FCurveEditor

Object Hierarchy

Introduced

3.0

Description

This object provides the context information of the Softimage FCurve editor. By using the information exposed by this object, it is possible to write custom fcurve editing scripts or plug-ins which react to user's actions in the FCurve Editor.

In order to access an instance of this object you need to create a custom command with the siCommandCategory set to siFCurveCategory. This command will appear in the edit menu of the fcurve editor so that the user can execute it on demand. The command takes a single argument, which is a pointer to an instance of the FCurveEditor object.

Using the methods and properties of the FCurve and FCurveKey objects the custom command can change the fcurves. The user interface will update automatically to reflect any changes made to the underlying fcurve objects.

The following example demonstrates two custom fcurve editor scripts, and there are more examples in Netview, under XSI Local: Tools: Animate.

Methods

GetEditorAttribute2 | GetSelectedKeys2

Properties

EditorAttribute | SelectedFCurves | SelectedKeys

Examples

VBScript Example

    '
    ' Custom FCurve Command Demo
    '
    'This script demontrates the Softimage support for plugging in a
    'custom command.
    '
    'Instructions:
    '
    '1) In order to try this code the commands needs to be saved onto disk in a .vbs
    'file so that it can be registered.
    '
    '2) install the commands using the following, (changing the path according to your config):
    '  xsi -script "C:/temp/FCurveDemo.vbs" -main InstallFCurveCmdExamples -args -Location "c:/temp/FCurveDemo.vbs"
    '
    '3) Launch Softimage,
    '4) Create some animated parameters,
    '5) Open the fcurve editor, select curves and keys from your animated parameters
    '6) Try the FCurveEditorInfo and AvgSelectedPoints commands which will appear in the Edit menu

    sub InstallFCurveCmdExamples( Location )
       dim cmd

       'Location argument is expected to be the full path name of the script file
       'where the commands we are installing are implemented
       logmessage "Installing fcurve editor commands found in " & Location

       'Remove any existing earlier registrations of this command
       Application.RemoveCommand "FCurveEditorInfo"
       Application.RemoveCommand "AvgSelectedPoints"

       set cmd = Application.CreateCommand("FCurveEditorInfo", siFCurveCategory)
       cmd.Description = "FCurveEditorInfo shows information about FCurve Context"
       cmd.ScriptingName = "FCurveEditorInfo"
       cmd.Handler = "OnFCurveEditorInfo"
       cmd.FileName = Location
       cmd.Language = "VBScript"

       'FCurve callbacks are a sub not a function
       cmd.ReturnValue = false

       'FCurve commands get a pointer to an FCurveEditor OM object
       cmd.Arguments.Add "FCurveEditor", siArgumentInput, 0, siDispatch

       Application.AddCommand cmd

       logmessage "FCurveEditorInfo is now added to fcurve editor Edit menu"

       set cmd = Application.CreateCommand("AvgSelectedPoints", siFCurveCategory)
       cmd.Description = "AvgSelectedPoints change value of selected keys"
       cmd.ScriptingName = "AvgSelectedPoints"
       cmd.Handler = "OnAvgSelectedPoints"
       cmd.FileName = Location
       cmd.Language = "VBScript"
       cmd.ReturnValue = false
       cmd.Arguments.Add "FCurveEditor", siArgumentInput, 0, siDispatch

       Application.AddCommand cmd

       logmessage "AvgSelectedPoints is now added to fcurve editor Edit menu"

    end sub

    'This first demo is informative - it logs a bunch of information about the
    'state of the FCurve editor, in effect demonstrating what you can find out

    sub OnFCurveEditorInfo( in_objFCurveEditor )
       LogMessage "FCurveEditorInfo called - showing information about current context of FCurve Editor"

       if ( typename( in_objFCurveEditor ) = "Nothing" ) then
           Logmessage "FCurve Argument is NULL"
       elseif ( typename( in_objFCurveEditor ) <> "FCurveEditor" ) then
           LogMessage "FCurve Argument is not an FCurve, it is a " & typename( in_objFCurveEditor )
       else
           'Now access the FCurve Context listing the contents.

           dim oCurves, oCurve
           set oCurves = in_objFCurveEditor.SelectedFCurves

           if ( oCurves.Count = 0 ) then
              logmessage "There are no selected fcurves in the editor"
           end if

           dim i, strInfo
           for each oCurve in oCurves

              logmessage "-------------------------------------"

              'build a string description of the frame/keyvalues
              '(for a real motion capture fcurve this would be too long to display like this)

              strInfo = ""
              for i = 0 to ( oCurve.Keys.Count - 1 )
                  strInfo = strInfo & "(" & Round( oCurve.Keys.Item( i ).Time, 3 ) _
                             & ", " & Round( oCurve.Keys.Item( i ).Value, 3 ) & ") "
              next

              LogMessage "Selected FCurve has the following keys: " & strInfo

              'List the selected keys

              dim oKeys, oKey
              set oKeys = in_objFCurveEditor.SelectedKeys( oCurve )

              if ( oKeys.Count = 0 ) then
                  logmessage "There are no keys selected on this fcurve"
              else
                  strInfo = ""
                  for each oKey in oKeys
                     strInfo = strInfo & "(" & Round( oKey.Time, 3 ) & ", " & Round( oKey.Value, 3 ) & ") "
                  next
                  LogMessage "The following keys are selected on this FCurve: " & strInfo
              end if
           next

           'The user may have selected a region in the fcurve editor.  This information is available like this:

           logmessage "-------------------------------------"

           dim Start, endFrame, Min, Max

           Start = in_objFCurveEditor.EditorAttribute( siRegionStartFrame )
           endFrame = in_objFCurveEditor.EditorAttribute( siRegionEndFrame )
           Min = in_objFCurveEditor.EditorAttribute( siRegionMin )
           Max = in_objFCurveEditor.EditorAttribute( siRegionMax )

           if ( Start <> endFrame ) then
              logmessage "User has selected time region from frame " &_
                         round( Start, 2 ) & " to " & round( endFrame, 2 )
           else
              logmessage "No time region is selected"
           end if

           if ( Min <> Max ) then
              logmessage "User has selected key value range from " &_
                         round( Min, 2 ) & " to " & round( Max, 2 )
           else
              logmessage "No Value region is selected"
           end if

       end if

    end sub

    'This second demo is action oriented - it changes the state of the FCurves that are selected.
    '
    'In this case we take the selected keys and set their values to the average.

    sub OnAvgSelectedPoints( in_objFCurveEditor )
       LogMessage "AvgSelectedPoints called"

       'Example of some simple error handling
       if ( typename( in_objFCurveEditor ) <> "FCurveEditor" ) then
           LogMessage "Invalid argument to command - Should be FCurveEditor object instead we got a " _
                     & typename( in_objFCurveEditor ), siError
           exit sub
       end if

       dim bDidSomething
       bDidSomething = false

       dim oCurves, oCurve
       set oCurves = in_objFCurveEditor.SelectedFCurves

       for each oCurve in oCurves

           dim oKeys, oKey, cntKeys
           set oKeys = in_objFCurveEditor.SelectedKeys( oCurve )

           cntKeys = oKeys.Count

           if ( cntKeys > 1 ) then

              dim sumValues, avgValue
              sumValues = 0

              for each oKey in oKeys
                  sumValues = sumValues + oKey.Value
              next

              avgValue = sumValues / cntKeys

              for each oKey in oKeys
                  oKey.Value = avgValue
              next

              bDidSomething = true

           end if
       next

       if ( not bDidSomething ) then
           LogMessage "Please select two or more keys on an fcurve to average"
       end if
    end sub

See Also

Command | FCurve

Autodesk Softimage v7.5