Truncation errors with all text fields

[Ryan Roye]

I've been having major issues using the Next Limit Plug-in Manager v1.5.1 with any version of Lightwave.

It seems that the plugin gets stuck truncating any filepaths that I point file choosers to, which means it turns things like this....

C:\RealflowProjects\Tests\Particle_Tests\StressTest1\particles\Circle02_00000.bin

gets turned into this the moment I tab or hit the "add" button:

rojects\Tests\Particle_Tests\StressTest1\particles\Circle02_00000.bin

Which of course causes the plugin to throw an error because the filepath is now invalid.

I can't for the life of me pin down why this is happening. It makes the interchange plugins practically unusable when it does this. I've tried using earlier versions of Lightwave but they all yield the same errors. Any ideas on what triggers this behavior?

[tsn]

Thanks for reporting this bug. I'll inform the plugin developer immediately so he can check this and provide a fix ASAP.

[Oldcode]

Funny,

I use Lightwave with the same plug in. Although it has its quirts, I've never had that problem. I hope they help. I know how frustrating it is to get stuck on something small and stupid like that.

[Ryan Roye]

Funny,

I use Lightwave with the same plug in. Although it has its quirts, I've never had that problem. I hope they help. I know how frustrating it is to get stuck on something small and stupid like that.

I'm now convinced it has to do with certain strings of text being incorrectly interpreted as "padding" somehow. I'm working to narrow down the error further and hopefully provide some more specific points of data... I do plugin development myself and have had my share of headaches troubleshooting problems I can't replicate

[11hp11]

Hi Ryan,

I was trying to reproduce the issue with the same path you posted (C:\RealflowProjects\Tests\Particle_Tests\StressTest1\particles\Circle02_00000.bin) but no luck, it works fine. Tried in 11.6.3 and 2015.2. Which OS do you use? Win 7 64-bit?

Let me know if you have any more info on the issue.

Cheers,
Peter

[hp]

Hi Ryan,

I was trying to reproduce the issue with the same path you posted (C:\RealflowProjects\Tests\Particle_Tests\StressTest1\particles\Circle02_00000.bin) but no luck, it's working fine. Tried in 11.6.3 and 2015.2. Which Os do you have? Win 7 64-bit?

Let me know if you have any more info on the issue.

Thanks,
Peter

[Ryan Roye]

I'm on windows 7 64-bit. I'm having trouble replicating the error today, I'll take notes if it happens again. Perhaps LW's fields got stuck in a state that required a restart... not sure what was going on.

[Ryan Roye]

I'm getting the error again. This time I have video showing exactly what is happening on my end:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcjXksZdIRM

As shown, I demonstrate two things:

Attempting to save an SD file using this filepath...

E:\L3D_Tutorials\Realflow_Particle_Basics\Realflow_Scenes\LW_RF_Example\MyFile.sd

It gets truncated to...

Scenes\LW_RF_Example\MyFile.sd

Which makes it an invalid filepath. The same thing happens when I try to import particles from a realflow scene into the scene in Lightwave. I still don't know what actually triggers this error... but it's a showstopper when it happens. Entering in the path manually also results in the path being truncated.

[hp]

Hi Ryan,

I checked the code and there is a string processing when setting the path. One of the steps is to make the path relative, which means to cut of the content dir if the path starts with it. It could cause the problem somehow. Could you please check what is your content dir, does it change anything if you change it?

Peter

[Ryan Roye]

Could you please check what is your content dir, does it change anything if you change it?

Ok, it seems that there's a problem that crops up that relates to the Paths tab in Lightwave's preferences and I can easily replicate the behavior described earlier by manipulating the field just below "Content Directory".

If the content directory field's path is shorter than the file(s) being requested by Realflow, it causes pathing errors. This would happen most often to people who have scene files open, then create a new scene as the content directory does not change when the user does this, nor does it save properly with the scene file. Also, perhaps the Realflow project lies in a separate folder heirarchy than the Lightwave scene file, this would also cause issues.

I suppose by technicality this is more related to Lightwave than Realflow... it was really frustrating being literally shut out of my realflow projects not knowing about this though, and having no possibility of utilizing realflow content from multiple realflow scenes.