UDEdit
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Viewing and editing your user-data with SoftWish's UDEdit plugin

SoftImage (version 3.7 and up) allows one  to associate arbitrary data (user data - UD) with scene elements. Any element, such as a model or a material can have an unlimited number of chunks of data, which can be used in a variety of ways by different plug-ins and by SoftImage itself. Each such chunk of data is identified by a tag. This is how the plugin which will use the data finds it. For example, Softimages' Model->Info->Notes (NT only) uses this feature to store the user's notes and comments on a selected model. It uses the tag MNOT. SoftWish's Behavior plugins attach TCL scripts to an element in the elements' user data. Behaviors use the tag VideoCollageUserData. The UDEdit plugin allows you to view and (if you wish) modify all editable user data.

1  User Data TAG

Different chunks of user data associated with an element are identified by tags. This tag is just a symbolic string. For example the Softimages' Model->Info-> Notes plugin uses the tag: MNOT.

2  Starting up the UDEdit plug-in

Select Model->Info->UDEdit.

3  Description of the GUI window

Upon start-up, the plugin searches all the elements of the currently loaded scene, finding those which have attached user data.

3.1  The tree

The entire scene hierarchy is presented in a tree, which starts with the scene name (root of the tree). The elements are then split by their categories (such as Cameras, Waves, Models, etc). The elements of each such category are grouped by their prefixes   Each user-data tag is a leaf of the tree. This tag/leaf appears under the element to which it belongs.. If there are no elements with user data, you will only see the tree representing the scene. If there is at least one element with user-data attached you will see the scene tree and the user-data viewer/editor window..

3.2  Viewer/editor

The viewer opens up editing the user data of the first element with user data in the scene (the element closest to the root of the scene tree). You can switch to any other chunk of user data (from this or any other element) by clicking on the it's tag. The tag  of the currently viewed chunk of user data is shown at the top of the viewer/editor. Various control buttons appear below the user data.

0.05 Note! Not all user data chunks may be textual. Some may contain binary data. Do not edit those, unless you are absolutely sure you know what you are doing. The later versions of UDEdit will try to determine which pieces can be edited as text and only present those.

3.3  Currently displayed tag

The tag of the chunk of user data being viewed/editted displayed above the user data next to the Tag:-label. Future version of SoftWish UDEdit will support renaming of   tags.

3.4  The buttons

The following buttons appear below the editing area.

3.4.1  Save

This button tells SoftImage to modify the data. Remember to save the scene (or just the element) when you return to SoftImage.

3.4.2  Undo

This button lets you undo your edits one by one. It works independently from the Save button in  the sense that you can undo back to a state which existed prior to a save. In otherwords Saving does not flush undos. Note that an undo has no effect upon what is actually in an elements user data, only saving modifies an elements user data.

3.4.3  Refresh SI

This button causes SoftImage to repaint itself.

3.4.4  External editor

This buttons spawn an external editor as specified in the EFFECTS_EDITOR environment variable. The variable is set by the SoftImage installation and points to notepad on NT and to jot on Irix. Users can substitute their own editor by setting the value of this environment variable. One can use UDEdit to edit binary user data in this way. 

3.4.5  Close

This button will close the UDEdit window and terminate the plugin. The same effect can be achieved by selecting Close in the window manager's menu. Note that close does NOT warn about saving any changes. If you want to save any changes you have made to the user data you must Save before Closing.

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