Setting the active project

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To set the active project, you use CreateProject to get an XSIProject object and then assign the XSIProject object to the XSIApplication.ActiveProject2 property.

Application.LogMessage( Application.ActiveProject2.Path ) 

# In this example, I use the path to an existing project
sPath = "C:\\Users\\blairs\\Documents\\Support\\Project" 
oProj = Application.CreateProject( sPath ) 

# ActiveProject2 is a property that takes an XSIProject object
Application.ActiveProject2 = oProj 

Application.LogMessage( Application.ActiveProject2.Path ) 

# INFO : C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Softimage 2011 Subscription Advantage Pack\Data\XSI_SAMPLES
# INFO : C:\Users\blairs\Documents\Support\Project

You can use CreateProject on an existing project, and you’ll get back the object for that project. However, CreateProject will re-create any of the missing default folders (like Actions, Audio, Backup, and so on). If you’re using a customized set of project folders, you can avoid this by using the deprecated ActiveProject property:

p1 = "C:\\Program Files\\Autodesk\\Softimage 2011 Subscription Advantage Pack\\Data\\XSI_SAMPLES"
Application.ActiveProject = p1

Troubleshooting installation failures

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When a Softimage (or any other Autodesk product) installation fails, you’ll have to check the install logs to see what went wrong. Typically the only error message you’ll see during the actual install will be too generic to be helpful (for example, Error 1603, which could mean almost anything).

The installation log files are found in your %TEMP% folder.

The main log file is Autodesk_Softimage_IF.log.
If the installation works, you’ll see something like this:

2010/5/4:16:41:15	blairs	MTL-EXAMPLE	=== Setup started on MTL-EXAMPLE by blairs ===
2010/5/4:16:42:17	blairs	MTL-EXAMPLE	Install	Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable (x64)	Succeeded	
2010/5/4:16:42:23	blairs	MTL-EXAMPLE	Install	Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redistributable (x86)	Succeeded	
2010/5/4:16:42:30	blairs	MTL-EXAMPLE	Install	Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redistributable (x64)	Succeeded	
2010/5/4:16:44:10	blairs	MTL-EXAMPLE	Install	Autodesk Softimage 2011 Subscription Advantage Pack 64-bit	Succeeded	
2010/5/4:16:58:36	blairs	MTL-EXAMPLE	=== Setup ended ===

If the install failed, Autodesk_Softimage_IF.log tells you which component failed to install.
For each component, there will be a [much] more detailed log.

Depending on whether you installed 64-bit (x64) or 32-bit (x86) Softimage, you’ll see these log files for Softimage:

  • Autodesk_Softimage_x64_Install.log
  • Autodesk_Softimage_x86_Install.log

For the Visual C++ Redistributable, these are the log files to look for:

  • vcredist_x64.log
  • vcredist_x86.log
  • vcredist_x64_2005.log
  • vcredist_x86_2005.log

In these files, I generally look for the point where the install rollback started, and the look back up the file from there. Or I search for things like “error” or “result”.

Once you find the error, it’s off to google to see what you can find.

Learning movies play in the wrong language

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A customer in Germany reported that he couldn’t play the Softimage learning movies (aka Essential Skills movies) from NetView, and that when he used Windows Explorer to open the movies, they were playing in Japanese. I had a similar problem on my own machine, where the Maya learning movies played in Japanese instead of English.

First, the links in the NetView learning movies page just “run” the files using the default program for .mov files. If nothing happens when you click a link, check the default program registered for the .mov file type. If you cannot get the links to work, you can find the movies in the folder %XSI_HOME%\Data\NetView_Database\Movies.

The movie files contain multiple audio tracks. Here’s a video that shows how to change to the English audio track:

ERROR : 2004 – Invalid pointer – [line 2]

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When you render with xsibatch, you get this error even though the frame does render successfully.

ERROR : 2004 – Invalid pointer – [line 2]

For example:

COMMAND: -render "C:\Users\blairs\Documents\Support\Project\Scenes\Sphere.scn" -
frames 2-4
>Loading: C:\Users\blairs\Documents\Support\Project\Scenes\Sphere.scn...
' ERROR : 2004 - Invalid pointer - [line 2]
' INFO : 4034 - Loaded scene was created with build number: 9.5.184.0 - compatibility version: 900
' ERROR : 2004 - Invalid pointer - [line 2]
OpenScene "C:\Users\blairs\Documents\Support\Project\Scenes\Sphere.scn", False,True
' INFO : Rendering all passes: Passes.Default_Pass
' INFO : Rendering frames '2-4'
' INFO : Rendering pass 'Default_Pass'...
' INFO : Rendering frame 2 (0.0% done)
' INFO : Rendering frame 3 (33.3% done)
RenderPasses "Passes.Default_Pass", , , , siRenderVerbosityDefault

If you running xsibatch from a render manager, this error may cause the render manager to quit the render job.

You can workaround this by renaming the ICEFlow plugin (Application\Plugins\ICEFlow.dll). This plugin manages the transfer of data between Softimage and Maya (the one-click ICE workflow).