Softimage SDK Programmer's Guide > Customizing with the SDK > Building and Deploying Customizations >

# Using the Softimage User Interface Toolkit (XSIUIToolkit)

The XSIUIToolkit or XSIUIToolkit object is an instrinsic object in Softimage: it acts as a global object in Softimage so you don't have to explicitly create a pointer to it. It provides access to the XSIUIToolkit.MsgBox or UIToolkit::MsgBox and the XSIUIToolkit.ProgressBar or UIToolkit::GetProgressBar utilities (and the XSIUIToolkit.FileBrowser for scripting) which extend the ability to interact with the user.

FileBrowser

The FileBrowser allows you to ask the user to either identify a file to open or provide the filename and location where to save an output file.

Tip

The PPGLayout or PPGLayout object also implements a type of FileBrowser as the FilePath control.

MsgBox

The XSIUIToolkit.MsgBox or UIToolkit::MsgBox allows you to communicate with the user in a limited fashion. It basically provides the same functionality as the VBScript MsgBox function but makes it available to any language that Softimage supports (JScript, PerlScript, C++, etc.).

ProgressBar

The ProgressBar or ProgressBar visually represents the progress of a lengthy operation using a colored bar to indicate the percentage completed.