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Installing PolyPalette
Two pieces:
- The application, which you install yourself.
- A plugin for each 3D application, which PolyPalette installs for you from the Connection tab.
Run PolyPalette-Setup-<version>.exe and follow the prompts. It installs into your own
user folder:
C:\Users\<you>\AppData\Local\Programs\PolyPalette
You can change that, but avoid Program Files or anywhere else needing administrator permission. Windows will prompt you on every single update. Setup warns you if you pick one.
Everything PolyPalette saves lives in that same folder, in three subfolders Setup creates:
| What | Where |
|---|---|
| Your settings | PolyPalette_Settings\ |
| Your sets | PolyPalette_Set_Data\ |
| Your meshes | PolyPalette_Mesh_Data\ |
They belong to your Windows account, so someone else signing in to the same PC gets their own.
A welcome screen offers you a free trial or a licence.
On the About tab, under Licence:
- Start Trial starts the free trial.
- For a licence you've bought, open the Licence key and Deactivate disclosure, paste your key into Paste your licence key here…, and press Activate.
The badge at the top of the section is the quickest read on where you stand.
Moving to a different machine? Press Deactivate first, behind that same Licence key and Deactivate disclosure. You can then activate on the new one.
Your licence doesn't expire. Maintenance is what keeps new versions coming, and it's bought separately. Its own section on the same tab has a Maintenance Key box, an Activate button, and Purchase Maintenance.
Once it expires the version you've got keeps working. Newer ones show Requires Maintenance instead of an install button. See Buying, Help and Feedback.
Open the Connection tab. It lists the copies of 3ds Max and Blender you can connect to, each version on its own row.
For each one you want to use:
- Press Install Plugin. That drops the plugin in and switches it on.
- If that application's already open, restart it.
- Press Launch on its tile at the top of the tab. Once it's up, the tile turns into Connect.
Its name and status turn green when it connects. From then on it connects on its own, whenever PolyPalette is open.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Launch (tile at the top) | Starts that application. Offered as soon as its plugin is installed. |
| Connect (tile at the top) | Points PolyPalette at an application that's already running. Use it when you started 3ds Max or Blender yourself. |
| Install Plugin / Uninstall Plugin | Puts PolyPalette's plugin into that application, or takes it back out. |
| Enabled | Whether that application connects when it starts. On from the moment the plugin's installed. Switch it off for a session with nothing attached. |
| Update Plugin | Shows up with Update available when your plugin was installed by an older PolyPalette. Replaces it with the current one. |
| Rescan | Refreshes the list. Press it after installing or removing a 3D application, or after starting one. |
| Remove From All | Takes PolyPalette out of every listed 3D application at once. Your sets, meshes and settings are untouched. |
| Add 3ds Max Install / Add Blender Install | For a copy the scan missed. Type the full path, filename included, or press Browse… and pick it. |
An install you added by hand can be dropped off the list again with its own remove button. Nothing's uninstalled or deleted. Ones the scan found stay put.
The status line on the Connection tab tells you which of these it is.
| What you see | What to do |
|---|---|
| "…is running but is not answering PolyPalette. It was started before the plugin was installed" | Close that application and start it again from Launch. |
| "…plugin is switched off, so it could not talk to it" | Turn Enabled on for it, then start it. |
| "Install the plugin for … first" | Press Install Plugin on its row. |
| "…is no longer where PolyPalette found it" | Press Rescan. |
| "…is already running, use Connect instead of starting a second copy" | Press Connect, not Launch. |
| "…did not open. Nothing is running that PolyPalette can see" | Try starting it again. |
| "…has not answered PolyPalette in N minutes" | It may still be opening. Press Connect once it has. |
| "…has not been started yet, open it once, then install again" | Open that application once so it writes its own settings, then install again. |
While an application's starting, you'll see a waiting notice, and PolyPalette connects as soon as it's ready. Stop Waiting cancels that.
Only needed if the automatic install can't work, on a machine with no internet access for instance. Download the plugin package for your application, unzip it, then:
3ds Max
- Start 3ds Max.
- Drag
PolyPalette_Max_Install.msout of the unzipped folder and drop it in the viewport. - Restart 3ds Max.
That adds a PolyPalette button you can put on a toolbar or menu. To remove it, drag
PolyPalette_Max_Uninstall.ms the same way.
Blender
- Open Blender.
- Click the Scripting tab along the top.
- In the Text Editor, choose Open and pick
PolyPalette_Blender_Install.py. - Click Run Script, or press Alt+P.
- Wait. The first run takes about a minute.
- Restart Blender.
To watch what it's doing, open the console first: Window → Toggle System Console.
If the PolyPalette tab doesn't appear in the 3D viewport sidebar (press N to show the sidebar), go to Edit → Preferences → Add-ons, search for PolyPalette, and tick it on.
On the About tab:
- Check for Updates looks for a newer version.
- Auto-Update keeps you on the newest version without asking, and keeps your installed plugins current with it.
- Install <version> installs whichever version you've picked in the list.
- Cancel stops a download in progress.
You can go back to an older version from the same list. Sets, models and materials made with a newer version aren't guaranteed to work in an older one.
Use Add or remove programs in Windows Settings and choose PolyPalette.
You'll be asked whether to remove your settings, sets and meshes. It keeps them by default.
To disconnect one 3D application without uninstalling everything, press Uninstall Plugin on its row on the Connection tab. For all of them at once, press Remove From All.
- 3ds Max and Blender can both be connected to the same PolyPalette at the same time.
- Several versions of 3ds Max, and several versions of Blender, each get their own row and connect independently.
- Moving the installation folder by hand stops your 3D applications finding it. Uninstall and reinstall to the new location instead.