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.

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

import tempfile

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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 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.

here is a small snippet on how to use it. 

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.

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 !)

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)

"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

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)

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 ?)

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)

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: