The five tools in the catalogue came out of tasks that were eating our week. If the one eating yours isn’t here, it can be built — in native C++ or in script, inside the pipeline your studio already runs.
The sum below is what your studio already pays, every month, for not having the tool. That figure — not the development cost on its own — is what tells you whether automating is worth it.
A tool several people use the same way, installed on every machine, with your studio’s naming, units and folder conventions built in. This is usually where the saving shows up fastest, because the gain multiplies by the size of the team.
You already know exactly what you want, you’ve been doing it by hand for a while and you know every exception in the process. Small scope, one machine, no bureaucracy. It also works for getting a plugin idea of yours off the page, to see whether it holds up before becoming a product.
A real modifier on the stack, in C++ with the 3ds Max SDK, parametric and non-destructive — like Floor Tiler, UnChamfer and AnimArq Roofs.
Mesh generated from rules and parameters: patterns distributed over a surface, clipping to the real outline, repetitive structure, parts that adapt to the measurement.
Render queue, batch processing, scene checks before delivery, bulk renaming and organizing, a Telegram ping when it finishes.
Handling models imported from CAD, topology fixes, turning copies into instances, bulk material and UV fixes.
Keyboard input with exact measure and angle, your own snapping and locks, shortcuts that don’t fight Max’s — like Dynamic Line.
Area, counts and lengths read straight from the scene, exported in whatever format your budget or your client asks for.
You describe the task and show how you do it today. This is often where it turns out part of the problem is already solved by one of the catalogue tools — if that’s the case I’ll say so, and you save the development.
What the tool does, what it deliberately does not do, which Max versions it runs on and what counts as done. In writing, before a line of code.
A fixed price for that scope, not by the hour. A change of scope mid-way becomes a new quote — so nobody finds out the price at the end.
A version that already runs on your machine, on your real scene, before it looks nice. This is where your workflow’s exceptions show up — while there’s still time to handle them.
Installer, a build for each agreed Max version and a page of instructions. Fixing what was in scope and didn’t come out right is part of delivery, not a new job.
With these five answers I can tell you whether it’s doable, what it costs and how long it takes. Without them, the conversation starts with guesswork.
01The task, exactly how you do it today — step by step, including the silly step.02How many times a week it happens, and how many people do it.033ds Max version, renderer, and whether it’s for one machine or the studio.04A sample file, or at least a screenshot of the problem.05Whether there’s a real deadline tied to a delivery of yours, and what it is.No middleman: the message lands directly with whoever will build the tool. If developing it doesn’t make sense, I’ll tell you that too.