How to place own materials into the root menu?

[Helper]

On 27/02/2016 at 10:01, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Originally posted by xxxxxxxx

Well, the question was how to move menu items 
from default "Root -> Shaders -> Your Plugin Folder -> Material ... " 
to "Root -> Your Plugin Folder -> Material ... "
i.e. one level up

Well, then still using the menu functions is probably what you need. Have you looked at GetMenuResource() etc.?

[Helper]

On 27/02/2016 at 10:10, xxxxxxxx wrote:

GetMenuResource() does look like the best approach.  And you can do this in main.cpp using C4DPL_BUILDMENU (in PluginMessage() as shown in the sdk example code).

[Helper]

On 27/02/2016 at 10:31, xxxxxxxx wrote:

...and there are also other functions like SearchMenuResource etc. which might help as well.

[Helper]

On 27/02/2016 at 14:31, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Ok, this code inserts my custom category in the root menu of material creation:

void MySearchMenuResource(BaseContainer* bc)
{
	if (!bc) return;
  
	BrowseContainer browse(bc);
  
	Int32 id = 0;
	GeData * dat = nullptr;
  
	while (browse.GetNext(&id, &dat))
	{
		if (id == MENURESOURCE_SUBMENU || id == MENURESOURCE_STRING)
		{
			MySearchMenuResource(dat->GetContainer());
		}
		else if (id == MENURESOURCE_COMMAND)
		{
			if (dat->GetString() == String("IDM_MNEU"))
			{
				BaseContainer sc;
				sc.InsData(MENURESOURCE_SUBTITLE, String("Category In Root"));
				sc.InsData(MENURESOURCE_COMMAND, String("PLUGIN_CMD_XXXXXX"));
				
				bc->InsDataAfter(MENURESOURCE_STRING, sc, dat);
			}
		}
	}
}
  
void EnhanceMaterialMainMenu(void)
{
	BaseContainer *bc = GetMenuResource(String("M_MATERIAL_MANAGER"));
	if (!bc) return;
  
	MySearchMenuResource(bc);
}

But the command PLUGIN_CMD_123456 doesn't create any material (we asume that 123456 is material plugin ID). How to fix that?

[Helper]

On 27/02/2016 at 16:20, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Check out this post:

https://developers.maxon.net/forum/topic/6496/6986_placing-a-plugin-under-the-file-menu&KW=insert+menu

Plus, yes, the plugin ID must be a real ID associated with a material/shader plugin.

[Helper]

On 28/02/2016 at 01:19, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Sure, instead of the digits in the string PLUGIN_CMD_123456 I write a real plugin id of material (derived from MaterialData) but it doesn't work. If I write instead of these digits the plugin id of some command plugin it then works.

[Helper]

On 28/02/2016 at 02:55, xxxxxxxx wrote:

If you cannot add materials that way you can always hide the original material entry (pass ~PLUGINFLAG_HIDE in RegisterMaterialData()) and create a commanddata plugin which creates the material (and then you can place the command in that menu instead)

[Helper]

On 28/02/2016 at 14:31, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Thanks Katachi, I have been also thinking about this not so elegant workaround. 
Maybe I will do it or will wait for what secret trick Sebastian can advice after the weekend

[Helper]

On 29/02/2016 at 02:33, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Hello,

I don't know any secret trick and I don't know what exactly Solid Angle did. But looking at the plugin it seems they created custom commands.

When Cinema registers a ObjectData plugin with RegisterObjectPlugin() internally also a command with the same ID is created. Because of this one can add such a command to a menu and one can use CallCommand() to create an object. When a material is registered no such internal command is created.

Best wishes,
Sebastian

[Helper]

On 01/03/2016 at 05:46, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Ok, thanks Sebastian for explanation! It seems that for this task we only can create many corresponding command plugins with doc->InsertMaterial() inside.