Basic plugin creation

Helper

On 16/02/2013 at 04:04, xxxxxxxx wrote:

What a pity, I wanted to do a "Repeat last Command" plugin, like Max and Maya have. Which would check with a list of chosen c4d commands to repeat them easily.

Well, another question for future plugins:
It is possible to update a plugin-gui spinner, which for instance changes a position, in realtime, without the need of an apply button? Not in an object or tag plugin.
Don´t need to know how, just if...

Thanks for being such a big helper around here Niklas

Helper

On 16/02/2013 at 07:49, xxxxxxxx wrote:

what do you mean with Not in an object or tag plugin ? a dialog or a shader/tool ?
for dialogs, use the command/coremessage method to write/read data from/into
your dialog.for descriptions it is allso possible, but actually not the way things are
intended to be done. the message/getdenabling methods could be here a suiteable
place to implement such behaviour. for certain behaviours you would have to write a
message helper plugin to notify your plugins when they have to update themself.

Helper

On 16/02/2013 at 08:50, xxxxxxxx wrote:

A bit confusing written, sorry. I meant the python tag or generator with user data by not in a tag....

What Im planning once my skill is good enough, is to do a much improved coordinate manager, which first of all, has an auto update, so you see the changes while adjusting.

Helper

On 16/02/2013 at 08:57, xxxxxxxx wrote:

So, you'll want to make a dialog. This is perfectly possible: once a value is changed by the user, you will be
notified about this change and can react on it.

-N

Helper

On 16/02/2013 at 09:03, xxxxxxxx wrote:

ps: this feature is already implemented in c4d. the coords tab of an object node works that
way.

Helper

On 16/02/2013 at 09:12, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Thank you, that keeps my motivation up

Helper

On 16/02/2013 at 09:13, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Originally posted by xxxxxxxx

ps: this feature is already implemented in c4d. the coords tab of an object node works that
way.

Yeah, but just working on objects, not all the modes...

Helper

On 21/02/2013 at 02:31, xxxxxxxx wrote:

I´m studying this tutorial:
http://www.smart-page.net/blog/2012/02/22/smart-hn-options-cinema-4d-python-commanddata-plugin-template/
It works with some custom modules and to get a better understanding I rearanged and modified the code to be all in one single pyp file.

I finally got it to work, but there a thing I still don´t understand.
This starts the function "work" when you press OK in the menu:

.....  
        result = work(aEnabledState  = enableState,   
                               aSetEditor     = self.GetBool(MAINDIALOG_CHECK_SETEDITOR),  
                               aSetRender     = self.GetBool(MAINDIALOG_CHECK_SETRENDER),  
                               aEditor        = self.GetLong(MAINDIALOG_SLIDER_EDITOR),  
                               aRender        = self.GetLong(MAINDIALOG_SLIDER_RENDER),  
                               aInc           = self.GetBool(MAINDIALOG_CHECK_INC))

which looks like this:

def work(aEnabledState = 0, aSetEditor = False, aSetRender = False, aEditor = 2, aRender = 3, aInc = False)  
  
  doc = c4d.documents.Get......  
  .......  
  return result

It works like that, but when I put the "work" function in a class (Worker) and update the result to Worker.work:

result = Worker.work(aEnabled....

I get this message for this line:

"TypeError: unbound method work() must be called with Worker instance as first argument (got nothing instead)"

What does it mean, and what did I do wrong calling the function from the class?
Google couldn´t help me much

Helper

On 21/02/2013 at 05:04, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Keep it the way you have it:

Make the method a staticmethod. (google)

Or make it an instance method:

1. Add the self parameter for the Worker.work() function.
2. Create an instance of the Worker class and call work() on it.

Helper

On 22/02/2013 at 04:17, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Thanks.

I did a little Gui-Plugin, with a spinner, where the x position is read by CoreMessage and written back by Commmand. Just one thing I can´t figure out, the changes get updated in the viewport only after leaving the spinner, although the print command constantly updates:

    def Command(self, id, msg) :  
          c4d.StopAllThreads()  
          if id == IDC_POS:  
              obj = c4d.documents.GetActiveDocument().GetActiveObject()  
              x_value = self.GetReal(IDC_POS)  
              obj_pos_y = obj.GetAbsPos().y  
              obj_pos_z = obj.GetAbsPos().z  
              obj.SetAbsPos(c4d.Vector(x_value, obj_pos_y, obj_pos_z))  
              print x_value  
              c4d.EventAdd()  
          return True

Helper

On 22/02/2013 at 04:37, xxxxxxxx wrote:

What "spinner"?
Make your life easier:

pos = obj.GetAbsPos()  
pos.x = x_value  
obj.SetAbsPos(pos)

-Nik

Helper

On 22/02/2013 at 04:45, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Much easier

Spinner might be 3ds terminology, I refer to the up/down arrows next to my number edit box, which control X Position...

Helper

On 22/02/2013 at 06:19, xxxxxxxx wrote:

I'm not sure what you're doing in the CoreMessage(), it shouldn't be necessary to override this method.
You need to redraw the editor, c4d.EventAdd() just tells Cinema that something happened and a redraw will be necessary the next time Cinema would normally decide whether to redraw or not. To invoke a redraw immediately, use c4d.DrawViews().

See c4dtools.utils.update_editor() for an example call: https://github.com/NiklasRosenstein/c4dtools/blob/master/c4dtools/utils.py#L161-L163

-Nik

Helper

On 23/02/2013 at 02:30, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Thank you again, Core Message was just unnecessary information without real context here...
I hope I don´t become annoying, flooding beginner questions

Now I am in a dead end again:
A right-click on the arrows of a Number Box setting a specific value.
I guess it´s done by using the GeDialog.Command msg:
http://www.thirdpartyplugins.com/python_r14/modules/c4d.gui/GeDialog/index.html?highlight=command#GeDialog.Command
Or maybe with GetInputState? Tried that too, though...

But doesn´t matter what, nothing seems to work.
Best thing I achieved was to show in console, that there are some changes in the msg Container:

left click:

print msg  
<c4d.BaseContainer object at 0x00000000188ACCA8>  
   
msg.GetDirty()  
4  
   
for x in xrange(0, 5) :  
   print x  
   print msg.GetIndexId(x)  
0  
1835362660  
1  
1835365985  
2  
1835361394  
3  
-1  
4  
-1

right click:

print msg  
<c4d.BaseContainer object at 0x00000000188ACCA8>  
   
msg.GetDirty()  
5  
   
for x in xrange(0, 5) :  
   print x  
   print msg.GetIndexId(x)  
0  
1835362660  
1  
1835365985  
2  
1634887027  
3  
1768976737  
4  
-1

But what now, working with some strange IDs is surely not the way to do this?

I was hoping for something like this:

def Command(self, id, msg) :  
    if id == IDC_POS and msg.BFM_ACTION_DP_MENUCLICK == True:

which obviously, isn´t the way to go

Helper

On 23/02/2013 at 03:52, xxxxxxxx wrote:

It works like this, but, as I said, that´s surely not the way to do so?

if id == IDC_POS and msg.GetIndexId(2) == 1634887027:

I mean what would this msg information be good for then?

BFM_ACTION_DP_MENUCLICK	bool	Right mouse button.
BFM_ACTION_DP_ADDSELECT	bool	Shift.
BFM_ACTION_DP_SUBSELECT	bool	Control.
BFM_ACTION_DP_FOCUS	bool	Focus.
BFM_ACTION_DP_ANIMCLICK	bool	Animation click.
BFM_ACTION_DP_BUTTONCLICK	bool	Double left mouse button click.
BFM_ACTION_QUAL	int	Qualifier.

_<_t_>_

Helper

On 25/02/2013 at 04:16, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Ok, I found a solution by GetInputState:

self.GetInputState(c4d.BFM_INPUT_MOUSE, c4d.BFM_INPUT_MOUSERIGHT, msg)  
if id == IDC_POS and msg[c4d.BFM_INPUT_VALUE] == True:

Now I am trying to get a value offset in my dialogue:
I´ve got two Number fields an if I change the first by mouse drag, the other one should show the value offset.

The thing is I don´t know how to store the inital value while mousedragging.
IDC_POS being the first field, OFFSET the second showing the offset.
Right now (base_value - x_value) keeps being zero, because the base_value gets changed while dragging too

.....  
  def Command(self, id, msg) :  
      obj = c4d.documents.GetActiveDocument().GetActiveObject()  
      base_value = obj.GetAbsPos().x  
       
      if id == IDC_POS:  
          if obj:  
              x_value = self.GetReal(IDC_POS)  
              pos = obj.GetAbsPos()  
              self.SetReal(OFFSET, base_value - x_value, -10000000, 10000000, 1, c4d.FORMAT_METER)  
              pos.x = x_value  
              obj.SetAbsPos(pos)  
              c4d.DrawViews()  
.......

So how can I get&store the base value, when mouse dragging starts?

Helper

On 25/02/2013 at 05:23, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Ok, got that too
Using "base_value = self.GetReal(IDC_POS)" as a global Variable from within CoreMessage does the job. Although I was told not to mess with global variables as a beginner, that seems like a good solution...

Thanks for listening to me monologing