[ababak]

Mac OS X 10.9.3, Maya 2015 SP2, plugin 3.0.12

When there is an underscore in file name of persistent mxs, I get this error on export:

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// Error: Cannot export scene to file scenes/maxwell_1.mxs: Cannot create output path for file scenes/maxwell_1.mxs // 

When there is no underscore, it works fine (like scenes/maxwell.mxs)

[Mihnea Balta]

I can't reproduce this issue. Are you sure it's caused by the underscore, and not by the fact that you're using a relative path? Using a relative path there doesn't seem like a good idea, since you can't really tell what the working directory is set to when the exporter runs (you probably assume it's the project directory, but that's not guaranteed). Does it work if you use an absolute path, such as /path/to/project/scenes/maxwell_1.mxs?

[ababak]

I am really not sure what's exactly the reason. Sometimes it starts to work, sometimes it doesn't. I am not using relative paths intentionally, that's what Maya uses when I click a folder icon, navigate to desired location and click "Use". Sometimes it helps to click that folder and select "Use". The path text field remains exactly the same as before but the render starts to work. Odd.

By the way, I like using relative paths, it's a pity you call it a bad idea. Wasn't the project window designed just for simplifying path workflow? It sets all the working project paths, is it a problem for Maxwell plugin to access it from there? I have to exchange files with other mac and PC users and using absolute paths just adds a lot of problems. Should I type the full path manually or copy it from the terminal? What is the recommended workflow then?

Thank you.

[Mihnea Balta]

We can make the plug-in consider relative paths as relative to the project directory, but it's not like that at the moment. It works for resources (textures, HDR files, IES files etc.) but not for output files such as MXI and MXS. Right now, relative paths use the current working directory of the process, which can change due to many reasons: opening a file browser, Maya writing a cache file somewhere, some plug-in doing stuff with files etc. This is why I said it's not a good idea.

We'll look into project-relative paths for output files for a future build of the plug-in.

[ababak]

So that explains why sometimes it works and sometimes not. Do you recommend copy/pasting absolute paths from terminal? What is your workflow? Thank you.

[Mihnea Balta]

Typing or pasting in a path might work, but I think Maya's file control is trying to be "smart" here and if it sees that the path is inside the project directory, it just cuts the project path out of the string. In theory this should only affect the displayed string (the plug-in should receive the full string when you start a render, and do the right thing), but there are cases when the leading part of the path is lost.

I think that for now the only bulletproof solution is to save the persistent MXS files outside the project directory, and we'll consider enforcing project-relative paths for the next beta build of the plug-in.

[ababak]

Thank you, Mihnea! Waiting for plugin updates.