Around the Corner

Recent new releases (Nov. 2016)

It’s really a big month for Autodesk M&E customers and partners. Why do I say that? Here are the new versions of products that were just released within this month: Autodesk Stingray 1.6 version. Stingray 1.6 is now available for download via your Autodesk Account, Autodesk Knowledge Network, and Steam. For more information about this update version, please refer to the Stingray V1.6 Release Notes in the online documentation. Stingray 1.6 also includes the FBX SDK 2017.1 security update. Autodesk... Read more →

Specifying a File path correctly in MEL/Python

Whenever you write a MEL script or a Python script that contains a file path, you should pay attention to whether it is a relative file path or an absolute file path. In case of POSIX, it is very clear that the path separator is always forward slash (/). In case of Windows, you have to be bit careful on file path separator. If you specify a path on Windows, you have either to use forward slash (/) or double... Read more →

Python Recursion Limit

While executing third party plugins or your own plugins which is written in python, have you ever faced the “maximum recursion depth exceeded” error? Python lacks the tail recursion optimizations common in functional languages like LISP. Let’s say, you want to add the specified node to the node array in FBX using recursive function, we can use the below approach to travel the whole scene. However, if your scene contains more than 1000 nodes, you will get the recursion limit... Read more →

Writing an FBX importer / Exporter plug-in

While I am working on a WEBGL project, I wanted to share some hints I had to work through with you. The FBX documentation isn't clear on every steps, is a bit out of date even if it fairly easy to identify the pieces to update and spread all over the place. I hope that post will help on this. The project I am working on is a glTF importer / exporter. glTF is a specification (under development) for WEBGL... Read more →

An FBX SDK iOS quick tutorial

I recently had a question on the FBX iOS SDK and while I had to use it on a ReCap Photo project, I wanted to share my experience with you. The SDK is the one used to write the FBXReview application on iOS. The FBX development team is working on an Android version right now and should come in a future release. To minimize the efforts of writing our first iOS application using the FBX iOS SDK, we will reuse... Read more →

API webcast archives

As part of our ADN Open work to move our API content to more accessible (search-engine-findable) locations, I'm posting our webcast archives to this blog. Some of these recordings are old now, but still contain useful information for people on legacy releases. And, being recordings of live webcasts, they are not as polished as our DevTV recordings. Note that the developer center pages contains additional material which go along the latest training webcast listed below. 3ds Max - http://www.autodesk.com/develop3dsmax Title... Read more →

Using Global Interpreter Locks (GIL) when developing Python code in C++

Python uses a Global Interpreter Lock (GIL) to ensures that Python code in only executing in a single thread at a time. When you use the Python C API and/or expose C++ code to Python, you have to re-acquire the GIL each time you call in a C Python API. This is also true when writing Python extensions for Maya or when using the Python C API from a Maya plug-ins. You will need to add these calls in a... Read more →

Using augmented reality to preview the output of Project Pinocchio

A huge thanks to Kean Walmsley, who was previously working with me in the ADN group but now an AutoCAD API architect based in Neuchatel - Switzerland, and provide the original article for this post. Project Pinocchio is available on Autodesk Labs. Project Pinocchio is an online character generator that helps you “create, customize, and download your very own rigged 3D characters from a catalog of over 100 body types, outfits, hairstyles, and physical attributes in a few simple steps.”... Read more →

Using FBX SDK to make animated user properties that are compatible with 3ds Max

A huge thanks to Kevin Vandecar, who supports both FBX and 3ds Max in the ADN M&E team working with me, and provide the original article for this post. This is a topic coming from one of our FBX SDK customers recently. Basically the animated properties were coming into MotionBuilder correctly, and after being exported from MotionBuilder would also come into 3ds Max properly. However, when coming directly into 3ds Max, the properties were not visible. First, note that there... Read more →

Importing Python scripts from a different path than predefined ones

This post applies to Maya, but MotionBuilder as well (or any Python based application). The other day I wanted to source a Python script into Maya and he took me few minutes to realize there was no easy/automatic way to do this in Maya other than loading the script into the Maya Script editor and run it unlike with MEL and the source command where you can give the full path name of the MEL script. Fine, but I wanted... Read more →

Vote for Visual Studio x64 Edit-and-Continue

A colleague in one of our product development teams pinged me today to ask for my support in voting up this request for Microsoft to implement x64 edit-and-continue. I’m sure this isn’t the first time this topic has been raised with Microsoft – but hopefully it will be the last . I went ahead and added my votes. And what’s a blog for, if not to nudge your readers into helping each other out once in a while . I... Read more →

FBX 2013.3 plugin for Maya2013.5 on Linux is not installed

To install the Maya FBX plug-in: Find the 2013.3 FBX installer which is included with the Maya 2013.5 install package. Remove the old plug-in from the /usr/Autodesk/maya/bin/plug-ins/ (where is the version of Maya you have installed,) directory by entering rm –f fbxmaya.so at the command prompt. Type the following command to install the Maya FBX plug-in: ./fbx_maya_linux_enu (Where FBX is the version of the Maya FBX plug-in you have installed). This installs the plug-in to the following directory: /usr/Autodesk/maya/bin/plug-ins/... Read more →

Autodesk FBX 2013.3 update released

FBX has released 2013.3 update and is available for download via the FBX Developer Center page or FBX product page. Read more →

Registration open for AU 2012

I registered for AU 2012, a week ago as the AU site was opened for employees for testing. It is now open for anyone to register to attend and receive an early bird discount of $500 (before October 15). If you’re interested in seeing what classes are scheduled for this year’s AU – which will be held from Nov 27-29 in the Mandalay Bay Hotel, Las Vegas – you can browse the class catalog online. Here are the classes I’m... Read more →

Coming on Autodesk Labs… “Plug-in of the Month”

This is less an announcement of something we’re doing than it is a call for input (or perhaps a cry for help? ;-). For the last 3 months, we started posting plug-ins on Autodesk Labs containing a “plug-in of the month, brought to you by the Autodesk Developer Network”. The plug-ins we’re providing will be simple productivity enhancing tools and utilities that streamline the use of one of our products. The drivers behind this are to a) solve customer problems... Read more →

How I Plan a Tool…

This post isn’t super technical but more of peak into my thought process when creating tools, I think it is worth sharing and I would love to have other’s feedback if you have other thoughts that work for you. I was once asked by an attendee from one of my Maya API trainings if I could share some wisdom with them about writing a tool. How do I plan my work? How do I start thinking about the way I... Read more →

What do I mean by a “handle”…?

Through my years at Autodesk/Alias, I have done a lot of teaching and education (some is recorded and some is not), but some things you might catch me saying during training are… “Now you get the handle to the object”, or “this now returns the handle to the object”, but what the heck does that really mean? I will know try to explain my colloquialism below using MotionBuilder Python SDK code as an example. A Handle in Programming Terms What... Read more →

Expose your code to Python - Deploy & Consume

If you want to know in details follow that link - or use this tools But since Python is already installed on your Maya (or MotionBuilder) distribution, it is fairly easy to distribute your Python 'module' onto other machines for these products. However depending on what you did while compiling your module, you may run into couple of issues. It is never simple, isn't it? let's take the simple approach and we see the downfalls later. In case you did... Read more →

What’s New in the FBX 2013 SDK?

The FBX SDK animation system has been completely redesigned. Take nodes, take node containers, current takes, and FCurves have all been replaced by animation stacks (FbxAnimStack), animation layers (FbxAnimLayer) animation curve nodes (FbxAnimCurveNode), and animation curves (FbxAnimCurve). The classes in the FBX SDK have all been renamed using the "Fbx" prefix, instead of "KFbx" or "K". All structures have also been renamed with the same prefix, including global functions and enumerations. We did this to make the SDK simpler and... Read more →

Expose your code to Python - get Boost 'ed!

Some house cleaning first... "Boost provides free peer-reviewed portable C++ source libraries". http://www.boost.org/ The Boost C++/Python binding library is just one member of the boost C++ library collection at http://www.boost.org It is quick and easy to export C++ to Python using Boost. Boost is also designed to be minimally intrusive on your C++ design. In most cases, you should not have to alter your C++ classes in any way in order to use them with Boost Python. The system should... Read more →

Webcast in the making

I thought I’d mention one of the projects we’re working on in DevTech right now. While the Maya Python training as been delivered already (and recorded - see my previous post), there is more coming: MotionBuilder/OpenReality SDK (Python/C++) starting on May 29th 2012 - 1 hour per day during 9 days 3ds Max SDK (C++) starting on July 16th 2012 for English - 1 hour per day during 10 days July 30th 2012 for Japanese - 1 hour per day... Read more →

Getting started with Autodesk's APIs

Autodesk has a wide range of products that expose Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), to the point that it can be a bit overwhelming for developers new to our products. A great place to look for introductory information around developing with Autodesk software is the Developer Center on Autodesk.com: http://www.autodesk.com/developer From here you will be able to navigate to individual Developer Centers for a number of our products, some of which I’ve provided direct links to below: http://www.autodesk.com/developmaya (Maya) http://www.autodesk.com/develop3dsMax (3ds... Read more →