Welcome to the Stingray 1.9 plug-in startup repo

This repository provides an easy way to get started creating new plug-ins for Autodesk Stingray 1.9.

You'll find a sample plug-in that is already set up with some basic content, and a framework that you can build on:

• A sample .stingray_plugin descriptor file, which tells Stingray what your plug-in is and what it does.
• Various components that extend the Stingray environment:
  • Content resources that your plug-in makes available to all the Stingray projects you open in the editor.
  • C/C++ code that extends the runtime engine with new functionality.
  • C/C++ code that extends the editor's JavaScript environment with hooks to functions implemented in native code.
  • JavaScript modules that extend the Stingray editor with new panels, menus, and commands.
  • A Stingray content project that your plug-in users will see in the Templates tab of the Project Manager.
• Everything you need to build C/C++ plug-in code into .dll files ready for the engine and editor to load:
  • make.rb launches the plug-in build system.
  • spm.rb fetches and installs build packages and external libraries. It's called internally by make.rb, but you can also use it on its own as well if your plug-in has other dependencies that you want to download automatically.
  • cmake generates and compiles Visual Studio solutions for the native plug-in extensions.

For more information about plug-ins, how they work, and what you can do with them, see the Stingray SDK Help.

Step 1. Install prerequisites

You'll need a Git client to clone the contents of this repo to your computer.

If you want your plug-in to include C/C++ libraries that extend the editor or the engine, you'll also need:

• Ruby 2.0 or later.

• Node 6.11.2 LTS or later.

• Visual Studio 2015 with Update 3 & Patch KB3165756.

Step 2. Get a local copy of the source

You will need to get the contents of this repo to your computer so that you can work with it.

IMPORTANT: You need to get the version of this repo that corresponds to the version of Stingray that you will use your plug-in with! This is especially true if your plug-in will use a C/C++ .dll to extend the engine or editor, since you'll need compatible versions of the Stingray SDK header files to compile your plug-in against.

• The master branch is always in sync with the latest released version of Stingray. This is the default branch you'll get if you clone this repo. Use it if you want your plug-in to work with the current version of Stingray.

• If you want to set up your plug-in to work with a previous version of Stingray, you can get a version of this repo to match by checking out a release tag, or downloading the source from the Releases tab on GitHub.

If you have access to the source code for Stingray:

• If you're using the develop branch of the Stingray engine repo to pick up the latest and greatest changes and bug fixes, use the develop branch of this repo to build your plug-in.

• If you want your plug-in to support an upcoming release that isn't yet publicly available but that has its own release branch in the Stingray engine repository, use the matching release branch of this repo to keep in sync.

Step 3. Set up your library directory

Every revision of the plug-in source code depends on libraries and dependencies that are not stored in Git. Instead, our build tools copy these libraries to your computer from a storage location on the Internet.

Before you run a build, you have to specify a location on your computer where you want the build to store and access these libraries.

• Create an environment variable named SR_LIB_DIR. Set its value to any empty directory on your computer where you want the libraries to be copied.

Step 4. Build

If you're including a C/C++ plug-in for the engine or the editor, build it by running the make.rb script in the root directory of this repository.

> ruby make.rb

This command:

• automatically updates your library directory with the correct versions of all libraries needed for your build.
• generates and builds Visual Studio solutions for the Stingray engine and editing tools.
• offers several parameters that you can use to control what gets built and how. Call it with the --help command-line parameter to get a list of all available parameters.

NOTE: If you get an error about certificate verification, you may need to install this SSL fix for RubyGems

Build results

By default, the script writes all compiled .dll files to the plugin/binaries directory under the root directory in which you cloned the Stingray source code.

You can also use the Visual Studio solutions generated in the build/engine and build/editor folders to work with the source code and rebuild your libraries.

Tutorial!

See the wiki for a tutorial that walks you step-by-step through the process of making a plug-in that extends both the engine and the editor.

Directory structure

• build: Various build outputs (i.e. CMake generated solutions)
• cmake: CMake helper scripts downloaded by spm
• editor: A folder where you can put C/C++ code that extends the editor.
• engine: A folder where you can put C/C++ code that extends the runtime engine.
• plugin: Other plugin sources (plugin descriptor, editor extension, compiled editor and engine extenions, etc.)
• stingray_sdk: Stingray editor and engine C/C++ header based plugin SDK downloaded by spm.
• tools: Various build tools downloaded by spm.
• make.rb: Build interface script. Execute make.rb --help to see all the options.

Once you've successfully built the Stingray plugin, you can zip the plugin folder and distribute your plugin. For help getting started with with the Stingray SDK, see the tutorial videos and topics in the main Stingray SDK Help.

Plugin structure

• stingray-example.plugin: Initial plugin descriptor. It is strongly recommended to rename the file name of this file.
• sample_project/: Example project that demonstrate how your plugin works.

More help

Please see the Stingray SDK Help for more details on working with plug-ins, API reference documentation, and more.

Stay in touch!

Your feedback is essential in making this product a success. Please help us by sharing your opinions about all the things we're doing wrong in the Stingray user forum or in the user forums on the Autodesk beta portal. Autodesk engineers and designers are actively engaged in the forum threads, so you can make your voice heard loud and clear and get help straight from the source.