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.
Bonus Tools are provided to you on an "AS-IS" basis; Autodesk® does not provide any support in connection with this collection.
1. Install the BonusTools85 package by double clicking on the icon and following the instructions. It will install to ....\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2009\BonusTools
2. Go on to Step 1 of For All Platforms.
1. As root, install the BonusTools2009 package with the rpm command (e.g. rpm -i BonusTools2009). It will install to /usr/aw/maya2009/BonusTools.
2. Go on to Step 1 of For All Platforms.
1. Extract the package from the disk image.
2. Double click the package and the files will be copied to /Users/Shared/Alias/maya/2009
3. Go on to Step 1 of 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.
2. If you have a userSetup.py file in your scripts path, open it in a text editor and append the lines from the userSetup.py supplied with the Bonus Tools.
If you do not have a userSetup.py, copy the userSetup.py supplied with the Bonus Tools to your Maya 2009/scripts directory. Open it in a text editor and make sure that the path points to where you installed the Bonus Tools.
3. 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 behaviour with the Bonus Tools->Toggle Menu Style command.
4. Enjoy. You may refer to the bonusTools.html file (located in the docs directory where the Bonus Tools are located) for an overview of the tools.
This tool aligns UV Shells.
To use, open the Align UV Shells window with Bonus Tools->Align UV Shells... Select UVs on different shells in the Texture Editor and select the alignment option from the window.
This tool puts meshes together - after finishing with a mirrored instance, this will make the mesh back to a single piece.
To use, select objects and a curve in any order and Bonus Tools->Merge and Combine.
This tool cuts a mesh in half and makes a mirrored instance for easy symmetrical modeling.
To use, select objects and a curve in any order and Bonus Tools->Mirror Instance Mesh.
This tool mirrors a soft mod node across a mesh.
To use, select objects and a curve in any order and Bonus Tools->Mirror Soft Mod.
LevelTools 3.5 is a suite of tools specifically designed for game level assembly. It provides new functionality and also consolidates many of Maya's existing features into one easy to use interface. The interface itself is broken down into 3 main sections: Import, Layout and Display.
The Layout section contains tools for the placement of objects within a level or scene. This includes positioning, orienting, aligning and snapping. Standard Maya features such as the AlignTool and the SnapTogether Tool are integrated into the UI, as well as new tools such as Target Snapping and the OrientTo Tool.
The Display section provides controls for setting and adjusting visual aspects of your scene and the objects within it. This includes tools for navigating through your level such as the WalkCamera and storing information in your scene such as the FileAnnotation feature. It also contains simple controls for things such as view modes, panel settings, geometry attributes, and vertex color display just to name a few.
The Import section provides a simple icon based UI, which allows you to quickly and easily populate a game level. LevelTools looks in a user defined folder for importable files (FBX now supported) and automatically builds icon buttons for each file it finds. By simply clicking on an icon, the associated file is imported or referenced into the scene. The imported object can then be easily positioned by clicking in the viewport and dragging it into place.
1. First close Maya.
2. Then simply unzip the LevelTools_3.5.zip file directly into your -> MyDocuments/maya/2008 folder (2008-x64 for 64bit).
3. Restart Maya.
4. Run LevelTools by clicking on the LT button from the newly installed LevelTools shelf.
5. This will open the LevelTools interface as a floating window.
6. After LevelTools 3.5 is started the first time, hotkeys will be created for quickly opening the LevelTools UI.
7. Shift "L" opens LevelTools as a floating UI. Lower case "l" toggles LevelTools in the Channel Box.
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.
