Known SDK Limitations v5.1 (XSISDK)

PPG Logic doesn't work for C++-based SICO

Workaround: Use a Custom Property as input to the operator.

It is not available with Custom Operators or when updating an existing Cluster Property.

and other related methods can lead to a crash. For example the "Cascade" Simple Menu example will crash if any tear-off menus are on screen.

• Workaround: Use SIObject::GetNestedObjects to retrieve the operators connected to a Primitive.
• Workaround 2: Use CComAPIHandler or a small script command to call DataRepository::GetConnectionStackInfo to retrieve full information about all operator connections.
• Workaround 3: If you know the name of the operator it can be retrieved directly, e.g. with CRef::Set

Workaround: Use a global variable or some other mechanism to tell the selection event to do nothing, rather than relying on the offical XSI mute functionality.

Workaround: Always provide names that match XSI parameter naming conventions.

Workaround: Use XSIUIToolkit.MsgBox instead, and avoid passing long strings. Breaking the message into multiple lines (using VBScript vbCrLf or JScript "\n" character) can help.

See also Updating a Workgroup that is being used by other users (http://softimage.wiki.avid.com/index.php/Workgroups#Updating_a_Workgroup_that_is_being_used_by_other_users)

Workaround: Users are recommended to pick a name that is unlike to be picked by anyone else, for example with a prefix based on the company or plugin. The same name should be used for both the command name and command script name.

Workaround: When the label is not set explicitly it is based on the name of the custom menu. Spaces can be used in that string, they will be striped out for the generation of the callback names. However there is a limitation that top level menus cannot start with a number character.

Workaround: Pick names less than 30 characters

Workaround: Write a simple script-based self-installed plugin and sort it on the workgroup. This plugin uses XSIUtils.LaunchProcess to call cmdreg.exe to register each dll file as necessary. By placing this code within the XSILoadPlugin callback it will run at startup or as soon as the workgroup is connected.

For more details see Custom Operators - Classification Flag (http://softimage.wiki.avid.com/index.php/Custom_Operators_%28XSISDK%29#Classification_Flag)

Workaround: Use a custom layout to specify which parameters are shown on the Property Page, rather than this capability.

• Workaround: Delete the file manually
• Workaround 2: A good way to store custom preferences is inside an Addon location (user or workgroup) so that it is automatically removed when the addon is uninstalled or the workgroup is disconnected.

Workaround: Do not specify a category. The resulting custom preferences will appear under the Custom node.

Workaround: Filter the returned collection to remove duplicate entries. Once possible way to do this is to use an XSICollection with the Unique property set to true.

Workaround: Get a new SDK object for the cluster after the freeze operation. A straightfoward way to do this is to remember the fullname of the cluster inside a string variable, then call GetValue or Dictionary.GetObject to retreive a new SDK object.

xsibatch -script does not support passing arguments to a Python script

Workaround: Write an intermediate jscript or vbscript script that takes the path to a python script and a list of arguments and invokes the Python script with Application.ExecuteScript

This section only covers differences from v5.0 to v5.1. See Known SDK limitations v5.0 (XSISDK) (http://softimage.wiki.avid.com/index.php/Known_SDK_Limitations_v5.0_%28XSISDK%29) for differences between v5.0 and previous versions.

Stricter directory scanning. In previous versions XSI was doing exhaustive scanning in User, Workgroup and Factory locations. This meant that sometimes .SPDL files were working even if they weren't located in the recommended locations. This extra scanning was slowing down the startup time of XSI and other operations, so it has been removed.

The recommended locations that are scanned are:

<user> <user>\Addon <user>\Addon\<AddonName> <workgroup> <workgroup>\Addon <workgroup>\Addon\<AddonName> <factory>\Addon <factory>\Addon\<AddonName>

And within each of these possibilities the files must be in exactly the correct subdirectory. For example spdls must always be inside "Application\spdl".

An example valid SPDL file location is:

<user>\Addons\MyEffect\Application\spdl\myspdl.spdl      // GOOD

An example that will not work anymore is any installed Addon file that used more than one directory in its path. For example:

<user>\Addons\Shaders\MyEffect\Application\spdl\myspdl.spdl // BAD

To help with backward compatibility XSI will automatically ignore any extra subdirectories specified in the .xsiaddon file. However Addons that are already installed may be affected.

The workaround is to rearrange the files into the expected directory structuring. Such a re-organization will help ensure that tool works well with the Plug-in Manager and future enhancements to XSI.

When traversing a render tree XSI now returns the "Texture" SDK object for any texture. This was the same behavior as pre v5.0 versions of XSI. For XSI 5.0 the "Shader" object was returned instead of "Texture".

A few enhancements have been added to the C++ API, including new constructor signatures to CValue and other automatic conversion between CValue and other data types. This may, in some special cases cause compiler errors when recompiling existing plug-ins. Such errors are easy to fix with more explicit type casting. See Cpp Compilation - Cannot Convert (http://softimage.wiki.avid.com/index.php/Cpp_Compilation_%28XSISDK%29#Cannot_Convert) for more details.

In XSI 5.0 and 5.1 the Sequence command now shows a dialog box, blocking any script from finishing execution until the "OK" button is pressed. With 5.1 there is now a command called SISequence that is equivalent to Sequence but shows no user interface. It was introduced too late to appear in the command reference, but supports the same arguments as Sequence. Any older scripts that were calling Sequence should be updated to call SISequence.