PolyBoost is an extensive set of easy to use, but advanced tools for 3d artists working in 3ds max. The focus of the PolyBoost tools is at speeding up and streamlining workflow for the artist. PolyBoost offers a wide range of tools for creating various types of subobject selections as well as a set of modeling tools which will make many tasks in everyday modeling a lot easier. Included is also a Viewport texture painting tool, UVW editing tools and a set of useful transform tools. The tools have been developed with the end user very much in mind to enable tools that are user-friendly, fast, stable and above all useful. Autodesk 3ds max contains an existing set of robust modeling tools. Combining these base tools with the PolyBoost tools greatly enhances the users ability, giving them the most fully featured modeling package on the market with uses that stretch over all of the different areas of 3d. The feature-list for PolyBoost is quite extensive with over 100 unique tools, below you can view some of the main features with more detailed descriptions.
Here is an overview of the new features and changes included in PolyBoost 4.1
Speed and Efficiency
Almost all parts of PolyBoost have now been implemented in c++ through the 3ds max SDK. This means a lot for the speed and efficiency of the tools, they are now just as fast as native max tools would be! Some of the tools that benefit from this change greatly are PolyShift which can now handle very dense objects without problem, and the PolyDraw tools can now be used to create surfaces on top of very dense meshes. ViewportCanvas is also a lot faster to work with.
Symmetry Tools
Tools for making models symmetrical based on the symmetry of a picked model. Great for working with morphtargets. Avaliable is Make symmetrical from positive to negative in an axis, negative to positive, Flip symmetry and a tool for copying vertex positions from one model to another.
Texture Wrap
Create a texture map that wraps an input texture around complex organic geometry without any seams and at uniform texture scale across the surface.
Cavity Map
Create a greyscale image displaying how concave or convex the surface is.
Density Map
Create a greyscale image displaying how dense the surface is relative to the rest of the surface. Based on vertex distance.
Dust Map
Create a greyscale image displaying how much the surface is pointing in the world z direction.
SubSurface Map
Create a greyscale image displaying an estimate of the thickness of the object.
Surface Select
Select concave or convex areas of a model, like cavities or outward pointing areas.
Symmetry Select
Select subobjects in the mirror axis of a symmetrical model.
UV Space
Space uv edgeloops or uv vertices in the Unwrap UVW modifier to make distances between vertices even.
StepLoop
Select subobject loop between two selected subobjects.
PolyDraw – Offset
PolyDraw now has an offset option to offset the created surface from the picked object to draw on or the grid.
More features and fixes
License - You can now reinstall or upgrade 3ds max without the need for a new serialnumber for PolyBoost. You can now also use PolyBoost in multiple versions of 3ds max on the same computer using one license.
Keyboard shortcuts for undo(Ctrl+z), redo(Ctrl+a), Toggle edged faces(F4) and toggle shading(F3) are now available while a PolyDraw
tool or PolyShift is active.
All move tools in PolyDraw are now constricted to the surface if a surface is used to draw on, which means you can not accidentally project verts outside the model.
PolyStrips, PolyShapes and Splines now project onto the active surface when moving.
Except for the Draw section tools in PolyDraw, all selection and modeling tools now have Edit Poly modifier support. This includes PolyShift, all
tools in the "Loop tools" and all Topology tools. Working with the Edit Poly modifier is now also more smooth and efficient.
The Interface buttonimages now conform to the textcolor used in 3ds max.