Seeking AM CustomGui help/example

On 10/08/2013 at 09:07, xxxxxxxx wrote:

User Information:
Cinema 4D Version:   R14 
Platform:   Windows  ;   
Language(s) :     C++  ;

---------
Hi Folks,

I've been trying to implement my own custom gui element into a plugin's AM description, but am having a difficult time working it out. I can make userareas for dialogs, and I've found some loosely-related examples on the forum of icustomguis, but they all seem to be dialog-orientated.

In short, I'm wanting to play around with making my own customgui element (like a dialog userarea) but one that can be displayed in the AM in an object or tool plugin. Is anyone able to shuffle me in the right direction here? Or provide a simple example?

Thanks,

WP.

On 11/08/2013 at 08:33, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Ditto.
Just a very, very simple empty plugin that doesn't do anything it except host the custom gizmo is all that I need.

I have a couple of code snippets about writing the gizmo. But not enough to write the whole thing.
I'd like to create my own slider control. And maybe some other things too.
But I need to see a complete example of the entire framework(.cpp, .res, .h). So I can see how to link the custom gizmo to my plugins.

-ScottA

On 11/08/2013 at 09:59, xxxxxxxx wrote:

A complete example is there:

https://plugincafe.maxon.net/topic/7326/8666_icustomgui-notify-about-changed-value

I can't find the time to substitute my personal library calls right now, but the implementation of these is also contained in the topic so it shouldn't be hard to do it yourself.

On 11/08/2013 at 11:37, xxxxxxxx wrote:

I really appreciate the effort Nik.
But as I said in that thread. Your code still leaves a lot of unanswered questions. Like how to attach it to the plugin?
Plus. As you said. You're using all kinds of proprietary stuff in there too. Which makes it impossible for me to figure out.

I need a simpler example without any proprietary code in it. That also shows how to attach the gizmo to my plugin.
I need enough code that I can paste it into my plugin and see how everything works.
But right now I don't have that. I still have a bunch of parts that I can't build into a working example.

-ScottA

On 11/08/2013 at 11:53, xxxxxxxx wrote:

I do not use proprietary code, its my own library that I use in various plugins. The code of the parts I use is right there in the thread.  I have posted everything that's necessary to make it work. You would greatly benefit from looking through the example, replace the required calls yourself and put it in your own project.

> >> Like how to attach it to the plugin?
It's a customgui, there is no special "attaching".

CONTAINER Omyplugin {
    INCLUDE Obase;  
    GROUP ID_OBJECTPROPERTIES {
        LONG MY_PARAM { **CUSTOMGUI PROXYTRISTATE** ; } // See ProxyTriStateData::GetResourceDataType() and ~::GetResourceSym()
    }
}

On 11/08/2013 at 12:06, xxxxxxxx wrote:

I'll upload the modified code (without dependency) and compiled versions to github tomorrow.

On 11/08/2013 at 12:32, xxxxxxxx wrote:

^Thanks. That would be very helpful.

I can't find the ObjectData class anywhere in your code.
And things like this are very hard to figure out: class ProxyTriStateGui : public nr::CustomGuiBase
Since I've never used CustomGuiBase or  TriState before. I'm scratching my head how to use it in my own plugin.
All I know is that I have to remove your nr library. But what goes in it's place?
It's things like this that are making it impossible to figure out.

-ScottA

On 11/08/2013 at 12:45, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Originally posted by xxxxxxxx

nr::CustomGuiBase inherits directly from iCustomGui and does not override any methods.

This means you can replace nr::CustomGuiBase directly with iCustomGui. As mentioned in the same posted I quoted above, the implementation of nr::CustomGuiBase::SendValueChanged() is one post before.

   // in class nr::CustomGuiBase
    void SendValueChanged(BaseContainer msg) {
        msg.SetLong(BFM_ACTION_ID, GetId());
        msg.RemoveData(BFM_ACTION_VALUE);
        msg.SetData(BFM_ACTION_VALUE, GetData().GetValue());
        SendParentMessage(msg);
    }

You can use this method directly by pasting it in your class. It is called somewhere else in the code and you do not have to substitute the call.

You only need to replace nr::InvokeCommandCall() by the following (also in the post I just quoted code from).

            GeDialog* dlg = GetDialog();
            BaseContainer actionmsg(BFM_ACTION), actionresult;
            actionmsg.SetLong(BFM_ACTION_ID, COMMANDMSG_VALUECHANGED);
            if (dlg) dlg->Message(actionmsg, actionresult);

Originally posted by xxxxxxxx

I can't find the ObjectData class anywhere in your code.

Because there is none!

Screw it, I won't upload it tomorrow because I did it just now:
https://github.com/nr-plugins/example-tristate-gui

-Niklas

On 11/08/2013 at 13:31, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Thanks Nik.
I downloaded the code and it complied fine without any problems.
However..This is not the end of the story. You're still leaving out a major piece of information.
There is no plugin in my plugins menu now. Which makes perfect sense to me because there's no plugin class's in your code.

So what do I do next?
Am I supposed to call to this customGUI from inside one of my plugins in order to use it?
I've never done anything like this before.

-ScottA

*Edit--Sorry. I just read what you posted and you did say to call to it.
        I'm currently in the process of trying to figure out how to do that.

On 11/08/2013 at 13:33, xxxxxxxx wrote:

You don't call it. You do not interact with it from code. It customises the interface. Check your User Data Manager for the "Integer" datatype. Under the "Interface" drop-down menu, there's a new entry called "Tristate". Your plugin doesn't care about the interface as long as it's got its values stored in the container and can use them to do whatever it implements.

On 11/08/2013 at 13:50, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Doh!
Now I get it.
For some reason I was thinking a customGUI was something different.

I'm going to step through it and try to learn how it all works and make some notes.
Hopefully I can make other things like sliders when I'm done going through it.

Thanks a lot for the code Nik. :thumbsup:
-ScottA

On 11/08/2013 at 14:24, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Thanks Niklas,

your efforts are invaluable. I'll need to spend a bit of time going through the reference code.

I've just had a peep at the SDK examples and found the datatype example. I didn't realise that one used some icustomgui stuff. Argh.

I think what Scott was querying is how do you add it to your description method (or res file?) of your own plugin? I.e. how do you get the customgui to show up in the AM when your object is selected (without having to add a userdata element). For instance, can we do something like this in the GetDDescription() of an object plugin:

  
// MY_CUSTOMGUI_GUI = the registered customgui plugin ID...   
cid = DescLevel(ID_TAB_MAIN_CUSTOMGUI_ELEMENT, DTYPE_CUSTOMGUI, 0);   
if(!id_tab || cid.IsPartOf(*id_tab,NULL))   
{   
    BaseContainer bc = GetCustomDataTypeDefault(CUSTOMGUI_DESCRIPTION);   
    bc.GetCustomDataType( CUSTOMGUI_DESCRIPTION, MY_CUSTOMGUI_GUI);   
    bc.SetString(DESC_NAME, "My CustomGui Element");   
    bc.SetString(DESC_SHORT_NAME, "My CustomGui Element");   
    if(!description->SetParameter(cid, bc, DescLevel(ID_TAB_MAIN_GROUP))) return TRUE;   
}   

I'll have to pick this up in the morning again and run some experiments. But is this kind of thing possible (from inside the GetDDescription())?

I'm about to conk out. Thanks as always,

WP.

On 11/08/2013 at 15:04, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Yeah. I'm still not able to get it to work in a plugin.
He did post this .res code earlier: LONG MY_PARAM { CUSTOMGUI PROXYTRISTATE; }
But that code doesn't work for me.
C4D does not recognize the new gizmo using this code.

The gizmo works fine from the UserData.
But getting it to work in a plugin is still not happening for me yet.

-ScottA

On 11/08/2013 at 21:37, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Originally posted by xxxxxxxx

For instance, can we do something like this in the GetDDescription() of an object plugin:

 
// MY_CUSTOMGUI_GUI = the registered customgui plugin ID...   
cid = DescLevel(ID_TAB_MAIN_CUSTOMGUI_ELEMENT, DTYPE_CUSTOMGUI, 0);   
if(!id_tab || cid.IsPartOf(*id_tab,NULL))   
{   
  BaseContainer bc = GetCustomDataTypeDefault(CUSTOMGUI_DESCRIPTION);   
  bc.GetCustomDataType( CUSTOMGUI_DESCRIPTION, MY_CUSTOMGUI_GUI);   
  bc.SetString(DESC_NAME, "My CustomGui Element");   
  bc.SetString(DESC_SHORT_NAME, "My CustomGui Element");   
  if(!description->SetParameter(cid, bc, DescLevel(ID_TAB_MAIN_GROUP))) return TRUE;   
}   

Yes this is possible, but you are doing it wrong. The datatype should be DA_LONG for this tri-state custom GUI and BaseContainer::GetCustomDataType() does something very different. Also, CUSTOMGUI_DESCRIPTION is not a plugin ID for a datatype but a pluginid for a custom GUI (as the name implies).

    BaseContainer bc = GetCustomDataTypeDefault(DA_LONG); 
    bc.SetLong(DESC_CUSTOMGUI, CUSTOMGUI_TRISTATE);  // defined in TriStateCustomGui.cpp, grab it from there
// ...

On 11/08/2013 at 21:41, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Originally posted by xxxxxxxx

Yeah. I'm still not able to get it to work in a plugin.
He did post this .res code earlier: LONG MY_PARAM { CUSTOMGUI PROXYTRISTATE; }
But that code doesn't work for me.
C4D does not recognize the new gizmo using this code.

The gizmo works fine from the UserData.
But getting it to work in a plugin is still not happening for me yet.

-ScottA

Sorry for this. :wink: The custom GUI was part of a plugin that was called "Proxy Tag" but I stripped this part of the plugin and only left the custom GUI. I renamed it to "TriStateCustomGui" and the resource identifier is "TRISTATE" only now. Just look at TriStateCustomGui::GetResourceSym()!

On 12/08/2013 at 07:37, xxxxxxxx wrote:

OK, I've managed to get the SDK's datatype to show up through my plugin's GetDDescription().So I can do that much. I've also managed to add that code into my own plugin's code files (not much more than a copy & paste really).

The gap now is moving between the SDK's pre-made gizmos, to being able to write my own _GetDescription() function of the CustomDataTypeClass. Or more precisely, being able to 'draw' into it. I can't seem to do either at this stage.

I noticed one example on here used a GeUserArea (that was for a dialog example), but can this method of making your own gui be used and displayed in the AM (I thought UAs were dialog only..)?

WP.

UPDATE: I can now add elements through the customgui's _GetDecription(). It's a little different than the normal GetDDescription() function. More to come..

On 12/08/2013 at 07:44, xxxxxxxx wrote:

That's ok Nik.
I did look through the code and I tried all kinds of combinations. But I just couldn't nail it.
After a lot of tries I finally I hit upon the winning combination:  LONG MY_PARAM { CUSTOMGUI TRISTATE; }

One other thing that you might want to be aware of.
You included a strange .dll file in your git hub files. I deleted it and everything runs fine without it.
So I'm guessing it's from something else you were doing?
I don't know if you intentionally put it in there for some reason. Or just forgot to remove it. But I just wanted to let you know about it.

Once again. Thanks for posting the code.,
-ScottA

On 11/09/2013 at 03:16, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Hi Folks,

just a quick follow-up for this, everything is going well, except I'm needing to refresh/redraw the userarea associated with the customgui when I change a description cycle. Currently I have to initiate a redraw by re-clicking in the userarea. But I'd like an auto-update.

I've tried things like the below:

  
ListCustomData:: // any custom function here   
ListCustomGui::CustomGuiRedraw();   
MyDescriptionUA::Redraw();   
MyDescriptionUA::LayoutChanged()   

but all give me compile errors concerning illegal calls of non-static member function. Should I be redrawing/recalling the tool's GetDDesription() or refreshing the AM somehow?

What's the correct way to go about this?

WP.

On 11/09/2013 at 09:47, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Hi WickedP,

From when and where exactly do you need the refresh? The methods you have listed are member
methods, you should call them on instances of the class, like

class MyCustomGui : public iCustomGui {
  
    MyDescriptionUA m_ua;
  
public:
  
    //| iCustomGui Overrides
  
    void CustomGuiRedraw() {
        m_ua.Redraw();
    }
  
    // ...
  
};

This by the way is the exact thing you should do when creating an iCustomGui subclass. The documentation
contains this information:

Originally posted by xxxxxxxx

virtual void CustomGuiRedraw()_<_h4_>_

Called when the GUI is redrawn. Use this to for example update your user areas.

Best,
-Niklas

On 11/09/2013 at 16:09, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Hi there Niklas,

I'm calling this from my tool plugin's SetDParameter() - so that when my cycle element changes it's id, an update is triggered on the userarea to redraw itself.

I thought it would have something to do with calling them on an instance, but the userarea is instanced in the icustomgui and not the tool plugin's class - so I couldn't work out how that was done. The customgui plugin itself is inserted via the tool's GetDDescription() using the customgui's plugin id. How do I make a call to the customgui element if the userarea is not instanced in the tool plugin's class itself?

  
// Registered customgui plugin:   
  
class MyCustomUA : public GeUserArea   
{   
    //functions etc..   
}   
  
class MyCustomGui : public iCustomGui   
{   
    MyCustomUA MCU;   
    // functions etc.. including the following   
    void CustomGuiRedraw()   
    {   
        MCY.Redraw()   
    }   
}   
  
class MyCustomData : public CustomGuiData   
{   
    // functions etc..   
}   
  
// Registered tool plugin:   
  
class MyTool : public DescriptionToolData   
{   
    // functions etc.. no instances to the customgui is used anywhere,   
    // the only reference to the customgui at all is in the description below   
    GetDDescription(doc, data, description, flags)   
    {   
        .....   
        cid = DescLevel(ID_HOME_GROUP_CUSTOMGUI, DTYPE_LONG, 0);   
        if(!id_Home || cid.IsPartOf(*id_Home,NULL))   
        {   
            BaseContainer bc = GetCustomDataTypeDefault(DTYPE_LONG);   
         bc.SetLong(DESC_CUSTOMGUI,ID_MY_CUSTOMGUI); // registered plugin   
         bc.SetBool(DESC_GROUPSCALEV, TRUE);   
         bc.SetBool(DESC_GUIOPEN, TRUE);   
         bc.SetLong(DESC_SCALEH, TRUE);   
         bc.SetString(DESC_NAME, "");   
            bc.SetString(DESC_SHORT_NAME, "");   
            if(!description->SetParameter(cid, bc, DescLevel(ID_HOME_GROUP_CUSTOMGUI_GROUP))) return TRUE;   
        }          
        return SUPER::GetDDescription(doc, data, description, flags);   
    }   
}   

WP.

P.s. on a slightly different note, I've been meaning to send you a PM sometime too regarding a topic here from some time a go. I'll try whizzing one over in the next few weeks, hope that is o.k.