October 27, 2020

DK Wrangle v0.1 Introduction

Hey folks,
i managed to get this to a state that seems stable enough to already be useful.
The tool can be found here:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/43212675

There is still some stuff to figure out. If  you start button smashing you might provoke python errors. 
BUT if you use it as intended you can already use it. Since this tool is based on the HDA in combination with a json file - you can already start building your library. New versions of the asset should not be a problem... unless I mess it up. 😉
I am going to build a better documentation with time but let me show you here what you need to know to use it right now.
First there is the JSON file. I provide a small library to go with the tool. You have the option to add new stuff to it right from the asset itself.
I am building a bigger file to provide the next tier with some extra value.
But let's take a look at the format. The JSON File is build like this:
A context has a name and a Label
A Category is related to a context
The Entry has a name, a category, a description and the code itself

The tool itself currently just contains a simple wrangle with its UI being accessible at the top. In addition to that you have 2 collapsible folders to load or to save data.

The load section is hopefully easy to understand. See it as a library of entries ordered by context and categories.
You choose the context in the first dropdown - then the 2nd one is updated to show what is inside.
In the image below you can see that once the json file is loaded - there is a context "Custom Code" which has the category "Utility".
Inside that there is, for example the entry "Distance to closest Position".
Now you only need to press "Insert" and the code saved for that entry goes into the wrangle snippet.

Besides being able to load any file - I started to build a library of simple variations of the default functions and will continue to build a big library - but you can take this tool as it is and start to build your own library.
You can just open the attached json file and edit it in any editor but i also build in a simple UI to create new entries.
The "Save To File" folder has its own path. That way you can import data from the original file and save it into a new file. Just in case you don't want to be save.
To create a new Context you just need to enter a name and a label.

A new category is also easy to create. Here you have a dropdown to chose to which context the new category should be added to.

And finally saving your code snippets - that you need again and again but are tired of writing from scratch. Chose context and category - pick a name and write a description and press "Save Entry". 
You can immediatly go over to the "Load" section, pick that entry and insert it.

The loaded content is placed at the bottom of the wrangle. 

I hope you find this tool useful.
Let me know if you have ideas or wishes to improve its functioniality.

Cheers
Dave
 

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David Kahl VFX

a Software Developer, Nerd and VFX Artist based in Germany
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