Description

The Replace ICE String tool lets you effortlessly change attribute names in your ICE trees. This is often a common yet error prone task when tidying up compounds for release, due to long forgotten attributes hidden in the depths of other compounds.

Installation

The plugin is provided as a python plug-in file, and you just need to put it inside a Plugins directory for XSI to recognise it.

Replace ICE String V1.0 (3Kb)

Versions

1.0: Initial release

Getting Started

After you’ve installed the plugin, open an ICE Tree Editor. You should have a new entry in the ICE Tree Editor’s User Tools menu.

Make sure you’ve got an active ICE Tree displayed in the window, and select User Tools -> Replace ICE String. You should see this dialog:

The functionality of this tool shouldn’t need much explanation as it works in the same way as any text based search replace tool. However, there are a few key points that need to be mentioned.

Previews

There is a preview button that shows every replacement the tool will make. It’s always a good idea to do a preview before you run the tool, as it’s easy to overlook situations you might not have considered.

Scope of Replacement

It’s important to note that the search/replace is recursive. It will always drill down into all compounds beneath the inital viewing location in the tree.

When you launch the tool from the menu, it stores the current location of the ICE Tree Editor in the entry called “Ice Tree” (at the top of the dialog). This is where the tool will perform the search and replace. This means that if you view the root of the ICE Tree and run the tool, it will operate on the entire tree. If you are inside a compound, it will only run on the nodes contained in that compound.

If you view a different tree or use another ICE Tree editor, the Replace ICE String tool will not recognise you’ve changed what you’re looking at and will still operate on the original selection, so be careful! To change the location, just open a new Replace ICE String tool dialog from the ICE Tree Editor.

Limiting to Get/Set Data nodes

Generally you only want to replace strings that are located inside Get Data and Set Data nodes, so you have a checkbox that gives you the option to restrict the operation to those nodes to help speed up the process. This filter also includes the Get Data At Previous Frame node.

If you don’t use the Get/Set Data filter, then the tool will attempt to do a search and replace on all string based parameters in your tree. Again, it’s advisable to run a preview before doing this.