Full Version: CustomUI

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Hi BurrMan

Snapshot uses only built-in functions.. I haven't any ideas at the moment. :(
Maybe Michael will give us some advices.

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This is fantastic , thank you very much for your work, I especially love the object library,
Can I change the snapshot.htm to save as a jpg rather than a png ? Is that difficult ?
cheers
shayne

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Hi Max & Burr,

re:

> Snapshot uses only built-in functions.. I haven't any ideas at the moment. :(
> Maybe Michael will give us some advices.

Where is this trying to write to, is it somewhere alongside moi.exe ?

That can be a problem because since Windows Vista programs running at the "regular" privilege level are forbidden file write access to anything in the "Program Files" directory as a security measure.

That's why the moi.ini file for example is by default written to %AppData%\Moi instead of written along side MoI.exe . So usually if you want to write any kind of file data it's best to write it over there to the same place where moi.ini is going...

- Michael

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Just a heads up on the snapshot and object library permissions.

A workaround for now would be to give the particular account your using at least the modify permission. Here's the steps so you can run MoI normally with this plug.

Right click object/snapshots folder and choose

Properties-security-edit

Add-advanced-find now and select your user account from the list and choose ok.ok.

Give the account at least the "modify" permissions.

You can do this with other lessor accounts, Like "user" but it's best to just stick with yours as the user right.

Anyway.......It may be possible to have the inherits work correctly if Max strips out any permissions from the folders before he zips them up. Like ve sure they all have the "everyone-fuil" permission. Then "my" inheritable permissions should take over?

I'm not sure about the last part, but if Max wants to test it I will.

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Michael,
Max's plug has 2 folder in the MoI install dir. One named objects and one named snapshots. (just empty folders to receive data)

They are not getting modify permissions so are blocked and the plug doesn't produce anything.

I made a suggestion to see if it would help.

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Hi Burr & Max - I'd recommend putting these folders inside the %AppData%\Moi folder, rather than inside the MoI install folder in Program Files.

If you put it under %AppData% you should not need any special permissions set up and it will work fine with UAC enabled, and also the stuff in them would be stored in a central location so it would be easier for it to work across different beta releases without having to move stuff between install folders with each release.

In the future I plan on storing more customized stuff in %AppData%\Moi because of these reasons... It's because of these same reasons that moi.ini is stored there currently as well.

- Michael

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""""""I'd recommend putting these folders inside the %AppData%\Moi folder""""""""""

Hi Michael,
But there should also be a means to keep them in the install folder. I keep all my stuff there, because I also use MoI on a usb stick, and the conveinience of that is very powerful for me. I like the "standalone" part of MoI.

I would like to test with Max if stripping permissions off first will solve the permissions inheritance issue.

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Hi BurrMan,
The Objects folder in the MoI folder is just an example. Object library plugin can use any folder specified in the ObjLibrary.cfg.htm
Could you test the plugin with a different folders?

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>I'd recommend putting these folders inside the %AppData%\Moi folder

I have to agree, not liking storing stuff in the applications install directory.

-

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Hi Max,
So I created a folder inside of MoI's install dir and it didn't work. However I created one on my desktop and it did work.

So maybe we need to just setup a "my docs" folder? Or a means to set the path from inside the plug.

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Hi Burr,

> But there should also be a means to keep them in the install folder.

So probably it would be best to have the same behavior as moi.ini - by default moi.ini will get created in %AppData%\Moi , for these same reasons such as not running into permissions problems with not being able to write to Program files by default.

But before doing that, MoI checks if there is an existing moi.ini file in the same directory as moi.exe , and if that exists and has write access then it uses that one.

- Michael

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I havnt tested it yet, but I'm assuming that Max's plug works great "as-is" on a usb stick.

So, a means to select the user folders for snapshot and objects. Can this be done from his plug with a dialogue? or does it have to be a hand edit?

Maybe these can be set the same as the exepath entry in the inifile that he's doing now?

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Now that I think about it, setting the path to somewhere else and storing it in the ini file is probably good. I wouldn't want to have to lug around a 10 gig "object data store".... :o

Of course, it works great on a usb stick with no mods made. Just tested.

I suppose I could live with manually setting the data paths.... I really want to see the cloth script! lol

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Anyone know how to change the snapshots path in '84 Snapshot.htm' ?

Cheers
~Danny~

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Hi DannyT,

You can change the path manually.
Open "84 Snapshot.htm" with notepad and change this line

var Path =  moi.command.getOption('ExePath', false) + "\\snapshots\\";

to this (for example)

var Path =  "D:\\My photo gallery\\3D\\Snapshots\\";

You have to use double-slashes. And don't forget to put \\ at the end of the path.

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> Hi Tommy,

> > I personally enjoy MoI 10 times more now with Max' script installed

> It's cool that it has made things so much better for you!

> Are there some particular plug-ins that you are using very frequently for your work? Which ones are they?

> - Michael

It's kind of part of a bigger topic for me, but here you go:

In one kind of work I do, I let myself be inspired by basic forms or certain functions, create an object out of them and then see if I can make them into interesting images, more like a photographer (using Thea Render) than like an engineer.
So for me all the generator scripts are very useful, interesting and inspiring.
For instance, this image is a Loft between the different Levels of a Hilbert Curve:
http://www.screendream.de/
(BTW. It's also an example of an object that hits the limits of 32 Bit - MoI is hardly able to build and export it. ;-) ).

But there are many other cases. One time I need a sinus curve, another time the spherical points may come in handy or a baseball.
Since I work freelance in a wide range of jobs and topics, I never know what I will need next time, so having all possible options easily accessible multiplies the usefulness of MoI and I will turn to it with more confidence.
At the same time, having all these scripts may also help me creating my own or extending one if need should be.

If the "external scripts" menu in Max' script would have some way of sorting into categories with submenues (in the best case simply from file system folders), it would be basically all I ever need from such a plugins menu.


Several things in MoI are rather hidden in the default GUI, so for instance I hardly ever use the lighting options, but with Max' script they are right at hand so I will remember to actually use them to better visualize certain surfaces.


The object library is something I'm used to from many other applications, Thea Render for instance has a brilliantly integrated library for materials, objects, textures, lights etc. and that makes scene setup much faster, so again, this part of Max' plugin will encourage me to save certain parts I use more often. In theory I could save such objects into some folder and import them, but having them close at hand in this menu makes it much more obvious.


What it all boils down to: I'm used to working with Softimage XSI, Lightwave and other much more complex tools than MoI, so complexity isn't something I have a problem with, as long as it is well presented. What I HAVE problems with is, if existing functions or possibilities are hidden under the hood or missing from the interface.

It's not so much a case of this or that script being especially useful, but the sheer wealth of scripts being usable in a well integrated way makes MoI applicable to more situations.

I believe that by trying too hard to keep MoI simple it actually can go the other way. :-)
I would be happy with an "expert view" I guess.

But that's another discussion entirely... ;-)

YMMV of course.

Cheers,

Tom

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Hi Tom, basically the main goal behind MoI is to make it quick and simple to draw basic models, not really to be a big accumulation of a whole bunch of different tools just gathered together swiss army knife fashion...

That's why a "script organizer" just has not been a big priority so far. I do expect to get it to something along those lines in the future though, but there are only so many hours in the day and there are much more basic fundamental tools that I'm focused on first since they have a wider application to MoI's main goal.


> I would be happy with an "expert view" I guess.

Well, I guess you have exactly that with Max's CustomUI extension right here, don't you?


Basically I'm still right now in the process of working more on the fundamental tools in MoI, I just have not yet had the time to focus a lot of effort on extensions and scriptability, although as you can see from Max's work there is a lot you can do with scripting already right now. At some point in the future I should be able to focus a lot more attention on the general area of scripting and make a lot of improvements geared towards that, including stuff for helping both script authors and also consumers of scritps as well. But only once I've got more of the fundamentals covered to a greater degree.

- Michael

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Hi Max,

>You can change the path manually.

Thanks for that, I knew where to find it I just didn't know how it should be formatted, all clear now.

Cheers
~Danny~

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Hi Max,
So I created a copy of the 82 ExtScripts file in the customui folder so I can set a second path/menu option for scripts I store in the MoI scripts folder, outside of the commands folder.

Everything works great. I cant find the name for the commandbar item. The original produces a name of "Ext.Scripts". I thought it was from the base64 icon, but I decoded that to change and it was only the gears.

Can you describe where that name is derived, or how to get it to read Ext.Scripts_B or something like that?

Thanks

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Hi BurrMan
:) The name is right after the icon code.

<moi:CommandMenuButton menu="customui/mods/ExtScriptsFull.menu.htm" icon="data:image/png;base64,...icon....">Ext.scripts</moi:CommandMenuButton>

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