Looking in the Poser 9 PoserPython manual the  scene.Load/SaveLibraryCamera/Face/Figure/Hair/Hand/Light/Pose/Prop(filePath)  methods all require the complete path (absolute or runtime-relative, including filename and extension) as their argument.

But actor.Load/SaveMaterialCollection(FileName) only requires the filename (without any path), and material.Load/SaveMaterialSet(name) only requires the material name (without path, without extension).

So where do those load/save material methods get the path from ?

Background: I'm trying to write a very simple script for Poser 9 to, among other things, load a material collection from a folder on my desktop (no runtime structure, just a few Poser files of various types in a single folder), and/or save a material collection back  to another folder  (again no runtime structure, just a few Poser files of various types in a single folder) on my desktop. Why am I writing a script ? Because Poser 9 needs flash for the library, so the library doesn't work. There's no Poser 10 style workaround, and I'm having problems using the free 3rd party library P3DO. Why am I using Poser 9 ? I want to create the Poser files using the earliest version of Poser I have that supports what I need (e.g. particular nodes) to avoid that "This file is for a later version of Poser..." message when you load it.

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The 3Dcheapskate* occasionally posts sensible stuff. Usually by accident.
And it usually uses Poser 11, with units set to inches. Except when it's using Poser 6 or PP2014, or when its units are set to PNU.

*also available in ShareCG, DAZ, and HiveWire3D flavours (the DeviantArt and CGBytes flavour have been discontinued).

While waiting for somebody who knows the answer I found this in a 9 year old script of mine...

import tempfile

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The 3Dcheapskate* occasionally posts sensible stuff. Usually by accident.
And it usually uses Poser 11, with units set to inches. Except when it's using Poser 6 or PP2014, or when its units are set to PNU.

*also available in ShareCG, DAZ, and HiveWire3D flavours (the DeviantArt and CGBytes flavour have been discontinued).

In Poser12, something like this works:
scene.LoadLibraryFigure("character:Aeon Soul:SantaMonicaHair:Braid_left.cr2")

I don't have Poser9 anymore, so that I can't test this for you on this version.

𝒫𝒽𝓎𝓁

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That's the runtime-relative filepath as per the PoserPython manual. It's the LoadMaterialCollection() and LoadMaterialSet() (which don't, according to the manual, include a path) that are puzzling me. But as noted in my previous post it appears that the manual is wrong, or at least slightly misleading.

Given that the Poser file extensions  for materials are mt5 and mc6 I'd guess that the methods for loading/saving materials were added in Poser 5 and 6 - designed, implemented, and documented by somebody different. And of course they're not scene methods.

It appears from my previous post that LoadMaterialSet() does/can in fact take a path as its argument. LoadMaterialCollection() probably does/can too.

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The 3Dcheapskate* occasionally posts sensible stuff. Usually by accident.
And it usually uses Poser 11, with units set to inches. Except when it's using Poser 6 or PP2014, or when its units are set to PNU.

*also available in ShareCG, DAZ, and HiveWire3D flavours (the DeviantArt and CGBytes flavour have been discontinued).

did you check with the Python Console?
I tend to trust more this

𝒫𝒽𝓎𝓁

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👿 Win11 on i9-13900K@5GHz, 64GB, RoG Strix B760F Gamng, Asus Tuf Gaming RTX 4070 OC Edition, 1 TB SSD, 6+4+8TB HD
👿 Mac Mini M2, Sonoma 14.6.1, 16GB, 500GB SSD
👿 Nas 10TB
👿 Poser 13 and soon 14 ❤️

No, I didn't - I wouldn't know (a) where to find it, and (b) how to use it. The only way I ever run Python is via Poser's main menu > File > Run python script. :oD

P.S. What does the Python Consoile show for LoadMaterialSet() ? I'd wager it's more or less what's in the manual.

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The 3Dcheapskate* occasionally posts sensible stuff. Usually by accident.
And it usually uses Poser 11, with units set to inches. Except when it's using Poser 6 or PP2014, or when its units are set to PNU.

*also available in ShareCG, DAZ, and HiveWire3D flavours (the DeviantArt and CGBytes flavour have been discontinued).

the manual was not written correctly, you need to pass the path, absolute or relative 

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3dcheapskate posted at 8:28 AM Tue, 14 June 2022 - #4439957

No, I didn't - I wouldn't know (a) where to find it, and (b) how to use it. The only way I ever run Python is via Poser's main menu > File > Run python script. :oD

P.S. What does the Python Consoile show for LoadMaterialSet() ? I'd wager it's more or less what's in the manual.

I think that the Python Shell command is in the Scripts menu, at least that's where it actually is in P11 & P12.
Both P11 and P2 don't display a lot for this function:

𝒫𝒽𝓎𝓁

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👿 Win11 on i9-13900K@5GHz, 64GB, RoG Strix B760F Gamng, Asus Tuf Gaming RTX 4070 OC Edition, 1 TB SSD, 6+4+8TB HD
👿 Mac Mini M2, Sonoma 14.6.1, 16GB, 500GB SSD
👿 Nas 10TB
👿 Poser 13 and soon 14 ❤️

I experienced that the best way to save a Material Collection with Python (in P10 at least) was from the Material Room.

Didn't work the same when saving from the Pose Room.

Yarp - author of P3DO Organizer for Poser

here is a small snippet on how to use it. 

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yarp posted at 12:01 AM Wed, 15 June 2022 - #4439986

I experienced that the best way to save a Material Collection with Python (in P10 at least) was from the Material Room.

Didn't work the same when saving from the Pose Room.

That's something I hadn't thought about. In Poser 6 the library pane doesn't show the Materials library unless you're in the Material room - I wonder if that's related in any way ?

P.S. regarding the problems I was having with P3DO,  I don't really want to pester you as I've almost got my very simple script finished (P3DO is overkill for the simple thing I'm trying to do !)

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The 3Dcheapskate* occasionally posts sensible stuff. Usually by accident.
And it usually uses Poser 11, with units set to inches. Except when it's using Poser 6 or PP2014, or when its units are set to PNU.

*also available in ShareCG, DAZ, and HiveWire3D flavours (the DeviantArt and CGBytes flavour have been discontinued).

structure posted at 12:26 AM Wed, 15 June 2022 - #4439987

here is a small snippet on how to use it. 

        ThisMaterial.SaveMaterialSet(tempmat)

        if os.path.isfile(tempmat+'.mt5'):

            tempmat += '.mt5'

        elif os.path.isfile(tempmat+'.mz5'):

            tempmat += '.mz5'

        else:

            tempmat = None

        if not tempmat is None:

            for Material in TheseMaterials:

                if not Material == ThisMaterial and not Material.Name().lower() == IgnoreMaterial:

                    Material.LoadMaterialSet(tempmat)

Thanks, but that kinda sidesteps the actual question ! :o)

"But ... material.Load/SaveMaterialSet(name) only requires the material name (without path, without extension). 
So where do those load/save material methods get the path from ?"

However, since your snippet uses os.path.isfile(path) (that's a Python 2 docs link as I don't have Poser 12) which takes a full path (path, filename, extension) I guess that Python uses some default path - maybe the current working directory, os.getcwd() ?

Anyway - while cobbling together my script I accidentally passed a full path (path, filename, extension) to mat.SaveMaterialSet(whatever) and it wrote the file exactly where I'd said. That makes more sense to me - if I'm loading/saving a file I want to specify the full path.

I also tried saving an MT5 by passsing just the filename. No error thrown (I used try-except), but I can't find the file anywhere ! :oD

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The 3Dcheapskate* occasionally posts sensible stuff. Usually by accident.
And it usually uses Poser 11, with units set to inches. Except when it's using Poser 6 or PP2014, or when its units are set to PNU.

*also available in ShareCG, DAZ, and HiveWire3D flavours (the DeviantArt and CGBytes flavour have been discontinued).

Another oddity.

- The PoserPython (Poser 9) save methods for face, light, mat collection, and material appear to automatically add the correct extension if you omit it.

- For camera and figure they don't

- (not sure about prop, hand, hair, and scene yet)

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The 3Dcheapskate* occasionally posts sensible stuff. Usually by accident.
And it usually uses Poser 11, with units set to inches. Except when it's using Poser 6 or PP2014, or when its units are set to PNU.

*also available in ShareCG, DAZ, and HiveWire3D flavours (the DeviantArt and CGBytes flavour have been discontinued).

Found the missing saved files !

Poser(Python) saved them to C:\Users\Public\Documents\Poser 9 Content*. 
Not the runtime subfolder of that, but directly into that folder. So if you call mat.SaveMaterialSet(filenameonlywithoutpath), as per the manual, it puts the MT5/MZ5 in the same folder as your runtime folder, which is NOT where anybody would want it.

*which is where the default Poser 9 content was installed. And that begs the question, why does my library preferences file say this ?

(I wonder if that explains the problem I was having with P3DO ?)

---

The 3Dcheapskate* occasionally posts sensible stuff. Usually by accident.
And it usually uses Poser 11, with units set to inches. Except when it's using Poser 6 or PP2014, or when its units are set to PNU.

*also available in ShareCG, DAZ, and HiveWire3D flavours (the DeviantArt and CGBytes flavour have been discontinued).

Yet another thing I've noticed.

The extra dialogs you get when you load/save via the library appear as prints to the debug window if you load/save via PoserPython (e.g if you load an MC6 to the wrong figure there's that dialog about not having all the materials, would you like to create the missing ones?)

Except for the "left or right?" one when you load/save an HD2. That throws an error (try-except)

Yarp, I take my hat off to you ! :oD

(Luckily for me I'm not interested in hands)

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The 3Dcheapskate* occasionally posts sensible stuff. Usually by accident.
And it usually uses Poser 11, with units set to inches. Except when it's using Poser 6 or PP2014, or when its units are set to PNU.

*also available in ShareCG, DAZ, and HiveWire3D flavours (the DeviantArt and CGBytes flavour have been discontinued).

if it fails,  try except will fail with no error passed to the user unless the except clause raises an error.

So the file was not created, poser just did not inform you about it. 

for the path - try this:

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