FLEXLM checkout error for feature 3D_NINTENDO
Friday Flashback #208
SOFTIMAGE|3D screenshot from 1997. Shows the ToonAssistant. Note the logged-in user (micharia).
I find it interesting that the User name is shown on the status line. I suppose that is part of Softimage’s Linux Unix heritage?
[ICE] Converting integers to strings
Thanks to Mootzoid emTools, it’s easy to convert an integer to a string:

Note that you get padding too, so it’s easy to do things like generating replacements for the [Frame] token.

The emTools string compounds are convenience compounds:

For fun, I tried to create my own integer-to-string converter using the stock nodes. I did by dividing by 10 until the quotient (the result) was zero; with each division, I take the remainder and stick it at the front of the string. And by setting Max Repeat to 4, I get padding on my strings (so for integer 45 I get “0045”).

Note the use of Delay Set Data. The integer division compound uses Modulo and Division by Scalar. The 2char compound simply uses a Select Case to map a single digit to a string:

It did occur to me that I could do it all with a single Select Case 🙂

The catch is that the Select Case node has ten thousand cases.

That’s really slow when you create that node in an ICE tree (for example, by importing a compound that uses it). It also takes a long time to create ten thousand cases, even with a script.
case_node = Application.AddICENode("$XSI_DSPRESETS\\ICENodes\\SelectCaseNode.Preset", "pointcloud1.pointcloud.ICETree")
string_node = Application.AddICENode("$XSI_DSPRESETS\\ICENodes\\StringNode.Preset", "pointcloud1.pointcloud.ICETree")
Application.ConnectICENodes("{0}.case0".format( case_node.FullName ), "{0}.result".format( string_node.FullName ) )
Application.DeleteObj( string_node.FullName )
Application.SetValue("{0}.case{1}_string".format( case_node.FullName, 0), "{0:0>4}".format(0), "")
Application.SetValue("{0}.default_string".format( case_node.FullName, "9999", "")
for i in range(1,10000):
Application.AddPortToICENode("{0}.case{1}".format( case_node.FullName, i-1), "siNodePortDataInsertionLocationAfter")
Application.SetValue("{0}.case{1}_string".format( case_node.FullName, i), "{0:0>4}".format(i), "")
Friday Flashback #207
‘Theocracy of Hackers’ Rules Autodesk Inc., A Strangely Run Firm
Can the Latest CEO Survive A Cabal of Programmers Who Send ‘Flame Mail’?
May 28, 1992
Just as Microsoft Corp., the world’s largest software supplier, is an extension of the personality of William Gates III, Autodesk is largely a creature of Mr. Walker. Like Mr. Gates, Mr. Walker is superb at identifying computer trends and spreading his vision to the troops. But unlike Mr. Gates, Mr. Walker, 42, never really wanted to run his company. “I’m an engineer, I’m a programmer, I’m a technologist,” he says. “I have no interest in running a large U.S. public company, and I never have. It was a means to an end to accomplish the technological work I wished to achieve.”He relinquished the top spot in 1986 to Alvar Green, formerly Autodesk’s chief financial officer, to return to programming. But the real power still rested with Mr. Walker, Autodesk’s biggest shareholder, and an elite group of programmers called “Core,” who had either helped Mr. Walker found the company in 1982 or led its most important projects.
Core members are contentious, eccentric free-thinkers who have had a way of devouring professional managers. They have often attacked each other and company executives, usually by sending “flame mail” — biting electronic letters. The outbursts sometimes have led to changes, and sometimes brought work to a halt. “The whole company is a theocracy of hackers,” says Charles M. Foundyller, president of Daratech Inc., a market research firm in Cambridge, Mass.
— from a 1992 article in the Wall Street Journal
[Scripting] Opening a page in a web browser
Here’s a couple of ways to open a URL in a web browser from inside Softimage. Unfortunately, these worked on Windows only. On Linux, the JScript can’t create that ActiveX object, and the Python didn’t do anything.
JScript:
// Open a web page in the default browser
var objShell = new ActiveXObject("shell.application");
objShell.ShellExecute("http://support.solidangle.com", "", "", "open", 1);
Python:
import webbrowser webbrowser.open( 'http://support.solidangle.com' )
Friday Flashback #206
Friday Flashback #205
2014 year in review for the Softimage mailing list
1164 topics, 14274 posts, 460 different posters
42% of all activity on the list happened during a five-week period after the Softimage EOL announcement.

Top 25 topics
* number of posts in bold
- SI and Houdini 250
- A germ of an idea. 220
- SoftImage Artists take on Maya @ Escape Studios 196
- new upgrade policy 177
- Autodesk webinar 163
- Maya feature request from Softimage users 155
- Survey – how would you do this? 154
- An Open Letter to Carl Bass 133
- Softimage 2015 Last Release Announcement 126
- rigging in xsi vs maya 126
- Cinema 4D an option? 121
- humanize maya, SOFT top 5 117
- Open letter to Autodesk 113
- rumor, Soft dead within the next year 111
- YOUR TOP 5 109
- softimage to modo 103
- Redshift3D Render 100
- A confession 97
- Softimage transition webinar is starting in 10 minutes 96
- A more graceful retirement – my counter offer 90
- What use is ICE really? 89
- Maya strengts (anyone?) 82
- 28/03/2014 81
- Anyone in the SI list transitioning to MODO? -Please add your mail here 79
- Listening 78
Top 25 posters
* number of posts in bold
- Sebastien Sterling 611
- Jason S 429
- Emilio Hernandez 398
- Jordi Bares 330
- Angus Davidson 329
- Matt Lind 317
- Mirko Jankovic 303
- Leendert A. Hartog 276
- Raffaele Fragapane 273
- Eric Thivierge 260
- olivier jeannel 252
- Cristobal Infante 250
- Luc-Eric Rousseau 212
- Tim Crowson 203
- Francisco Criado 183
- Stephen Blair 180
- Nicolas Esposito 179
- Steven Caron 165
- Ognjen Vukovic 162
- Morten Bartholdy 158
- Eric Turman 142
- Perry Harovas 140
- Rob Chapman 137
- Paul Griswold 137
- Ed Manning 125
adrian wyer 125
2014 in review
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.
Here's an excerpt:
The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 150,000 times in 2014. If it were an exhibit at the Louvre Museum, it would take about 6 days for that many people to see it.






















