Path to res folder on Mac [SOLVED]

On 24/09/2015 at 02:34, xxxxxxxx wrote:

User Information:
Cinema 4D Version:   17 
Platform:      Mac OSX  ; 
Language(s) :     C++  ;

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Hi,

I am trying to access the res folder, and a subfolder inside it where I have some images stored.
On windows, I can access the folder with the images without a problem, using this code:

String imageTexture = "myImage.jpg";
String ss = GeGetPluginPath().GetString()+"\\res\\"+"\\images\\"+imageTexture;

On Xcode 7, it does not work. It gives this result in the material editor:
Asset not found. 
  Cause: file:///Applications/MAXON/CINEMA 4D R17/plugins/MyPlugin\res\\images\myImage.jpg 
  Cause: Errno #2: No such file or directory
Note the backslashes, they need to be forward slashes, but I can't figure out how to do this on the Mac.
Any help on this would be appreciated.
Thanks

On 24/09/2015 at 03:13, xxxxxxxx wrote:

1. Why not avoid the double backslash:

String ss = GeGetPluginPath().GetString()+"\\res\\images\\"+imageTexture;

2. I use #defines to distinguish the OS for which my plugin is being built.

#ifdef _WINDOWS
String ss = GeGetPluginPath().GetString()+"\\res\\images\\"+imageTexture;
#else // or #elif defined(MACOS) or similar
String ss = GeGetPluginPath().GetString()+"/res/images/"+imageTexture;
#endif

On 24/09/2015 at 04:00, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Thanks for the reply Robert.

I already tried that (and a million other alterations). With your code, all I get is the path without the name of the plugin nor the folders:

Asset not found. 
  Cause: file:///Applications/MAXON/CINEMA 4D R17/plugins/myImage.jpg 
  Cause: Errno #2: No such file or directory

If I print the result with GePrint, I get the proper path. But inside the material editor the result is wrong and the file is not found.

On 24/09/2015 at 04:12, xxxxxxxx wrote:

When you create the Filename, you will probably be better using SetDirectory() and SetFile().  It is a quirk of this class that has always bothered me.  So, create the directory path string and use it with SetDirectory() and then use SetFile() with the file name.  Both of these methods accept Filename, so you will need to call something like:

filename.SetDirectory(Filename(ss)); // without imageTexture appended
filename.SetFile(Filename(imageTexture));

It may also be a better idea to simply avoid the '' and '/' and append to the directory path as follows:

Filename ss = GeGetPluginPath() + Filename("res") + Filename("images");

In this case, the path separators are handled by the underlying system,

On 24/09/2015 at 10:44, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Thank you Robert. It now works.

On 25/09/2015 at 08:46, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Hi guys,

nice, that you already solved this on your own 
Just a small addition from my side: I'd suggest to use only slashes (/) in filepaths in your plugins code. C4D will take care and convert them to backslashes on Windows systems. Contrary backslashes (\ or rather \\) won't be converted into slashes on Mac systems. So with slashes it is a bit easier to write system independent code.

On 25/09/2015 at 08:58, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Originally posted by xxxxxxxx

Hi guys,
nice, that you already solved this on your own 
Just a small addition from my side: I'd suggest to use only slashes (/) in filepaths in your plugins code. C4D will take care and convert them to backslashes on Windows systems. Contrary backslashes (\ or rather \\) won't be converted into slashes on Mac systems. So with slashes it is a bit easier to write system independent code.

Just to give you some background info why there 's only limited conversion (on the Mac), folks:

In the Win32 file system API there are a lot of limitations regarding what file names can contain (there are a lot less on the NT system level - that 's more like a unix based file system - but you don't get that on the Win32 level due to backward compatibility).

On Unix file systems (like on OS X and Linux) on the other hand there are basically just two limitations for a valid file name: It can't use a slash and it can't use a null byte. All the other stuff (":", "\", ...) is possible in a file name on the posix level - and is used by customers in their content.

Best regards,

Wilfried