From: Greg Ercolano <erco@(email surpressed)>
Subject: Re: Modifying maya submit script
   Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2005 10:53:15 -0700

Dylan Penhale wrote:

I want to make a very simple addition to our otherwise standard submit-maya.pl script by adding another box to the input program and passing the user input to the temp mel file.

	Since the user's input is multiline mel text, what I would
	do is:

		1) prompt for the mel script as you are doing now,
		2) save this mel text into a temp file in the log directory,
		3) slirp that file up from within the render script
		4) inject their code into the temp mel script as needed

	Regarding #2, you have the right code here to compile the
	multiline data into the 'meloptions':

               if ( $key eq "MelOptions" && $in{$key} ne "" )
                        { $meloptions .= ($meloptions eq > "")?$in{$key}:"\n$in{$key}"; }

	And then in the section just above where it submits the job,
	write the "$meloptions" into the log directory:

..
        # CONVERT SPACES TO DEL
        #    Do this so spaces pass across command lines correctly.
        #
        $in{MayaFlags}      =~ s/ /\x7f/g;
        $in{MayatomrFlags}  =~ s/ /\x7f/g;
        $in{VectorizeFlags} =~ s/ /\x7f/g;
        $in{MrayFlags}      =~ s/ /\x7f/g;

	### FUEL DEPOT MODS: START
	# SAVE MEL OPTIONS (IF ANY) TO A FILE IN THE LOG DIRECTORY
	#    The render portion of the script will then load
	#    and inject it into the mel script.
	#
	my $meloptionsfile = "$in{LogDir}/user-meloptions.mel";
	unless ( open(MELOPTS, ">$meloptionsfile") )
	    { print STDERR "Could not save mel options:\n$meloptionsfile: $!\n"; exit(1);
	print MELOPTS $meloptionsfile;
	close(MELOPTS);
	### FUEL DEPOT MODS: END

        my $submit = <<"EOF";
title           $in{JobTitle}
ram             $in{Ram}
..

and I have added it to the submit section:
..
     $cpus           ||= "# no cpus";
        $nevercpus      ||= "# no nevercpus";
        $submitoptions  ||= "# no submit options";
        $meloptions     ||= "# no mel script options";
        $in{ImageDir}   ||= "-";
        $in{ImgCommand} ||= ($G::iswindows?"start /b wperl ":"perl ") .
                                    "$G::self -imgcommand %04d";

	..no, I wouldn't do that.
	That's the section that's interpreting command line arguments,
	and you don't want to pass the entire mel script the user typed in
	as a single command line option.

	Instead, find the section just above where the script's
	temporary mel script is created, load the user's mel options
	from the above saved file back into a variable, then inject
	the script into the temporary mel:

..
sub CreateMrayMel($%)
{
    my ( $melfile, %opt) = @_;

    ### FUEL DEPOT MODS: START

    # LOAD THE USER'S MEL OPTIONS BACK INTO A VARIABLE
    my $meloptions = "";
    my $meloptionsfile = "$ENV{RUSH_LOGDIR}/user-meloptions.mel";
    if ( -d $meloptionsfile ) { $meloptions = CatFile($meloptionsfile); }

    ### FUEL DEPOT MODS: END

    unless ( open(MEL, ">$melfile") )
        { print STDERR "ERROR: $melfile: $!\n"; return(-1); }
    print MEL <<"EOF";

..
mel script contents
..

setAttr "mentalrayGlobals.startExtension" $opt{sfrm};
setAttr "mentalrayGlobals.byExtension"    1;

/// FUEL DEPOT MODS: START

// insert user mel data
$meloptions;

/// FUEL DEPOT MODS: END

Mayatomr -render -v $opt{MayatomrVerbose} $opt{MayatomrFlags};
..

	If you still have trouble, email me your script in its
	current hacked incarnation, and I can help make these mods
	for you.

--
Greg Ercolano, erco@(email surpressed)
Rush Render Queue, http://seriss.com/rush/
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