The WorkSpace Editor


Table of Contents  

 Introduction
   How To..
   Workspace Settings
      Search Paths
      Resource Locations
      Directory Maps
      Setup
   File Menu


Introduction

The WorkSpace editor provides the RAT applications with a simple set of interchangeable project and resource locations.  It also provides an interface, when using MTOR, between the Maya and the RAT project location.  The primary feature behind the WorkSpace editor is to provide an interface to search paths and resource locations that can be quickly changed and edited depending upon project needs. 

A file 'RATWorkspace.ws' is created in the current Root directory that is used to specify additional search paths and resources beyond the defaults provided during startup.  This file allows all applications to share the same workspace settings across similar Root locations.

An important aspect of the search paths in the workspace are the ability to resolve both absolute and relative path names.  All relative path names are resolved relative to the current Workspace Root.  Relative path names are particularly useful in their ability to allow projects to be portable between different machines.  If all a projects resources are relative to its root directory, then that entire structure can be easily moved between machines without having to worry about differences in network topologies.  Most RAT applications will attempt to use relative path names whenever possible unless the prefer Full Paths preference is set.

The WorkSpace Editor works in two basic modes.  The first mode provides each RAT application with a description of the root (or project) location and optional search path information.  The second mode is used in conjunction with MTOR.  In this case MTOR controls the root directory location as specified by Maya.  Thus the WorkSpace editor provides no control of project location in this case, just search paths and resource locations.
 

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How To...

Set Workspace Root Location -  When used in conjunction with Maya and MTOR the workspace root is defined by the Maya's current project.  For standalone apps (it, standalone slim, etc.) you can pick a root directory explicitly from the Set Root... menu option.

Override Project Settings - two options are available for overriding certain project options:


Relative Vs. Absolute Path Names - The primary advantage of relative path names is their increased portability across different NFS mount points and machines.  Whenever possible, it is generally preferable to use relative path names.  In cases where data is always stored in one location then an absolute path name can be used (if only to assure that these resources are always used regardless of project location).  Generally, Server Paths will be absolute, while Project Paths will be relative 

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Workspace File Menu

  • Set Root... - (Only available in standalone editor). Choose Root Directory.  When using MTOR/Slim with Maya, the root matches the Maya project location.
  • Save - Save current settings (equivalent to pressing the Apply button)
  • Save As... - Write current settings to arbitrary file.
  • Open Workspace... - (Only available in standalone editor). Select a workspace file to edit. The file is opened into a new editor window.
  • Restore Defaults - Restores all settings in the workspace editor to defaults (specified in RAT.ini).
  • Revert to Saved - Revert to the settings in the workspace file on disk (not necessarily the same as the defaults in RAT.ini).
  • Auto Merge... - Select a workspace file to merge into the current settings in the workspace editor.
  • Close - Close workspace editor window.

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Workspace Settings

All settings for the RAT workspace file can be set within this dialog window.  
Changes to the workspace settings can be committed by pressing the Apply button, or by selecting save in the file menu

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Search Paths

Search Paths

Search paths are used by RAT applications to find needed resources.  Two different sets of search paths are provided.  

  1. Project paths are used to specify the locations of resources needed locally for rendering.  
  2. Server paths are used to specify paths used during network rendering.  This can be used to accelerate the process by having certain resources (such as texture files) local to the rendering server.  Primarily though, this feature is used when the render server has a different network topology than the local machine (i.e. a network render farm the runs on a different architecture than the local user machines, or one that shares files in a different manner).

Search paths can be rearranged within the current path list by dragging and dropping the paths.  Directory locations can also be dragged between different project setting dialog windows.

Search Paths Types

Search paths can be specified based on resource type. The "default" search path will be used by resources which have an empty type-specific search path. If the search path for a resource type is not empty it will be used instead of the default search path. Note that the default does not serve as a fallback when a resource is not found in its non-emtpy type-specific search path. The list of resource types is based on the WSSearchPath.* and WSServerSearchPath.* prefs located in the default RAT.ini as follows:

# Searchpaths can be specified by resource type to avoid unnecessarily
# broad searches. The following search paths will be editable in the
# workspace editor. If the search path for a resource type is empty the
# default local or server search path will be used instead.
# If the search path for a resource type is not empty it entirely
# replaces the default local or server search path.
SetPref WSSearchPaths.archive {}
SetPref WSSearchPaths.palette {}
SetPref WSSearchPaths.procedural {}
SetPref WSSearchPaths.shader {}
SetPref WSSearchPaths.texture {}
SetPref WSServerSearchPaths.serverarchive {}
SetPref WSServerSearchPaths.servershader {}
SetPref WSServerSearchPaths.servertexture {}

# Uncomment any of these to make them editable in the workspace editor
#SetPref WSSearchPaths.display {}
#SetPref WSSearchPaths.vfxmaster {}
#SetPref WSSearchPaths.vfxinstance {}
#SetPref WSServerSearchPaths.servervfxmaster {}
#SetPref WSServerSearchPaths.servervfxinstance {}
#SetPref WSServerSearchPaths.serverdisplay {}

The strings above like texture, shader, etc can be anything you want, and the workspace object will keep track of them, but the only ones which are output to RIB as "Option searchpath" calls are the ones listed in the prman user's manual under the PRMan Options section. Those are: shader, texture, vfxmaster, vfxinstance, display, archive, procedural, servershader, servertexture, servervfxmaster, servervfxinstance, serverdisplay, serverarchive.

Scripting Workspace Search Paths

Methods like GetSearchPaths, SetSearchPaths, AddSearchPath have always accepted a "which" arg, which had to be either "local" or "server", and those still work, or you can supply an arbitrary other type, like "texture".

GlobalizePath now takes an optional reztype arg which defaults to "local", so this shouldn't affect any existing scripts. 

workspace GlobalizePath {path {reztype local}}

ResolvePath has changed. There's a new optional reztype, and it's been inserted in front of the other optional args. This may be annoying for existing scripts, but I figured it might be more annoying to be required to supply extensions and format everywhere... 

workspace ResolvePath {path {reztype local} {extensions {}} {format ""}}

There's a new method called GetSearchPathTypes which accepts either local or server as its arg and returns a list of all the local or server types: 

workspace GetSearchPathTypes {{which local}} 
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Resource Locations

The Resource Locations tab provides a mechanism for specifying the locations and names of the directories used by the RAT applications.  These paths can be either relative or absolute path descriptions.  In the process of using RAT applications any one of the resource locations will be created as needed.

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Directory Maps


Paths must be specified with forward slashes -- "/".

Directory mapping allows a substitution to be applied to some left-hand portion of absolute paths encountered by RAT applications. This functionality can be useful for distributed rendering or transfering a project from one system to another.

A directory mapping is a triplet consisting of a from-path, to-path, and zone. A mapping is only relevant on systems which are in the same zone as specified in the map. When an absolute path is encountered, the first mapping (with the appropriate zone) whose from-path matches some portion of the beginning of the absolute path will be applied. No more mappings in the list are applied beyond the first match. Also note that matching is both case and slash insensitive. The paths must be entered in UNIX style notation like p:/path/goes/here  or  //machinename/mountpoint/directory. Use forward slashes (good: "/"), not backslashes (bad: "\" ).

A default zoning scheme based on network file system type is set up in the factory RAT.ini file. Systems running on win32 platforms are considered to be in the UNC zone, while unices are in the NFS zone. In other words, a pref called WSDirmapZone is set to be either UNC or NFS during RAT initialization. When adding a new dirmap in the workspace editor, you'll notice a selection menu in the zone field; You can't type in just any arbitrary zone. This zone list can be edited via the WSDirmapZoneList preference in RAT.ini. The list consists of NFS and UNC by default.

System administrators who are interested in implementing a different zoning scheme at their site need to be aware that the RAT.ini is not the only place where zoning information is specified. As you may have guessed, directory mapping is also understood by PRMan, which looks for zone information in rendermn.ini; Look for lines like "/dirmap/zone/intelnt UNC" in the default rendermn.ini. Dirmaps are passed from the RAT workspace (project settings) into the mtor-generated RIB file. That's how prman gets a hold of them, but PRMan still needs its own mechanism for determining what zone it's running in (hence the zone information in both RAT.ini and rendermn.ini). 

Finally, dirmap support has also been added to the Alfred dispatcher. This functionality comes into play when directory mapping is used in conjunction with distributed rendering. In order for the dispatcher to identify the zone of each server, zone information needs to be added to server slot definitions in the master alfred.schedule. The appropriate zone and machine architecture should be included in each machine's service key: "NT zone=UNC" or "Linux zone=NFS" or "SGI zone=NFS". This info can be added to Alfred's Master Server List (via Alfred-> Scheduling-> Master Schedule)


Here we see that Gurgle's zone is defined as NFS running Linux.

See the Alfred release note on Dispatcher Dirmap Support for more information on setting service keys for dir mapping.

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Setup

Under the "Workspace File Search Paths" sub-tab of "Settings" you can specify a list of paths which should be searched for RAT workspace files when a Maya project is loaded. By default, the list consists of just $WSRoot, which means that workspace files are looked for in the root directory of the project. You may want to have a master workspace file which lives outside of the project root and is referenced by multiple projects.

The "Workspace File List" is a list of workspace file names which should be loaded if found in the workspace file search paths. The default name that is searched for is "RATworkspace.ws". You could, alternatively always look for a default filename first, followed by one reserved for user-specific settings; Both files, if found, would be loaded, but the second could override settings in the first. For example, the workspace file list might consist of "RATworkspace.ws" followed by "myRATworkspace.ws".

The "Workspace File Search Paths" are stored in a pref called WSFileSearchPaths, and the "Workspace File List" is stored in the WSFileList pref. Both prefs are set up with values mentioned above in the default RAT.ini.

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