Resizing the RenderManager in XSI

© 2005-2009 Rob Wuijster aka XSIBase/Rork, december 2008



Introduction:

XSI's layout can be rearranged like blocks of Lego(tm), and almost all parts of the interface can be changed or moved. With the new RenderManager panel I got fed up chanigin it every time I opened it. I felt like I was changing the witdh of the panel all the time. Time to go in and change some code ;-)

The interface is getting more and more XML'd (not a word I guess...) and so is the Render Manager window.
First of all, it can be found in the C:\Softimage\XSI_x.xx\Addons\RenderManager\Application\views\ folder.

Caution: Be sure to make a copy of the file before editing. It's always better to be save than sorry.

Editing the code

Open it up with a proper text editor (no I don't mean notepad) and you'll see an bunch of XML code. So, what to change.....

Most of the stuff you want is int the first 9 lines of code:

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>

<xsi_file type="RelationalView" xsi_version="Ariane_Beta4.3.0" syntax_version="1.1">
<relationalview clsid="{581FC286-04F4-4F22-9D1E-B50DBAF87719}" name="Render Manager" height="720" width="950">
<definition maxinstances="10000" acceptfocus="true" private="false" defaultsize="107,47,950,720" cmdmap="{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}" supportedtypes="6" category="Rendering/Texturing"> </definition>
<relations>
<relation driver="passes" driven="passesppg" event="selectionfunc" cmd="updatepass"> </relation>
<relation driver="passes" driven="rendererppg" event="selectionfunc" cmd="updaterenderer"> </relation>
</relations>
<frameset orientation="horizontal" name="Frameset1" splitter="movable" sizechild="250,350,350">

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I already changed the code so you can see the changes.

-Code line 3 will define the default width and height for the RM

-Code line 4 will define the location (and size) of the RM. It will read from the left top corner, so in this case 107 px. from the left and 47 px. from the top and the RM will be 950x720px wide and high.

-Code line 9 will define the layout itself in the width. In this case the first column will be 250px. wide, the other two 350px. each. Making it 950px. See the connection??

(The * in the original setup means that it will fill the width, like a html frame)

Now if you save this and reopen the RM, it will not behave as you expected.... Sigh.....

There's still one more line of code to change as this is a Relational View or RV.

Find the following lines of code (line 65-67)

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sub RV_Init( in_rv)
'### open at the optimal size
in_RV.Resize 950,720
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You'll have to change the size here as well to the ones stated in the previous values.

Save and reopen the RM, there's no need to restart XSI at this point. The size and location will now be as you want it to be.

That's it,

Rob