In our pipeline we use Custom user Preferences for things that don't change much, such as server paths, database schemas, etc..
I wrote a few simple commands which maintain custom user preferences and found the best way to manage them is to treat them like self installing Custom Properties using a versioning scheme. Every custom property I create for our production has a "version" and "type" parameter. When a scene or model is loaded, an event script scans all the custom properties and compares the version and type parameters in the custom property to the values stored in the custom property's plugin. If the plugin is newer, the custom property is deleted and re-instanced into the scene copying the old information across to the new instance. I extend this same process to custom user preferences. The main difference being that custom user preferences can only use a subset of the available parameter value types available for custom properties. My code for managing custom user preferences is in the OnStartUp() event and performs the same tasks as described above. The only difference is newly instanced custom properties to be used as custom user preferences must be installed at the scene root before calling InstallCustomPreference(). When deleting a custom user preference, you must first delete the custom property installed in the user preferences, then delete the associated .preset file in the user's workgroup location. If you do it in any other order, you'll get flakey behaviors. You may still get the error you report when installing the custom user preference for the first time, but it'll go away in future sessions of the application. However, I have noticed the error is more frequent in 2012 and 2013. Appears to be an order-of-operations thing. Just the other day one of our artists activated "Load last scene at startup" preference, and that triggered a bunch of errors. It seems softimage loads the last scene before workgroups are parsed/scanned/loaded. Matt From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Eric Thivierge Sent: Friday, April 20, 2012 3:40 PM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: Re: can't load cusrom preference I stay away from the built in preferences myself because they get a bit hairy trying to delete them eventually. What you could do instead is have a text file holding your pref data which is stored as a Python dictionary (as a string) and then creating a plugin for the user that reads that string evals it back to a dictionary and builds the UI dynamically and allows the users to set the proper prefs. You could either store the prefs in the workgroup / addon directory or in the users xsi folder. I've found this to be cleaner. - 2 cents -------------------------------------------- Eric Thivierge http://www.ethivierge.com On Sat, Apr 21, 2012 at 7:34 AM, Tim Crowson <tim.crow...@magneticdreams.com<mailto:tim.crow...@magneticdreams.com>> wrote: The warning in my first email is all I get. -Tim On 4/20/2012 4:26 PM, Stephen Blair wrote: Works for me. Do you have the actual error message? From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com<mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com> [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Tim Crowson Sent: April-20-12 4:36 PM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com<mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com> Subject: can't load cusrom preference Gents, I created a custom property in Python to house a single string and want to install it in our workgroup as a custom preference. I have placed it in the workgroup in \Addons\myTool\Data\Preferences\myCustomPref.Preset But when I run Application.RefreshCustomPreferences() I get the following warning: # WARNING : 3000 - Not able to load a custom preference: Path\to\my\customPref.Preset Any of you Jedis have insight into what might be wrong? I'm using 2012 SAP on Windows, FWIW. -- Tim Crowson Lead CG Artist [cid:image001.gif@01CD1F1A.C10D56A0] Magnetic Dreams Animation Studio, Inc. 2525 Lebanon Pike, Building C. Nashville, TN 37214 Ph 615.885.6801<tel:615.885.6801> | Fax 615.889.4768<tel:615.889.4768> | www.magneticdreams.com<http://www.magneticdreams.com><http://www.magneticdreams.com><http://www.magneticdreams.com> tim.crow...@magneticdreams.com<mailto:tim.crow...@magneticdreams.com><mailto:tim.crow...@magneticdreams.com><mailto:tim.crow...@magneticdreams.com> -- Tim Crowson Lead CG Artist [cid:image001.gif@01CD1F0D.E55D3820] Magnetic Dreams Animation Studio, Inc. 2525 Lebanon Pike, Building C. Nashville, TN 37214 Ph 615.885.6801<tel:615.885.6801> | Fax 615.889.4768<tel:615.889.4768> | www.magneticdreams.com<http://www.magneticdreams.com> tim.crow...@magneticdreams.com<mailto:tim.crow...@magneticdreams.com>
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