topic Re: HiddenDOSCommand and Max 2011 in 3ds Max Programming Forum

HiddenDOSCommand and Max 2011

Anonymous — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 00:48:20 GMT

I'm experiencing a strange issue with HiddenDOSCommand.

I'm running some Perforce calls via HiddenDOSCommand for syncing, adding and editing Max files. Running these functions on my computer works fine, but running them on a co-worker's computer does not. I checked his environment variables and they are fine, and running the same exact string through a dos prompt on his computer works fine.

It should be noted the only difference between his and my Max load-outs is that I am using 64-bit and he is using 32-bit, and I don't know if that can change...

Has anyone had this happen, and know any potential solution (or, at the least, where else I can look to see what is going on?)

Thanks!

Tim

Re: HiddenDOSCommand and Max 2011

Steve_Curley — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 10:19:23 GMT

32/64 shouldn't be a problem. More likely is that the paths are different on the 2 systems, especially if his paths have spaces in them and yours do not. Explicit quoting of path/filenames is very important when using dos commands - see this thread for an example of that.

Also, use dosCommand rather than hiddenDosCommand while trying to debug this kind of problem so you can see not only the command as seen by the "dos box" but also any errors which may be displayed. Also keep an eye on the Maxscript Listener - you may get some useful info from there as well.

Re: HiddenDOSCommand and Max 2011

Anonymous — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 17:19:10 GMT

I've tried using dosCommand as well and get no useful information other than it returning a non-zero integer on his machine, which means the process failed (HiddenDOSCommand does the same thing)- on my machine it returns 0. What doesn't make sense to me is that the same exact string works in a commandline dos box on his machine, and the same exact string works on one machine and not another.

The paths are not different between machines, as our perforce setup enforces the paths to be identical. If they were different, running the same string through the dos box wouldn't work.

This problem makes my brain hurt...

Re: HiddenDOSCommand and Max 2011

Steve_Curley — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 17:44:53 GMT

Unfortunately it might - quotes do get stripped off in the process, and if you don't have enough (in the right places) the dosbox gets well confused.

If you're certain the commands are correct, and corectly quoted, then I don't know why it doesn't work on the other PC. You could install 32bit on there as well (if it isn't already) and try that - just to discount 32/64 possibility. 32 and 64 will share the license, so there no issues with having them both.

Re: HiddenDOSCommand and Max 2011

Anonymous — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 19:13:29 GMT

I'll double and triple check on Monday. If I can't get it working, I may change how I'm doing things and do the perforce stuff via dotNET.

Thanks for the help!

Re: HiddenDOSCommand and Max 2011

PiXeL_MoNKeY — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 23:33:00 GMT

Prior to 2010 or 2011 there was a bug in hiddenDosCommand that required the startpath value to be set, eventhough the documentation said it was optional. Are you supplying a startpath? Does it alter the results if you supply the startpath?

-Eric

Re: HiddenDOSCommand and Max 2011

Anonymous — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 01:28:00 GMT

Unfortunately it doesn't give me a different result... Thanks though!