Thanks for the response.

DESC_GUIOPEN works having the twirl down open by default. What I'm looking for is the ability to modify whether or not it is actively open based on controls by the user. For example if "Angle Threshold" is greater than 90 degrees than have it twirled down, otherwise have it closed.

John Terenece

Hi.

I am currently working on an object plugin that would utilize Takes for a user to be able to quickly iterate through different potential versions of their scene. I've looked through the sdk and the different manuals that are available and I believe I understand the processes required.

My issue comes in with the amount of time it take Cinema to run my plugin in regards to the creation of the Takes and if this is just the time that it takes to create them.

I created a simple scene with a hundred objects underneath my plugin. With the code below I create a Take and assign a layer to each of the child objects. For time testing I create an additional 500 Takes using the first Take as the cloneFrom inside AddTake. This isn't a final version of my code just a test example.

The code is executed on a button press.

			case idRunTakes:
			{
				TakeData* takeData = doc->GetTakeData();
				if (!takeData)
					return TRUE;

				LayerObject *hideLayer = LayerObject::Alloc();

				const Vector hsv = Vector(1.0, 0, 0);
				const Vector rgb = HSVToRGB(hsv);
				newTakeTime = 0;
				settingTakeTime = 0;
				LayerData newdata;
				newdata.color = rgb;
				newdata.solo = FALSE;
				newdata.view = FALSE;
				newdata.render = FALSE;
				newdata.manager = TRUE;
				newdata.locked = FALSE;
				newdata.generators = FALSE;
				newdata.deformers = FALSE;
				newdata.expressions = FALSE;
				newdata.animation = FALSE;
				newdata.xref = TRUE;
				hideLayer->SetLayerData(doc, newdata);
				hideLayer->SetName("Hide Layer"_s);

				GeListHead* layerList = NULL;
				layerList = doc->GetLayerObjectRoot();

				layerList->InsertLast(hideLayer);
				maxon::BaseArray<BaseObject*> childObjArray;
				GatherAllChildObjects(splineObj->GetDown(), childObjArray);

				DescID aliasLinkDId = DescLevel(ID_LAYER_LINK, DA_ALIASLINK, 0);
				GeData setData;
				setData.SetBaseList2D((BaseList2D*)hideLayer);

				Float createNewTakesTime = 0;
				Float timeStart = 0;
				Float loopTimeStart = GeGetMilliSeconds();

				timeStart = GeGetMilliSeconds(); 
				BaseTake* newTake = takeData->AddTake(String("Take " + String::IntToString(0)), nullptr, nullptr);
				if (newTake == nullptr)
					return TRUE;

				createNewTakesTime = createNewTakesTime + GeGetMilliSeconds() - timeStart;
				for (Int32 childObjIndex = 0; childObjIndex < childObjArray.GetCount(); childObjIndex++)
				{
					BaseOverride* overrideNode = newTake->FindOrAddOverrideParam(takeData, childObjArray[childObjIndex], aliasLinkDId, setData);
					if (overrideNode == nullptr)
						return TRUE;

					childObjArray[childObjIndex]->SetLayerObject(hideLayer);
					overrideNode->UpdateSceneNode(takeData, aliasLinkDId);
				}


				for (Int32 takeIndex = 1; takeIndex < 501; takeIndex++)
				{
					timeStart = GeGetMilliSeconds();
// This is the line taking up a lot of time
					BaseTake* loopTake = takeData->AddTake(String("Take " + String::IntToString(takeIndex)), nullptr, newTake);
					if (loopTake == nullptr)
						return TRUE;
					createNewTakesTime = createNewTakesTime + GeGetMilliSeconds() - timeStart;
					
				}
				ApplicationOutput("Take time " + String::FloatToString(createNewTakesTime) + "    " + String::FloatToString(GeGetMilliSeconds() - loopTimeStart - createNewTakesTime));
				break;
			}


// Code for getting all of the child objects
void TakeCreatorPlugin::GatherAllChildObjects(BaseObject *childObject, maxon::BaseArray<BaseObject*> &objChildOfNullsArray)
{
	if (childObject == nullptr)
		return;

	while (childObject)
	{
		objChildOfNullsArray.Append(childObject);


		GatherAllChildObjects(childObject->GetDown(), objChildOfNullsArray);
		childObject = childObject->GetNext();
	}
}

Running the code in my test scene gives the following print out "Take time 1920.243 20.232". So most of the time my plugin is running is taken up by adding the takes into the document. Is this just the time that Cinema takes in this kind of circumstance to create the Takes or am I just missing a crucial step,

I've looked through the manuals in the sdk and tried to follow them.

I've also tried to create all of the Takes empty and add the Overrides to each one individually which increases the time that step takes which isn't desirable either.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

JohnTerenece

Thanks for the response. This seems to have solved the problem.

John Terenece

Release mode.

Hello.

I am encountering a problem when I insert my object plugin into a scene in R26, save the document and then reopen the file. When I click the button to open the GeDialog Cinema immediately crashes on me.

I stripped down the code for my GeDialog to the bare minimum that was still similar to the examples in the sdk and the problem is still occurring.

#include "c4d_general.h"
#include "c4d.h"
#include "c4d_symbols.h"
#include "main.h"

#define ID_RUNDIALOG 1059364
enum Controls
{
	idSendMessageLinkObject = 1000,
	idLinkedObject,
	idGatherChildren,

	idOverallScrollGroup = 2000,
	idGroupToFlush,
	idControls,

	idLaunchDialogWindow = 1500,
	idBasicControlGroup,
};

class ObjDialog : public GeDialog
{
public:
	ObjDialog() {}
	virtual ~ObjDialog() {}
	virtual Bool CreateLayout();
	virtual Bool InitValues();
	virtual void DestroyWindow();
	virtual Bool Command(Int32 id, const BaseContainer& msg);
	virtual Int32 Message(const BaseContainer& msg, BaseContainer& result);
};


Bool ObjDialog::CreateLayout()
{
	Bool res = GeDialog::CreateLayout();

	SetTitle("Dialog Window"_s);

	ScrollGroupBegin(idOverallScrollGroup, BFH_SCALEFIT | BFV_SCALEFIT, SCROLLGROUP_VERT | SCROLLGROUP_HORIZ);
	{
		GroupBegin(idGroupToFlush, BFH_SCALEFIT | BFV_SCALEFIT, 1, 0, String(), 0);
		{
			GroupBegin(idControls, BFH_SCALEFIT | BFV_SCALEFIT, 5, 0, String(), 0);
			{
			}
			GroupEnd();
		}
		GroupEnd();
	}
	GroupEnd();

	return res;
}

Bool ObjDialog::InitValues()
{
	if (!GeDialog::InitValues())
		return false;
	return true;
}

void ObjDialog::DestroyWindow() {}

Bool ObjDialog::Command(Int32 id, const BaseContainer& msg)
{
	return true;
}


Int32 ObjDialog::Message(const BaseContainer& msg, BaseContainer& result)
{
	return GeDialog::Message(msg, result);
}


class RunDialog : public ObjectData
{
public:
	virtual Bool Init(GeListNode* node);

	virtual BaseObject* GetVirtualObjects(BaseObject* op, HierarchyHelp* hh);
	virtual Bool Message(GeListNode* node, Int32 type, void* t_data);
	virtual Bool GetDDescription(GeListNode* node, Description* description, DESCFLAGS_DESC& flags);

	static NodeData* Alloc() { return NewObjClear(RunDialog); }

	maxon::BaseArray<BaseObject*> objArrayToCheckForMatch;
private:
	ObjDialog dlg;
};


Bool RunDialog::GetDDescription(GeListNode *node, Description *description, DESCFLAGS_DESC &flags)
{
	BaseContainer *dataInstance;
	const DescID *singleid;
	if (!description->LoadDescription(node->GetType()))
	{
	}

	dataInstance = ((BaseList2D*)node)->GetDataInstance(); // Get the container for the tag
	if (!dataInstance)
		return FALSE;
	singleid = description->GetSingleDescID();
	DescID cid;


	DescID DescHelperControlGroup = DescLevel(idBasicControlGroup, DTYPE_GROUP, 0);
	if (!singleid || DescHelperControlGroup.IsPartOf(*singleid, NULL))
	{
		BaseContainer bc;
		bc = GetCustomDataTypeDefault(DTYPE_GROUP);
		bc.SetString(DESC_NAME, "Run Dialog"_s);
		bc.SetInt32(DESC_COLUMNS, 1);
		bc.SetInt32(DESC_DEFAULT, 1);
		bc.SetBool(DESC_SCALEH, TRUE);

		if (!description->SetParameter(DescHelperControlGroup, bc, DescLevel(ID_RUNDIALOG)))
			return TRUE;
	}


	cid = DescLevel(idLaunchDialogWindow, DTYPE_BUTTON, 0);
	if (!singleid || cid.IsPartOf(*singleid, NULL))  //  important to check for speedup c4d!
	{
		BaseContainer bc;
		bc = GetCustomDataTypeDefault(DTYPE_BUTTON);
		bc.SetInt32(DESC_CUSTOMGUI, CUSTOMGUI_BUTTON);
		bc.SetString(DESC_NAME, "Open Dialog"_s);
		if (!description->SetParameter(cid, bc, DescHelperControlGroup))
			return TRUE;
	}




	flags |= DESCFLAGS_DESC::LOADED;

	return TRUE;
}

Bool RunDialog::Init(GeListNode* node)
{
	return true;
}


Bool RunDialog::Message(GeListNode* node, Int32 type, void* t_data)
{
	if (type == MSG_DESCRIPTION_COMMAND)
	{
		DescriptionCommand *dc = (DescriptionCommand*)t_data;
		if (!dc)
			return TRUE;
		Int32 ID = Int32(dc->_descId[0].id);
		BaseDocument* doc = node->GetDocument();
		if (!doc)
			return TRUE;

		switch (ID)
		{
			// Problem occurs here
			case idLaunchDialogWindow:
			{
				if (dlg.IsOpen() == false)
					dlg.Open(DLG_TYPE::ASYNC, ID_RUNDIALOG, -1, -1, 300, 200, 0, OPENDIALOGFLAGS::IGNORELAYOUT);
				break;
			}
		}
	}

	return true;
}

BaseObject* RunDialog::GetVirtualObjects(BaseObject* op, HierarchyHelp* hh)
{
	BaseObject *nullReturn = BaseObject::Alloc(Onull);

	return nullReturn;
}

Bool RegisterRunDialog()
{

	return RegisterObjectPlugin(ID_RUNDIALOG, "Run Dialog"_s, OBJECT_GENERATOR | OBJECT_INPUT, RunDialog::Alloc, "ORunDialog"_s, AutoBitmap("atom.tif"_s), 0);
}

I've used this same code in R20 and R25 and haven't had a single issue with opening the GeDialog, I only started encountering the problem in R26.

Looking at the examples in the sdk that deal with GeDialogs they are all opened via a CommandData plugin and the GeDialog manual specifically mentions that GeDialog based windows are typically owned by a CommandData plugin.

Is it now a requirement to use a CommandData plugin to open a GeDialog?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

John Terenece

@m_magalhaes

Thanks for the response.

Might be able to use your idea as potential solution.

John Terenece

Just to clarify, I know that adding more objects and such to a document in Cinema will make it use up more memory and cause it to lag when it gets bad enough. My issue is that Cinema is running fine with a certain number of takes and then I add one more and it immediately crashes.

Hi.

I am running into an issue when creating a large number of takes where Cinema is crashing on me, and this problem seems unrelated to the actual creation of the takes.

Using my code I try to create a large number of takes, around 1400, with parameters overridden for objects in the scene, at some point during the creation process Cinema will crash. I recreated the case inside of CInema without my code by creating a take with one overridden object and then copy and pasting it, when I get to around 1400 takes in the document Cinema crashes on me.

Is this just a limitation of Cinema when it comes to takes and that it can't handle that many inside of one document? Having multiple documents with a thousand takes in them open at the same time does not cause Cinema to crash.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

John Terenece

So I was right I was missing something incredibly simple. Thanks for the response Manuel, it works perfectly now.

Hello.

I'm currently working on an Object plugin that will make changes to the objects that are its children. As part of this I want to have the user be able to open a GeDialog via a button press, the GeDialog will display controls corresponding to the child objects of my plugin.

In my code I am successfully opening the GeDialog and gathering the child objects by sending messages to the GeDialog. On first opening the GeDialog I am creating a series of strings corresponding to the names of the child objects. All of this is working properly.

My problem comes in when I want to try and update the GeDialog because new child objects were added. I am checking to see if the count of child objects or the order has been changed inside of a function called from GetVirtualObjects. If the hierarchy has changed I send the same messages to the GeDialog that I do when its first opened. This isn't exactly how it would be done in the final version of the plugin,

Whenever the hierarchy is changed the messages are properly being sent but the GeDialog is not updating its layout. If I press the same button that I use to launch the GeDialog then the layout updates to what it should display.

Here is all of the code for my stripped down plugin.

#include "c4d_general.h"
#include "c4d.h"
#include "c4d_symbols.h"
#include "main.h"

#define ID_RUNDIALOG 1059364
enum Controls
{
	idSendMessageLinkObject = 1000,
	idLinkedObject,
	idGatherChildren,

	idOverallScrollGroup = 2000,
	idGroupToFlush,
	idControls,

	idLaunchDialogWindow= 1500,
	idBasicControlGroup,
};

maxon::Result<void> resultVoid;
maxon::Result<BaseObject*> resultBaseObject;

class ObjDialog : public GeDialog
{
public:
	ObjDialog() {}
	virtual ~ObjDialog() {}
	virtual Bool CreateLayout();
	virtual Bool InitValues();
	virtual void DestroyWindow();
	virtual Bool Command(Int32 id, const BaseContainer& msg);
	virtual Int32 Message(const BaseContainer& msg, BaseContainer& result);
	virtual void CreateWeighLayout(maxon::BaseArray<BaseObject*> &objForDisplay);
	BaseObject *linkedObj;

	

};

// Flushes and recreates the layout
void ObjDialog::CreateWeighLayout(maxon::BaseArray<BaseObject*> &objForDisplay)
{
	LayoutFlushGroup(idGroupToFlush);
	GroupBegin(idControls, BFH_SCALEFIT | BFV_SCALEFIT, 1, 0, String(), 0);
	{
		Int32 idContinueFrom = 10000;
		for (Int32 objIndex = 0; objIndex < objForDisplay.GetCount(); objIndex++)
			AddStaticText(idContinueFrom + objIndex, BFH_LEFT, 0, 0, objForDisplay[objIndex]->GetName(), 0);
	}
	GroupEnd();
	LayoutChanged(idGroupToFlush);
}

Bool ObjDialog::CreateLayout()
{
	Bool res = GeDialog::CreateLayout();

	SetTitle("Child Objects"_s);

	ScrollGroupBegin(idOverallScrollGroup, BFH_SCALEFIT | BFV_SCALEFIT, SCROLLGROUP_VERT | SCROLLGROUP_HORIZ);
	{
		GroupBegin(idGroupToFlush, BFH_SCALEFIT | BFV_SCALEFIT, 1, 0, String(), 0);
		{
			GroupBegin(idControls, BFH_SCALEFIT | BFV_SCALEFIT, 5, 0, String(), 0);
			{
			}
			GroupEnd();
		}
		GroupEnd();
	}
	GroupEnd();
	
	return res;
}

Bool ObjDialog::InitValues()
{
	if (!GeDialog::InitValues())
		return false;
	linkedObj = nullptr;
	return true;
}

void ObjDialog::DestroyWindow() {}

Bool ObjDialog::Command(Int32 id, const BaseContainer& msg)
{
	return true;
}


Int32 ObjDialog::Message(const BaseContainer& msg, BaseContainer& result)
{
	BaseDocument *doc = GetActiveDocument();
	switch (msg.GetId())
	{
		// Links the plugin object
		case idSendMessageLinkObject:
		{
			if (doc)
			{
				if (msg.GetLink(idLinkedObject, doc))
					linkedObj = (BaseObject*)msg.GetLink(idLinkedObject, doc);
			}
			break;
		}
		// Gathers the children and calls the function to redo the layout
		case idGatherChildren:
		{
			if (doc)
			{
				if (linkedObj)
				{
					maxon::BaseArray<BaseObject*> objForDisplay;
					BaseObject *categoryObj = linkedObj->GetDown();
					while (categoryObj)
					{
						resultBaseObject = objForDisplay.Append(categoryObj);
						categoryObj = categoryObj->GetNext();
					}
					CreateWeighLayout(objForDisplay);
				}

			}
			break;
		}
	}
	return GeDialog::Message(msg, result);
}


class RunDialog : public ObjectData
{
public:
	virtual Bool Init(GeListNode* node);

	virtual BaseObject* GetVirtualObjects(BaseObject* op, HierarchyHelp* hh);
	virtual Bool Message(GeListNode* node, Int32 type, void* t_data);
	virtual Bool HierarchyChange(BaseObject *op, BaseDocument *doc);
	virtual Bool GetDDescription(GeListNode* node, Description* description, DESCFLAGS_DESC& flags);

	ObjDialog dlg;
	
	static NodeData* Alloc() { return NewObjClear(RunDialog); }

	maxon::BaseArray<BaseObject*> objArrayToCheckForMatch;
	
};


Bool RunDialog::GetDDescription(GeListNode *node, Description *description, DESCFLAGS_DESC &flags)
{
	BaseContainer *dataInstance;   
	const DescID *singleid;    
	if (!description->LoadDescription(node->GetType()))
	{
	}

	dataInstance = ((BaseList2D*)node)->GetDataInstance(); // Get the container for the tag
	if (!dataInstance)
		return FALSE;
	singleid = description->GetSingleDescID();
	DescID cid;


	DescID DescHelperControlGroup = DescLevel(idBasicControlGroup, DTYPE_GROUP, 0);
	if (!singleid || DescHelperControlGroup.IsPartOf(*singleid, NULL))
	{
		BaseContainer bc;
		bc = GetCustomDataTypeDefault(DTYPE_GROUP);
		bc.SetString(DESC_NAME, "Run Dialog"_s);
		bc.SetInt32(DESC_COLUMNS, 1);
		bc.SetInt32(DESC_DEFAULT, 1);
		bc.SetBool(DESC_SCALEH, TRUE);

		if (!description->SetParameter(DescHelperControlGroup, bc, DescLevel(ID_RUNDIALOG)))
			return TRUE;
	}


	cid = DescLevel(idLaunchDialogWindow, DTYPE_BUTTON, 0);
	if (!singleid || cid.IsPartOf(*singleid, NULL))  //  important to check for speedup c4d!
	{
		BaseContainer bc;
		bc = GetCustomDataTypeDefault(DTYPE_BUTTON);
		bc.SetInt32(DESC_CUSTOMGUI, CUSTOMGUI_BUTTON);
		bc.SetString(DESC_NAME, "Open Dialog"_s);
		if (!description->SetParameter(cid, bc, DescHelperControlGroup))
			return TRUE;
	}




	flags |= DESCFLAGS_DESC::LOADED;

	return TRUE;
}

Bool RunDialog::Init(GeListNode* node)
{
	BaseObject*		 op = (BaseObject*)node;
	BaseContainer* data = op->GetDataInstance();
	return true;
}


Bool RunDialog::Message(GeListNode* node, Int32 type, void* t_data)
{
	BaseContainer* dataInstance;
	BaseObject *op = (BaseObject*)node;
	if (!op)
		return TRUE;
	dataInstance = op->GetDataInstance();
	if (!dataInstance)
		return TRUE;

	
	if (type == MSG_DESCRIPTION_COMMAND)
	{
		DescriptionCommand *dc = (DescriptionCommand*)t_data;
		if (!dc)
			return TRUE;
		Int32 ID = Int32(dc->_descId[0].id);
		BaseDocument* doc = node->GetDocument();
		if (!doc)
			return TRUE;


		switch (ID)
		{
			case idLaunchDialogWindow:
			{
				if (dlg.IsOpen() == false)
					dlg.Open(DLG_TYPE::ASYNC, ID_RUNDIALOG, -1, -1, 300, 200, 0);
				

				// Message just links the plugin to the GeDialog so that I can get access to its children inside of the GeDialog
				BaseContainer result;
				BaseContainer msgLink;
				msgLink.SetLink(idLinkedObject, op);
				msgLink.SetId(idSendMessageLinkObject);
				dlg.Message(msgLink, result);

				// Message that runs the code to gather the children and recreate the layout of the GeDialog
				BaseContainer msgGather;
				msgGather.SetId(idGatherChildren);
				dlg.Message(msgGather, result);


				break;
			}
		}
	}
	
	return true;
}

// Gets the direct children under the plugin and checks if they have been rearranged
Bool RunDialog::HierarchyChange(BaseObject *op, BaseDocument *doc)
{
	if (doc == nullptr || op == nullptr)
		return FALSE;

	BaseObject *childObj = op->GetDown();

	maxon::BaseArray<BaseObject*> rktNullArray;
	while (childObj)
	{
		resultBaseObject = rktNullArray.Append(childObj);
		childObj = childObj->GetNext();
	}

	Bool setDirty = FALSE;
	if (Int32(objArrayToCheckForMatch.GetCount()) != Int32(rktNullArray.GetCount()))
	{
		setDirty = TRUE;
	}
	else
	{
		for (Int32 categoryIndex = 0; categoryIndex < Int32(objArrayToCheckForMatch.GetCount()); categoryIndex++)
		{
			if (objArrayToCheckForMatch[categoryIndex] != rktNullArray[categoryIndex])
			{
				setDirty = TRUE;
				break;
			}
		}
	}
	objArrayToCheckForMatch.Reset();
	resultVoid = objArrayToCheckForMatch.CopyFrom(rktNullArray);
	
	return setDirty;
}

BaseObject* RunDialog::GetVirtualObjects(BaseObject* op, HierarchyHelp* hh)
{
	BaseObject *nullReturn = BaseObject::Alloc(Onull);
	BaseDocument *doc = op->GetDocument();
	Bool setDirty = HierarchyChange(op, doc);

	// Runs if the hierarchy has changed
	if (setDirty == TRUE)
	{
		if (dlg.IsOpen() == TRUE)
		{
			BaseContainer result;
			BaseContainer msgLink;
			msgLink.SetLink(idLinkedObject, op);
			msgLink.SetId(idSendMessageLinkObject);
			dlg.Message(msgLink, result);

			BaseContainer msgGather;
			msgGather.SetId(idGatherChildren);
			dlg.Message(msgGather, result);

		}
	}
	return nullReturn;
}

Bool RegisterRunDialog()
{
	return RegisterObjectPlugin(ID_RUNDIALOG, "Run Dialog"_s, OBJECT_GENERATOR | OBJECT_INPUT, RunDialog::Alloc, "ORunDialog"_s, AutoBitmap("atom.tif"_s), 0);
}

In the sdk I saw that the examples that involve GeDialogs seem to all be Command plugins. Do you need to be a Command plugin to properly update in the way that I am attempting to?

As I said above hitting the button in my plugin causes the GeDialog to update, what I am looking to have it do is update as more objects are inserted under the plugin without further user input.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, I'm probably missing something incredibly simple.

John Terenece

Thanks for the response Ferdinand, I thought that that would be the case.

John Terenece

As an additional question when it comes to deleting the takes it seems to take a considerable amount of time to run DeleteTake on the above mentioned five hundred takes. The objects in the scene only have one overridden parameter each but it took over two minutes to run the code below to delete all of the takes using the code below running on a button press.

Float takeDeleteTimeStart = GeGetMilliSeconds();
				TakeData* takeData = doc->GetTakeData();
				if (!takeData)
					return TRUE;

				BaseTake* currentTake = takeData->GetCurrentTake();
				if (currentTake == nullptr)
					return TRUE;
				BaseTake *removeTakes = takeData->GetMainTake();
				if (removeTakes)
				{
					BaseOverride *removeOverride;
					BaseTake *deleteTake = removeTakes->GetDown();
					maxon::BaseArray<BaseTake*> arrayOfTakes;
					while (deleteTake)
					{

						arrayOfTakes.Append(deleteTake);
						deleteTake = deleteTake->GetNext();
					}

					DescID replaceId = DescLevel(ID_BASEOBJECT_XRAY, DTYPE_BOOL, 0);
					
					for (Int32 deleteIndex = 0; deleteIndex < arrayOfTakes.GetCount(); deleteIndex++)
					{
						takeData->DeleteTake(arrayOfTakes[deleteIndex]);
					}
					arrayOfTakes.Flush();

				}
				ApplicationOutput("Total time to dumb delete " + String::FloatToString(GeGetMilliSeconds() - takeDeleteTimeStart));

Not asking for someone to debug the code, just wondering if it taking so long to both create the Takes and delete them given the scene would be expected or if I'm missing something fundamental when it comes to Takes.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

John Terenece