Select Similar

A student had scattered many duplicates of two types of objects and attached them together to one editable poly. He needed to select type A, which had a different number of faces to type B.

That was my starting point for this script, then it occurred to me I could increase usability by seeking to replace Max's "select similar" with a more intelligent select similar script. I may have got a bit carried away... I ended up with the following functionality:

• When selecting element sub-objects
• will select other elements with the same number of faces
• When selecting geometry at the object-level, selects any/all of:
• matching size (good for chairs)
• matching ratio (good for uniformly scaled objects)
• same number of faces (good when above won't work)
• instances 
• object colour (off by defualt)
• max's delect similar (off by defualt)
• When selecting non-geometry
• matching class (ex all omni lights or all point helpers or bones, etc)

  
  
-- MixeScript snippet: Select Similar
-- selects other elements or objects similar to the current selection

--USAGE
-- select an object or an element of an editable poly
-- check settings below
-- run script
-- new selection is made


--SETTINGS
FindBySimilarSize = true
FindBySimilarRatio = true
SimilarityTolerance = 0.005 -- higher tolerance selects more objects which are not quite so similar. must be less than 1.
FindByMatchingFaceCount = true
FindByInstances = true
FindByMaxSelectSimilar = false -- false by defualt because this gets lots of stuff which isnt necessarily similar.
FindByWireColor = false -- false by default since this may find lots of stuff
DoNotSelectHidden = true

(
 obj = selection[1]
 if subobjectlevel == 4 or subobjectlevel == 5 then
 (
  print "select matching elements"
  selectedfaces = polyop.getFaceSelection obj
  facecount = selectedfaces.numberset
  allfaces = obj.faces
  newselection = polyop.getFaceSelection obj
  discardedfaces = #{}
  
  for face in allfaces do (
   if (newselection[face.index] == false and discardedfaces[face.index] == false) then 
   (
    -- we havent seen this face before.
    thiselement = polyop.getElementsUsingFace obj face
    if thiselement.numberset == facecount then (
     --print "found a matching element"
     join newselection thiselement
    ) else (
     join discardedfaces thiselement
    )
   )
  )
  
  polyop.setfaceselection obj newselection
  redrawviews()
 )
 else
 (
  matchingobjs = #()
  append matchingobjs obj
  print "select matching objects"
  if superclassof(obj) == GeometryClass and classof(obj) != Biped_Object then
  (
   --find geometry with matching bounding size OR face count
   
   if FindBySimilarSize or FindBySimilarRatio then (
     originalrotation = obj.rotation
     originalposition = obj.position
     obj.rotation = (quat 0 0 0 0)

    XDimension = (obj.max.x - obj.min.x)
    YDimension = (obj.max.y - obj.min.y)
    ZDimension = (obj.max.z - obj.min.z)
    
    XZRatio = XDimension / ZDimension
    YZRatio = YDimension / ZDimension
    
    obj.rotation = originalrotation
    obj.position = originalposition
    
    max modify mode
    
    for checkobj in geometry do (
     originalrotation = checkobj.rotation
     originalposition = checkobj.position
     checkobj.rotation = (quat 0 0 0 0)
     
     if FindBySimilarSize then
     (
      if XDimension > ((checkobj.max.x - checkobj.min.x) * (1.0 - SimilarityTolerance)) and XDimension < ((checkobj.max.x - checkobj.min.x) * (1 / (1.0 - SimilarityTolerance))) and
       YDimension > ((checkobj.max.y - checkobj.min.y) * (1.0 - SimilarityTolerance)) and YDimension < ((checkobj.max.y - checkobj.min.y) * (1 / (1.0 - SimilarityTolerance))) and
       ZDimension > ((checkobj.max.z - checkobj.min.z) * (1.0 - SimilarityTolerance)) and ZDimension < ((checkobj.max.z - checkobj.min.z) * (1 / (1.0 - SimilarityTolerance)))  then
      ( 
       print (checkobj.name + " is a similarsize match")
       appendIfUnique matchingobjs checkobj
      )
     )
     
     if FindBySimilarRatio then 
     (
      checkXZRatio = (checkobj.max.x - checkobj.min.x) / (checkobj.max.z - checkobj.min.z)
      checkYZRatio = (checkobj.max.y - checkobj.min.y) / (checkobj.max.z - checkobj.min.z)
      
      if XZRatio > (checkXZRatio * (1.0 - SimilarityTolerance)) and XZRatio < (checkXZRatio * (1 / (1.0 - SimilarityTolerance))) and
       YZRatio > (checkYZRatio * (1.0 - SimilarityTolerance)) and YZRatio < (checkYZRatio * (1 / (1.0 - SimilarityTolerance))) then
      ( 
       print (checkobj.name + " is a similarratio match")
       appendIfUnique matchingobjs checkobj
      )
     )
     
     
     checkobj.rotation = originalrotation
     checkobj.position = originalposition
    )
   )
   

   if FindByMatchingFaceCount and ((classof obj) == editable_poly or (classof obj) == editable_mesh) then
   (
    for eachobj in geometry do
    (
     if classof eachobj == editable_poly or classof eachobj == editable_mesh then
     (
      if obj.faces.count == eachobj.faces.count then
      (
        appendIfUnique matchingobjs eachobj
      )
     )
    )
   )
   
   if FindByWireColor then
   (
    for eachobj in geometry do
    (
     if eachobj.wirecolor == obj.wirecolor then
     (
      appendIfUnique matchingobjs eachobj
     )
    )
   )
   
  )
  else
  (
   --select all objects matching class
   for eachobj in $* do 
   (
    if classof eachobj == classof(obj) then
    (
     appendIfUnique matchingobjs eachobj
    )
   )
  )
  
  clearselection()
  
  if FindByMaxSelectSimilar then
  (
   actionMan.executeAction 0 "40099"  -- Selection: Select Similar
  )

  if FindByInstances then
  (
   InstanceMgr.GetInstances obj &instances
   selectmore instances
  )
  
  selectmore matchingobjs
  
  
  if DoNotSelectHidden == true then
  (
   currentselection = getcurrentselection()
   clearselection()
   for eachobj in currentselection do
   (
    if eachobj.ishidden == false then (selectmore eachobj)
   )
  )
  
 )
)