GS Toolbox

v1.015
USER MANUAL
(tested in Autodesk Maya 2017-2020)

BY GEORGE SLADKOVSKY (VideoNomad)

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DECEMBER 23, 2019

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Table of contents:
Click on the list or select from the menu directly ->

Table of contents: ....................................................................... 2

Introduction ................................................................................ 3
Installation.................................................................................. 4
Button indication ....................................................................... 5
Visibility and Reference Toggle ................................................. 6
Constraints ................................................................................. 7
Dot Select .................................................................................... 8
Select Edges by Angle ................................................................. 9
Quick Groups .............................................................................10
Creasing and Beveling...............................................................11
Mirroring ....................................................................................14
Instancing ..................................................................................16
Store Edits ..................................................................................19
Delete Node ...............................................................................21
Snapshot ....................................................................................22
Snap to Poly ...............................................................................23
Solidify ........................................................................................24
Straighten ..................................................................................25
Interpolate .................................................................................27
Combine & Separate .................................................................28
Duplicate & Extract ...................................................................29
Booleans .....................................................................................30
Construction Plane....................................................................32
Quick Materials .........................................................................33
Options .......................................................................................35

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Introduction
GS Toolbox is a collection of tools created to fill some of the gaps in
Autodesk Maya 2019+ modeling tools and provide quick access to
some of the existing tools. GS Toolbox is mainly focused on hard
surface modeling, however some of the features can be easily and
effectively used in all types of workflows. GS Toolbox has interactive
UI that reacts to certain commands and prompts user for action.

Some of the features include:

• Full support of 1080p and 4k resolutions
• Quick and easy Grouping of Objects and Components using 20
interactive Group Slots. Grouped objects and components can then be
easily selected, hidden or made unselectable in viewport with one click.
• Fast Angle Based Edge Selection, Creasing and Beveling with
interactive viewport highlight and quick selection of subdivision depth
and crease amounts.
• Convert Creases to Bevels
• Dot Select Components
• Quick Transform and Selection Constraints
• One click Mirror, Flip, Instance with Mirror and Delete by Symmetry
• One click Instance Copy with/without Offset and Special Instance+
option with Boolean support
• Store Vert Edits and quickly Delete Construction History Nodes
• Store Snapshots to preserve construction history before its deletion
• Snap to Polygon /w Instance function to snap any object to selected
polygon with one click.
• Straighten selected edges or smoothly Interpolate them (multi
selection compatible)
• Clean Combine, Separate, Duplicate and Extract functions. No more
unnecessary groups in Outliner
• Fast Interactive Boolean with Object Editing and Delete Cutter
options.
• Quick Construction Plane snapped to polygon
• 12 Fast Material Slots with Presets and MatCap options …

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Installation
0. Pay for WinRAR
1. Unpack and copy gs_toolbox folder to Documents/Maya/{Maya_Version}/scripts/

2. Run Maya
3. In MEL script field copy and paste this command:
source "gs_toolbox/gs_toolbox_init.mel";
4. Click Enter

GS tab appeared on Shelf.

TB UI button will open/close GS Toolbox UI.
TB Reset will reset GS Toolbox to its default settings.
TB Del will delete GS Toolbox UI and stop any background
scripts.

You can use middle mouse drag to drag TB UI button to any tab.

All the hotkeys are now available in Hotkey Editor > Custom Scripts > GS > GS_ToolBox

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Button indication
Most of the buttons in GS Toolbox have alternative modes, some options attached to them
or other color coordination.

“Alternative mode available” is indicated by a small triangle on

the bottom left corner of the button. Holding Shift, Ctrl or Alt when
pressing this button will have different effect.

“Marking menu available” is indicated by three horizontal lines in

the top right corner of the button. Pressing and holding Right
Mouse Button (RMB) on this button will call this marking menu.

“Toggleable buttons” will change their highlight color to blue when

pressed (or when selected object has met certain conditions).

“Prompt for action” is an orange highlight indicating that the

button can now be pressed to complete the action.

“Initialize” is a special orange with white border

highlight that is unique for “Store Edits” function. When
you see this highlight it is recommended that you press
this button immediately for proper functionality.

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Visibility and Reference Toggle
Some of the features in GS Toolbox change visual representation and selectability of the
objects.
To be able to control this manually, two togglable buttons were added:

Wireframe Toggle Button. When pressed toggles the object

between shaded and wireframe modes. Default grey highlight
indicates that the selected object is in shaded mode.

Active Wireframe Toggle Button. When pressed toggles the object

between shaded and wireframe modes. Blue highlight indicates that
the selected object is in wireframe mode.

Reference Toggle Button. In Maya terms “Reference” simply means

“selectability in viewport”. When pressed toggles the object
selectability in viewport. Default grey highlight indicates that the
selected object is selectable in viewport

Active Reference Toggle Button. When pressed toggles the object

selectability in viewport. Blue highlight indicates that the selected
object is not selectable in viewport. (You can still select it in the
Outliner)

Some options that change visibility and selectability of an object:

• Quick Groups “Toggle Group Reference” disables selectability of the entire group
• Instance + disables selectability of an instanced object and changes the visibility of
an original object to “wireframe”
• Boolean Output -> Wireframe changes the visibility of the output object of the
Boolean operation to “wireframe”
• Boolean Output -> Shaded same as previous but vice versa

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Constraints
When modeling it is very important to be able to quickly change the selection or
transformation constraints to select or move components.
These buttons allow you to quickly enable/disable constraints as well as provide indication
of whether the constraints are active right now.

Transformation Constraint. Toggles the transformation

constraint based on the options in the marking menu

Active Selection Constraint. Indicates that some form of

transformation constraint is currently activated. Pressing
the button will disable the constraint.
Marking Menu option that enables the Edge Constraint.
Vertices can now only move alongside their connected
edge
Marking Menu option that enables the Surface
Constraint. Vertices can now only move on the surface of
the object
Selection Constraint. Toggles the selection constraint
based on the options in the marking menu

Active Selection Constraint. Indicates that some form of

selection constraint is currently activated. Pressing the
button will disable the constraint.

In marking menus you can select types of constraints

and additional options such as angle tolerance.

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Dot Select
Dot select button selects the next component based on the pattern
between first two selected components.

First select first two components in a

pattern.

Next click Dot Select to select the next

component in a pattern. Subsequent
clicks will continue the selection base on
the pattern.

Alternatively, you can Hold Shift + Dot

Select to select an entire edge loop based
on a selected pattern. The pattern
selection in edge loop will follow the direction of the first two components selected.

To select multiple patterns just hold

Shift when selecting new pattern and then
continue with Dot Select.

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Select Edges by Angle
To quickly select edges based on the angle between faces “Select Edges” button in
conjunction with “Angle” slider can be used.

Quick angle selection:

1. Select an object or objects
2. Select an angle tolerance
3. Click “Select Edges”

Interactive angle selection mode:

1. Select an object or objects
2. Click on the small “Angle” button next to an angle Slider. It
will change its color to blue.
3. Now dragging the slider will interactively change the angle
preview. This is only a preview. (Notice how some of the
buttons are now highlighted, including Select Edges)
4. Click on Select Edges to complete the selection

Select edges is a Context Sensitive function which means that it will select edges
based on the selected object or selected faces. If you select an object, it will look on
all the edges of an object. If you select faces it will look only on the edges of the
selected faces.

Additional Options:

• Select Border Edges will select all border edges of an object

• Select N-Gons will select all the polygons that has more
than 4 sides

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Quick Groups
Quick Groups is a powerful selection and
organization tool. It supports grouping of objects,
components or both.
It supports up to 20 different groups per scene (for additional 40 groups, download a free
Maya script GS Quick Groups in the Online Store)

Quick Groups add:

1. First, select objects/components that you want to group
2. No simply Left Click on an empty (default color) group to add selection to this
group. The group will now change color from default grey to orange, indicating that
the group now not empty.

Group operations:
• Left Click on an orange group (not empty) will select all the contents of the group
• Shift + Left Click on multiple groups will select them additively
• Ctrl + Left Click on an orange group will hide/show an entire group (notice how
hidden groups are now light grey)
• Hold Right Mouse Button will open
additional operations marking menu
o Clear Group will remove all the
objects from the group (it will not
delete the objects)
o Toggle Group Visibility/Reference will toggle viewport visibility or
selectability of this group
o Merge to this Group will merge any selected objects to this group. If added
object is in another group, it will be removed from that group
o Add Selection to this Group will add any selection to this group. If added
object is in another group, it will now be in both groups
o Remove Selection from this Group will remove any selected object from
the selected groups
Options:
In the options menu you can force-update all groups (in case of an error), clear all the
groups (objects are not deleted) and show/hide groups in the outliner.

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Creasing and Beveling
One of the main features of GS Tools is its creasing and beveling
workflow.
User can quickly crease and bevel entire objects based on the
angle between faces, manipulate crease sets, convert creases to
bevels and more

Crease+ Button:
Quick Crease by Angle (Crease+):
1. Select objects
2. Select angle using Angle Slider
3. Select Subdivision level using SubD slider
4. Select Crease amount using Crs slider
5. Click Crease+

Interactive Crease by (Crease+):

1. Select objects
2. Click on “Angle” button near Angle Slider (it will turn blue)
3. Drag the angle slider to interactively highlight the edges
you want to crease (note how Crease+ button is now highlighted)
4. Select Subdivision level using SubD slider
5. Select Crease amount using Crs slider
6. Click Crease+

Crease by angle (Crease+) is a Context Sensitive function which means that it will
crease edges based on the selected object or selected faces. If you select an object,
it will look on all the edges of an object. If you select faces it will look only on the
edges of the selected faces.

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“Crease+” Marking Menu:
Hold RMB on Crease+

• Create Crease Sets from Mesh will

create Crease Sets from selected
mesh based on the crease value of
every edge. Different crease values
will have separate Crease Set. This allows for easy
selection/crease value editing of different edge groups
based on their crease values.
• Bake Crease Sets to Mesh will apply crease sets to mesh using “polyCrease” node
• Convert Creases to Bevels will select all of the crease edges and apply a bevel to
them.
• Crs=3/SubD=4 etc. are quick presets for Crs and SubD Sliders

UnCrease+ Button:
UnCrease+ will remove creases from all the edges of the selected
objects

Bevel+ Button:
Bevel+ functionality is very similar to Crease+. It will bevel edges
based on the selected angle tolerance and options in the Marking
Menu.

In the marking menu user can change Chamfering option as well

as choose the number of Segments for the generated bevel (up to
5)

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Crease/UnCrease Buttons:

Crease button will crease the selected edges/face based on the

crease value on the Crs Slider

UnCrease button will remove creases from the selected

edges/faces

Shift + Crease or UnCrease will crease/uncrease all the edges of the

selected faces, instead of just the border (this functionality can be inverted if
Crease/Uncrease Face Perimeter option is changed in the Options)

SubD Level # Button:

Indicates the depth of subdivision preview on the selected object
Pressing this button will change the subdivision level of objects to a
value on SubD slider

Interactive SubD and Crease Sliders:

By pressing on the SubD or Crs button near the corresponding
slider, user can enter Interactive SubD and Crease mode.
In this mode, dragging the sliders will instantly apply creasing or change subdivision level
of the selected components.

Selecting face components will crease face perimeter, unless Shift modifier is pressed
before slider drag action (this functionality can be inverted if Crease/Uncrease Face
Perimeter option is changed in the Options)

Selecting edges or vertex components will change their crease level when dragging the
slider.

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Mirroring
Quick mirroring is an important part of any workflow. That’s why
there is an entire section of GS Toolbox menu dedicated to this
task.
Buttons X,Y,Z and their negative counterparts will Mirror, Flip,
Instance or Delete geometry based on the selected options below:

• Mirror mode – activates Mirror functionality of XYZ buttons

o World – Mirror based on world Axis
o Object – Mirror based on Pivot of the object
o B.Box – Mirror based on the Bounding Box of an object
o Merge – Mirrored vertices will be merged based on
the Merge Threshold found in Marking Menu. Auto
Threshold is activated by default
o Bridge will attempt to bridge geometry based on the
mirror line end open edges
o Nothing will simply mirror selected geometry and will
not merge verts or bridge edges
o Cut Geo will cut geometry when mirroring
• Flip mode – activates Flip functionality of XYZ buttons. Note
how some of the options are now grayed out and XYZ
buttons now have alternative mode.
o World – Flip based on world Axis
o Object – Flip based on Pivot of the object
o B.Box – Flip based on the Bounding Box of an object
• Instance mode instances objects and then flips them based
on the selected options
o World – Instance based on world Axis
o Object – Instance based on Pivot of the object
o B.Box – Instance based on the Bounding Box of an
object

By default, Flip and Instance modes use advanced matrix transformation. To use
vanilla (Maya native) functionality, hold Shift when clicking on XYZ buttons.

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• Delete Geo mode – this mode will delete the geometry that
is beyond mirror line based on the selected options:
o World – Delete geometry based on world Axis
o Object – Delete geometry based on Pivot of the object
o B.Box – Delete geometry based on the Bounding Box
of an object

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Instancing
Instancing is a powerful workflow that allows to create
multiple copies of the same object in the scene to then edit them as one object. Editing
one object in an instance will change all of the other objects as well.

GS Toolbox allows user to quickly create multiple instances of an object in one click as well
as some advanced functionality of an Instance+.

Instance button:

Quickly instance selected objects N-times, where N is the number

entered in the field to the left of the button.
By default instances will be translated in the X axis based on their
bounding box and selected options in the marking menu.

Marking Menu:
• XYZ and -X-Y-Z – user can instance objects on any axis using
this selector
• Instance – check to enable Instancing of the selected objects
• Copy – check to enable copying (without history) of the
selected objects
• Copy with History – check to enable copying (with history) of the selected objects
• No Offset – removes any translations from the instanced mesh
• Offset – instanced mesh will be offset based on the
bounding box of an object and selected Offset value (found
in options menu next to Offset radio button)
• Offset + Gap - instanced mesh will be offset based on the bounding box of an
object, selected Offset value and constant Gap based on the bounding box of an
object

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 • Randomize Transforms window. Contains
options to randomize selected objects
Transformations.

To enable randomization check “Enable” on the

appropriate transformations, select axes, multiplier
and drag the main slider to preview the amplitude of
randomization. What you see when dragging the main
sliders is just a preview and the only way to apply it is
to click Randomize button.

• Enable will enable or disable translation,

rotation or scale randomization
• XYZ controls the axis of randomization
• Mult is a multiplier, that increases the impact of
main slider
• Main Slider (unlabeled) is the amplitude of randomization and preview at the same
time.

Example workflow:
• Create multiple instances of an object by using Instance and Snap option in Snap
to Poly function.
• Open Randomize Transforms
window and select Translation X and
Y and Rotation X and Z
• Preview randomizations by using
main sliders
• Apply Randomizations by clicking
Randomize button.

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Instance+ button:

Instance+ creates a duplicate of the selected object and

constrains it to the original object. Any edits made to the original object will propagate to
instance+. Instance+ also support Booleans, unlike regular instance.

Example workflow:

• Select an object (cube, in this example)

• Activate Instance+. In the Outliner a copy of an
original object is created with prefix “_iP”
• Select “_iP” object and apply mirror to it (mirror
X in the example).
• Now select original object and try to edit it on
the -X axis (bevel in the example). Notice how
bevel applied on the -X side propagates to the
+X side. That’s because of the mirror modifier
was used before.
• Now create a Cylinder on one of the vertices on the -X side,
activate Boolean Output -> Wireframe in the options and
Boolean using Booleans from GS Toolbox. Note how booleans
also propagate from the -X side to +X side.
• “_iP” object can now be duplicated; Reference mode can be
disabled (Refer. Toggle Button) and final object will be just a
regular editable mesh

This is just a small example of numerous use cases for Instance+.

Please note that Instance+ is in constant state of development

and new functionality will be added at a later date.

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Store Edits
Default Maya behavior when it comes to vertex
(edges/faces) movement is to save those edits in the mesh
itself, not in the node that can be deleted. If later on we
want to, for example, delete some of the nodes to undo
mesh edits (Delete Node button) we will encounter a problem where those edits, stored
in the mesh, will still be applied and result in an unpredictable mesh modification.
To avoid this problem, Store Edits button was created.

When Store Edits button is in its default state (grey

highlight) it means that selected mesh has no edits to
apply and is fully initialized.

When Store Edits button is highlighted with orange

color it means that there are some edits on the selected
mesh that can be applied right now. You can either
continue editing the mesh (to accumulate more edits),
or apply them right away to create a node with those
edits.
Edit -> Store -> Edit -> Store … workflow will result in
multiple edit nodes that can be then removed one by
one for more controllable editing.
When Store Edits button is orange with white outline,
it means that the Store Edits function is not initialized
on this mesh. It is recommended to immediately
initialize selected mesh by clicking on Store Edits
button when you see white outline.

Note that Store Edits button only work with Vertex Tweaks (Vertex/Edge/Face
Movements). Other Maya functions does not require any special treatment.

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Store Edits Example:

• Create a mesh
• Extrude some polygons. Note how Extrude function
does not activate Store Edits Button (if you are not
using Gizmo Extrude)
• Now move some vertices/edges/faces. Note how
after you moved the camera or selected other part of the mesh, Store Edits button
changed to orange. This indicates that there are some edits that can be stored in a
node. Don’t touch the button just yet.
• Try Extruding (using Extrude command, not Gizmo Extrude)
some additional faces. Note how after regular extrustion
command, button highlight changed to its detaulf state. That is
because when you apply other functions on top of vert edit, Maya
automatically saves vert edits in a polyTweak node.
• Now move some verts once more. Store Edits button is now
orange. Click on it and you will see either polyTweak or tweak
node appear in the Channel Box.
• Now move some more verts. Store Edits button become
orange again. If you click it now, you will see another polyTweak
or tweak node appear in the Channel Box.
• Now try Deleting those last tweaks using Shift + Delete Node
button (delete last node command). Note how edits you just did dissapeared and
you can safely delete other nodes down to the original mesh.

Note that Shift + Delete Node button already checks for applied tweaks, so even if
you forget to store your last edits, Shift + Delete Node button will always work as
intended.

Note that Gizmo Extrude will activate Store Edits button because it is a
combination of extrusion and vert transform

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Delete Node
Construction history in Maya is a powerful tool that (if
properly used) can create complex node networks and
procedural tools. However, for regular modeling workflow
there is rarely a need for complex node networks. Most of
the modeling is linear.
In some cases, though, it is very useful to be able to step back in construction history a
few steps. Delete some of the unwanted edits. Remake some of the failed parts.
Delete Node and Shift + Delete Node allows you to do just that.

Delete Node button will delete any selected node from the construction history of the
mesh. However, be very careful which nodes you are deleting and especially in what order.
If you delete a node that changes vertex order from the middle of the history stack, you
are guaranteed to get an unpredictable result. For example, deleting a polyExtrudeFace
node from the middle of the history stack will change the vert order and all the nodes that
come after polyExtrudeFace will change their behavior. However, if you delete
polyCrease node, most of the times nothing will happen to your mesh (there are some
exceptions).
So, to be safe, try deleting nodes from top to bottom.

Shift + Delete Node will do just that. It will delete the latest node in
the construction history and 99.9% of the time no problems will
occur. It will also auto apply any vertex tweaks that were not applied
using Store Edits button.

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Snapshot
When you are modeling, your construction history will
rapidly grow and at some point, Maya will slow down
significantly. Unfortunately, that is the price of procedural
node system.
The best way avoid that is, of course, delete your construction history from time to time.
However, you might want to store a snapshot of your object with all the history intact (for
future reference or review).
Snapshot button will automatically duplicate selected object, hide
it, constrain it to the original object and create a group “_sn” that will
hold all the snapshots from this object. Moving original object will
also move all the hidden snapshots.
Shift + Snapshot will also automatically delete construction history of the original object.

Extract Snapshot button will unhide, ungroup and

unconstraint selected snapshot for further editing.

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Snap to Poly
When you create buttons on a character or place bolts on
your starship armor, it is sometimes tedious to align your
meshes correctly.

With Snap to Poly it is an extremely

easy task:
• Select Faces
• Shift + Select Objects
• Click Snap to Poly

Snap to poly orients and snaps your

objects to the selected faces based on
the pivots (press D to show pivot) of the
selected objects.
Optimal orientation of pivot is shown
on the picture.

Shift + Snap to Poly resets pivots before snapping. This can solve some of the issues if
you moved/rotated your pivot point before snapping.

Marking Menu:
• Simple Snap will simply snap your selected objects to
selected faces.
• Instance and Snap will instance your selected object
enough times to fill every selected face.

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Solidify
Default Maya Extrude (faces) command only applies to
faces that you select or to all the faces that are currently
available on the object. This functionality works just fine if
you have a classic linear workflow, however if you introduce
something like Instance+ to the equation, this behavior becomes unreliable.

Solidify command works on an entire object.

In the Example, two simple planes were

created and Instance+ was applied to
them. Next, one Instance+ was
extuded using regular extrusion, and to
the second one solidify was applied.
If we then try to modify the original
plane and extrude one edge, the plane
with regular extrusion will not have
thickness on the new geometry but solidify plane will. Solidify node uses all the faces of
an object and extrudes them even if those faces were created after solidify was applied.

Solidify also has its own settings

in the marking menu,
independent from classic extrude.

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Straighten
Straighten command will straighten any selected edge
groups between the first and the last vertex of that group.

You can select different edge groups (1,2,3,4,5 in the example

image) and then apply only one Straighten command. It will
automatically sort edges and separate unconnected groups.

Selection order is not important. Edges will be sorted

automatically, first and last vert will be found and command
applied.

Edgeloops and Edgeflow is not important. Any connected

edges will be straightened (the only exception is when first and
last vertex is from the same edge)

There are two modes of straightening awailable:

1. Projection (Regular Click) – vertecies in the edge group will be projected onto a
straight line between the first and last vertex.
2. Equilaze (Shift + Click) – vertecies in the edge group will be placed at a equal
distance between each other and the first and last vert.

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Straighten Marking Menu:

In the marking menu you can find Local and World

straighten options. These commands are
independent from the normal straighten.

Best way of thinking about them is Local and World Zeroing of the Scale.

World XYZ will sort edge groups and then snap

each edge group to a world axis. The difference
between World XYZ and Straighten is that World
XYZ Snaps to world plane, and Straighten
straightens between first and last vert.

Local XYZ is the same as World XYZ but is uses gizmo position instead.

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Interpolate
Interpolate function will move vertices from a selected
edge group (same auto-sorting as Straighten) to a
smooth line between three verts: first (1), middle (2) and
last (3).

If there is no middle vert, it will use an

average between the two closest
verts in the middle of the line.

If first, middle and last verts are on

the straight line, interpolate acts as
Shift + Straighten function.

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Combine & Separate
Maya already has Combine and Separate
objects features, however they have some very
prominent downsides. Every time you separate
objects, Maya creates a new group for
separated objects. Same with combine.
Moreover, Maya will rename resulting objects
which can have a negative impact on your scene organization. After four-five such
operations, your outliner will have a very messy collection of groups in groups in groups
etc.

GS Toolbox has solved these issues in Combine &

Separate functions.

Combine and Separate will not create any unnecessary

groups anymore and it will not rename resulting objects to
random names.

After Combine operation, the resulting object

will have a name of the first selected object.

After Separate operation, resulting objects

will have a name of the original object with a
different number.

Combine & Separate will NOT delete your history.

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Duplicate & Extract
Maya already has Duplicate Faces and Extract Faces functions, however, just like with
Combine and Separate they have grouping and renaming issues.

GS Toolbox Duplicate and Extract will duplicate faces

and extract them without any unnecessary groups and
renaming.

Duplicate – will duplicate selected faces but will not

separate them from the original object just yet.
Shift + Duplicate – will duplicate selected faces and separate them from the original
object.

Extract – will extract selected faces (or separate selected edges) but will not separate
resulting objects.
Shift + Extract – will extract selected faces and separate them into different objects.

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Booleans
One of the more advanced features of GS Toolbox menu is
its Boolean section.

In this section you have the option to quickly Boolean objects using Union, Difference or
Intersection commands (Bool + , Bool - , Bool = ).

The main difference between this command and regular Booleans in Maya is:
• GS Toolbox will organize Booleans in a convenient group
• It will automatically show wireframe of a cutter object (so you can edit it after initial
Boolean operation)
• It supports instances
• Has three different algorithms (in the options menu) that can be used depending
on the situation

Selection order is the same as

regular Maya Boolean:
1. Select Base object
2. Select “Cutter” objects
3. Click Bool +, - or =

Note how wireframe of the cutter

object is still showing. You can
now edit this object and the
Boolean will update accordingly.

To immediately hide wireframe after Boolean operation, use Shift + Click when applying
Boolean operation.

Select base object for this to work:

Toggle Groups – will show/hide Boolean group
Show Cutters – will unhide any manually hidden (H button) cutters in a group
Select Cutters – will select all the cutter objects in a group

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Delete Boolean Cutter – will delete any selected cutter object without interfering with
other cutter objects. Select cutter object -> Click Delete Boolean Cutter
Apply Booleans - will apply any Boolean cutters to the base object and clear the history

If you select Cutter object and look at the Channel Box you
will see three new attributes. Every Cutter object (or cutter
object group) will have Boolean Bypass, Boolean Operation
and Boolean Classification attribute. You can change them on the fly.

To Move, Rotate or Scale Boolean group, select _Booleans

group and move, rotate or scale it. Do not select the base object.

Options:

There are three algorithms available. These algorithms only

make difference when you select multiple cutter objects at
the same time:
1. Merged – will merge cutter objects before applying
Boolean command. This is the fastest method; however, it does not support
instances and it has only one set of control attributes (Channel Box)
2. Optimized – this algorithm will not merge objects together before Boolean
operation, however, only the first selected object will have Channel Box attributes
that will control all other objects. This method supports Instances.
3. Advanced – this algorithm will basically create a separate Boolean operation and
Channel Box controls for every selected Cutter object. This is the slowest method
and is not recommended for large amount of cutter objects.
Boolean Output – will control the shading of the resulting object
after the Boolean operation. Useful when using Booleans with
Instance+.

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Construction Plane
Constriction Plane on Ply will create a live plane aligned
to a selected polygon.
You can then dynamically adjust its resolution using Res
slider.
Switch to Constr. Cam. – will switch your viewport to a
special camera that is aligned with the construction plane.
Clicking on this button again will return you to a persp
viewport.

You can only have one construction plane per

scene.

In the channel box of a gs_Helper_Plane object you can find

additional options for rotation, offset etc.

Clicking on Constriction Plane on Ply again will switch you

back to the original view and delete the construction plane
object.

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Quick Materials
In GS Toolbox you have 12 empty material slots that you
can use to quickly:
• apply materials
• select material node
• save/load presets
• create MatCap materials
• make material a global shader.

General workflow:
Enter the marking menu of any empty slot (Hold
RMB):
• Select from Scene Materials will open a
window that will allow you to choose from
already existing materials.
o Here you can select the material,
press OK to add it to the slot
o Delete (first unlock it) this material
from the scene.
o Update List can also be used if you
renamed your materials while this window was opened.
o Double Click on material name to select it for editing
• Now that you have a material in a material slot you can select objects and click on
that slot with LMB to apply that material to selected objects or components.
• Shift + LMB on the material slot will select this material for editing
• Ctrl + LMB on the material slot will select all the objects with that material applied
• Clear Slot will remove the material from the slot but will not delete the material
itself
• Save Preset will save a preset of the material. You can
then use this preset in other scenes as well. Entire
Shading Network is saved in the preset, so you can
add file nodes and other adjustments if you need. You
can have unlimited number of presets saved

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• Your saved presets can then be accessed
using Manage Preset button in the
marking menu.
o Import to load preset
o Rename to rename saved preset
o Delete to Delete preset
• Create MatCap will create a “material capture” material from the image that you
provide. MatCaps can then be saved as presets as well.
• Global Shader check box will make a selected slot a Global Shader Slot. Any newly
created meshes will automatically have this material applied to them. You can have
only one Global Shader Slot per scene. Unchecking this box will return the scene
to its default global material (lambert1)

Note presets are stored in ”Maya\2019\scripts\gs_toolbox\presets” folder as *.mb

and *.png files alongside a single *.txt file that contains the list of presets

Note at this point only default Maya materials can create swatches. Other materials
(Arnold, V-ray etc.) will not show properly. But you can still save them as presets and
select them from scene with no problem.

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Options
Options can be accessed from the drop-down menu
“Options”.

Options are saved independently from a scene, so they are

consistent between Maya Instances.

To Reset GS Toolbox to its default state with default options

use “Reset to Defaults” in the options menu or click on

button.

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