scriptwin


Scripting Languages / Scripting Window
Scripting Window Introduction The Scripting Window provides you with a very general and powerful interface to the program. It allows you to manipulate geometric objects, materials, post effects, user interfaces or any other objects of the program. This tutorial demonstrates the basic ideas behind scripting. It also describes the basic structure of the Realsoft 3D program. Open the scripting window by selecting the pull-down menu 'Windows/Scripting Window'. Then set the 'Language' field to 'RPL' (or another language that has been plugged in). This tutorial includes examples for RPL language. Exploring the structure of Realsoft 3D The structure of the Realsoft 3D application is hierarchical. The program consists of several sub objects which all have their own internal sub structure. To find out the sub structure of Realsoft 3D application object, just enter the command: "" Attrs This gives you the list of all properties (attributes) defined by Realsoft 3D application object. object CurrentProject object ProjectList object Filer object UnitConverte object RenderSettings object RenderOutputs object Macros ... One of the attributes defined by the Realsoft 3D application is 'CurrentProject'. The type of 'CurrentProject' field is object which means that its internal structure can be explored further by calling: "CurrentProject" Attrs This shows you the sub structure of the "CurrentProject" object: object UnitConverte bool AnimRecord object Geometrics object Materials object ImageEffects ... The 'CurrentProject' object in turn consists of several sub objects, such as geometric objects, materials, image effects, an animator and so on. To find out what properties the 'Animator' object defines, enter the command: "CurrentProject.Animator" Attrs The command prints out the following properties: int Frame float Param int Field int Sample ... and so on. This way you can actually examine the complete data structure of the Realsoft 3D application and locate all the properties in it. This hierarchical structure is well known from many file systems, where files and folders can be referred using hierarhcial name path. Reading and Changing Attributes You can change attributes of objects using the 'Set' command. In the previous chapter, we explored the structure of Realsoft 3D and found that 'CurrentProject' owns an 'Animator' object, which defines a 'Time' attribute. Let's change the current animation time by entering the command: 1.0 "CurrentProject.Animator.Time" Set This moves the animation slider to 1.0 second (which corresponds to frame 25 or 30 depending on the video system). If you prefer frames instead of seconds, try: 30 "CurrentProject.Animator.Frame" Set The time slider moves to frame 30. Let's assume you want to activate field rendering. The Animator defines an attribute 'FieldRendering" whose type is boolean. In other words, field rendering option can either be on or off (1 or 0). To activate field rendering, set value of 1 to this attribute: 1 "CurrentProject.Animator.FieldRendering" Set and field rendering control will appear in the animation controls allowing you to control the current field. All basic object attributes can be set this way. You can fetch and print out the current time using the 'Get' command: "CurrentProject.Animator.Time" Get F. Geometric objects are defined by 'CurrentProject.Geometrics' object. For example, to print out the name of the root level, call: "CurrentProject.Geometrics.Root.Name" Get . or, to rename the root level, call: "new root name" "CurrentProject.Geometrics.Root.Name" Set Arrays Many geometric objects define variable arrays. For example, subdivision surfaces and nurbs curves both define array attribute named 'Points'. Let's imagine you need to set the third point of a nurbs curve. This can be achieved as follows: 0.1 0.2 0.0 1.0 "Points.2" Set Note : nurbs curves consists of four dimension points (x, y, z and weight). Or, if you want to change the X component of a point whose index is 10, call: 0.1 "Points.10.x" Set Classes Each object in Realsoft 3D has a certain well-defined structure. For example, the type of the 'CurrentProject' is 'object'. The type of the 'CurrentProject.Animator.Time' is floating point value. The 'Class' command can be used for fetching the information about a certain attribute. For example, the command "" Class shows you information about the Realsoft 3D application class. The command "CurrentProject.Animator.Time" Class prints out 'float'. In other words, the class of the 'Time' attribute is 'double precision floating point' (Realsoft 3D uses only double precision floating points). Current Object Just like DOS and Unix operating systems allow you to manage current directory via 'cd' command, the scripting window allows you to manage 'current object' via 'Co' command. This command allows you to avoid typing overhead by making the object you are working on the current object. Let's assume you have created a sphere whose name is 'mysphere' and you want to set several sphere specific attributes. To make the sphere the current working object, enter: "CurrentProject.Geometrics.Root.mysphere" Co Then you can enter any sphere specific attributes without specifying the object name. For example, to set the sphere's 'Center' attribute to world origin: 0 0 0 "Center" Set Or, to rename the object, call: "moon" Name Set If you get lost in the object hierarchy, you can use "PrintCo" command. It prints out the current working object. All commands that deal with object names obey the current working object. For example, if you now enter the command "" Attrs You will actually see sphere's attributes rather than the attributes of the application object. Just like Unix and DOS operating systems allow you to define absolute file names by starting the file names with slash (or back slash), Scripting window allows you to start object names with dot (.). For example, to move back to the application object (the highest possible hierarchy level), enter: ." Co Or, to move to say CurrentProject object, enter: ".CurrentProject" Co Another frequently needed operation is to move upwards in the object hierarchy. This can be done by entering the command Up There are also commands 'Next' and 'Prev' for selecting the next and the previous objects. Deleting and Moving Objects Realsoft 3D scripting system allows you to move and copy objects the same way as you can move and copy files in disk operating systems. You can use 'Copy' command to copy an object. For example: "sphere1" "sphere2" Copy The created 'sphere2" object is identical copy of the "sphere1". For example, to create 50 spheres aligned on 'x' axis: There are some restrictions thought. For example, you cannot move a material object into a grid object. to grid geometric object Selecting and Modifying Loading Files There are many useful scripts shipped with the scripting system. One of the most useful is the one which allows you to modify geometric objects through the scripting window. To load the script file, enter: "geometrics.h" LOAD You can now modify geometric objects easily. If you need to do this often, you can add the above command to your startup script (scripting/rpl/startup.h) so that it is automatically loaded for you. Selecting Objects.