KLUDGECITY 0.2.0 REQUIRES MAYA 2011 AND ABOVE

You can follow the development of this tool here.

Update Aug 16 2011:

This update has been in the works for almost a year now, and the system has gotten much, much better.  This is a beta version, so there are plenty of bugs.  If you want to download the old, more stable version, you can find it here.

Tutorial coming soon.

This tool is being developed as part of my short film project, "The Sum of Parts". It is open-source and freely available for anyone to use or edit, but I would really appreciate if you could donate a couple of bucks to the cause. You can do so here.

In order to install KludgeCity, simply right-click the link below, and save the KludgeCity.mel file to your maya scripts directory. This is usually located in My Documents > Maya > Maya (Version) > Scripts. If you have Maya open, restart Maya. Then, type the following code into the Script Editor.

source KludgeCity;
KludgeCity;

KludgeCity is a procedural system for generating buildings -- you only need one piece of geometry built in order to get started -- something I refer to as a "footprint". Once you create a footprint and load it into the system, simply change the variables in the KludgeArchitect rollouts, and press the Execute button. The building will be generated wherever the footprint is located in your scene, using whatever units you have set up in Maya.

In order to create a custom Kludge Building, you must supply the system with footprint geometry to work from. This geometry must be a single, planar, continuous grid of quads or tris, at least eight divisions across at its thinnest point.

A few valid footprints:



Again, footprints must be at least eight divisions across at their thinnest point. In order to tell Kludge that you want to use your custom footprint geometry, simply select the geometry in the Maya viewport, and press the Load Geometry button next to the footprint text field. If you leave the footprint field on "AUTO", Kludge will automatically generate a 15-by-15 plane to use as a footprint. This plane will be placed at the origin during the building generation process.

For a full tutorial and interface breakdown, see this page.