems and solutions.