Message from Object or Tag to CommandData/GeDialog Plugin

datamilch

hi there,

i have a bunch of objects with userdata. then i have a GeDialog plugin with mostly the identical userdata. the dialog plugin is intended to control the objects from one common panel. but there might be cases, where the objects are adjusted direktly, so the dialog needs to be updated. i'm looking for a solution for this case.

A)
am i correct, the change of DIRTYFLAGS_DATA can not be tracked from GeDialog directly via the message system? i could only track things, that trigger a global event?
i suppose it could be done with a timer, that checks the doc/objects every few millyseconds, but that feels very unprecise.

B)
with a python tag i can easily track the dirty status of objects, but from what i've read here, i can not send data (list of dirty objects) direkcly to the dialog/command plugin. i can just call my dialog and make it aware to look and find the dirty objects.

C)
there also seems to be c4d.GePluginMessage() and PluginMessage(). but i never found a clear statement, which plugin types are supported. i never even got c4d.GePluginMessage() to return True, which made me doubt myself a bit.

so i would try to go with option B).
any objections or completly different suggestions?
cheers sebastian

datamilch

oh well ... tried option B) as planned.
a python tag tracks the dirty status of some objects and starts a c4d.SpecialEventAdd(). this is received as a core message in my dialog. but when i go looking for the dirty objects, they are not dirty anymore.
my workaround for now is, to have a str userdata on the pyhon tag. once the tag detects a dirty object, it writes its name into the str userdata. my dialog can then read the name of the object and find it. feels quite cumbersome but works for now.

would there be a better/more hidden way to store the data?

i_mazlov

Hi @datamilch,

you can use the EVMSG_CHANGE message as a trigger to check your objects for changes. The timer approach might seem imprecise from the first glance, but can actually be used, I don't think there're any significant reasons against it. Additionally, the recent change was made to make BaseList2D being hashable. This effectively means you can operate with your objects in a dict.

The python tag approach is the least efficient, although would still work, yes.

You're saying your GeDialog plugin uses "mostly the ideantical userdata". If it was "identical", you could potentially use c4d.gui.DescriptionCustomGui with the SetObject function to make it point to your object. This way you can avoid hassling around all the data sync, because it is all handled as a built-in functionality of this class. This is how the attribute manager effectively works, or the Active Object Dialog as well.

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Cheers,
Ilia