Do you remember my post about repathing 3ds Max assets in the .max and .mat files without actually running 3ds Max? Well, I cooked up a little utility that can be run from the command line without any IronPython installed. You can use this simple exe file to repath or simply just list all your external asset paths inside your .max and .mat files, should you need to. And since it’s a command line utility you can run it from within your programs and catch the outputs or batch feed it data for processing etc…
Anyways, the syntax is pretty simple:
You need to call the program and then pass it a .max or .mat scene file. If you provide only that, it’ll list the file’s asset paths. But if you provide a -p parameter followed by a new path, it’ll re-path all the file’s external assets to the new location you provided. Unfortunately, there is no way for me (afaik) to distinguish what is an actual render output or RE output and what are texture or cache data inputs, so everything will be linked to the new directory at once.
Should you need any help, just call the program without any parameters, or with the parameter -h for help.
Download the program from here.
I was shocked and very pleased to hear that Shotgun Software decided to unify their pricing and bring it down to $49 USD per month per user with the API! How awesome is that?!
That brings me to a thought of actually releasing our duberPython plugin for a ridiculously low price so that EVERYONE can use Shotgun and our Python module in their pipeline!
Let me know what you think, guys and I’ll prep the installations in the meantime.
Just a shout out to those who downloaded my RV Explorer integration Python script.
I’ve updated it so that RV now accepts file sequences with various leading zero lengths as I bumped into this issue myself recently.
Hope I haven’t caused you too much trouble. 
Here’s the updated script: v0.3
This post is basically just a note to myself, because I keep searching for this every now and then and every time I forget the syntax. So, here’s what you need to do in order to extract .msi archives to a specific folder of your choice.
To extract files from a .msi file from the command line, type:
msiexec /a PathToMSIFile /qb TARGETDIR=DirectoryToExtractTo
For example, to extract files from X:\installs\someProgram.msi into C:\someProgram you would type:
msiexec /a X:\installs\someProgram.msi /qb TARGETDIR=C:\someProgram
In February, I wrote about calling the JSON variant of the Shotgun API from the IronPython 2.7.1. Now it is time to upgrade the pipeline tools to the latest versions of both IronPython and the Shotgun API.
There are, however, some steps you have to take in order to make things work without issues.
Naturally, you still have to follow the steps described in the february article. In addition to that, however, you also have to modify the Shotgun.py some more. On lines 52, 53 and 54, remove the relative module paths. So, basically just remove the dots from the “.lib“. For some reason, IronPython is having issues with relative imports outside of packages.
After that, everything should be running smoothly again.
Here are a few screenshots from the IronPython console as well as from the MAXScript Listener in 3ds Max 2013.
IronPython 2.7.3:
duberPython (utilizing IronPython engine 2.7.3):
As you might know there has been a significant change in the latest Shotgun API that’s somehow transparent to the CPython users, but presents a rather significant roadblock for IronPython users (including our duberPython bridge, that is based on the IronPython engine).
First, let’s discuss what’s changed in the API so dramatically that it breaks IronPython compatibility. It’s the introduction of a JSON formatting that requires a few specific CPython libraries that are not available in IronPython. The effect it has on CPython users is a faster data transfer to/from Shotgun, but other than that, the API looks to be unchanged from a user point of view. You still keep calling the same methods and you’re getting back the same objects. From IronPython point of view, you’ll hit a roadblock as there are a few modifications you’ll have to make to the Shotgun modules in order to make them run in IPy without issues.
(more…)
As with my previous post, I’m preparing a few handy tools for 3ds Max artists using Mari and Nuke. This bit is the fun part with Nuke: live communication between 3ds Max and Nuke.
Stay tuned!
I’m starting to write a useful set of tools for Mari and 3ds Max users. This is the very beginning – establishing reliable communication from 3ds Max’s MAXScript console directly to Mari.
I’ll keep you posted.
Here’s a video demonstrating the power and practical usage of Shotgun (data) brought over to 3ds Max natively via our Python plugin, duberPython.
I’m, along with Gavin Greenwalt from Straightface, featured in Thinkbox’s study that took a look into the Deadline Power Management feature and how it can help save your studio money in the end.
Go ahead, it’s an interesting read.
