Project Sci-Viz for 3ds Max Now Available

Biological science is an exciting new industry. Autodesk is happy to support professionals in this industry in addition to:

• Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC)
• Engineering, Natural Resources, and Infrastructure (ENI)
• Media and Entertainment (M&E)
• Manufacturing (MFG)

Researchers from the Olson Molecular Graphics Laboratory at the Scripps Research Institute and from UCSF have made freely available a number of cutting edge scientific visualization tools such as the embedded Python Molecular Viewer (ePMV) and autoPack. Project Sci-Viz is an Autodesk technology preview that provides a Python engine and API for 3ds Max that allows you to run ePMV and autoPack from within 3ds Max 2013.

For those for whom this is new, autoPack is a tool for densely packing a volume with shapes of various sizes and dimensions. It’s the underlying technology behind cellPack, which combines the ability to encode biological ‘recipes’ with the close packing concepts to create visualizations of densely packed molecular spaces inside tools like 3ds Max. ePMV, the embedded Python Molecular viewer, is an add-on for 3ds Max that allows an artist to easily import molecular geometry from a variety of known sources, such as the Protein Data Bank.

• Learn more about Project Sci-Viz for 3ds Max via Autodesk Labs

Even if you are starting from scratch, you can try this for yourself.

1. Make sure you are using a 64-bit operating system:
   Windows 7 Professional x64 or
   Windows XP Professional x64 edition (SP3 or higher)

2. Get and install Python 2.6.6 (64-bit).
   http://www.python.org/getit/releases/2.6.6/

3. Get and install a free 30-day trial of 3ds Max 2013 (64-bit).
   http://www.autodesk.com/try3dsmax

4. Get and install a custom time-limited version of autoPack and ePMV for 3ds Max.
   http://www.autopack.org/

5. Get and install the Sci-Viz plug-in from the Autodesk Labs site.
   http://labs.autodesk.com/utilities/sciviz/

As always, we provide technology previews to get feedback. Is this a good idea or waste of time? Let us know. You can do so in as many as five ways.

Molecules are alive in the lab.