MayaMan Windows/Unix Path Map

MayaMan is capable of creating RIB and script files to be rendered on Windows or Unix systems. You can generate RIB files on a Windows machine to be rendered by a Unix machine, but the problem with this is that the filenames used will be incorrect on one system or the other. The MayaMan Windows/Unix Path Map allows you to enter pairs of filesystem paths, to map entries between the operating systems. For example, if you select a texture from T:\maps\foo.tif and this location is known as /usr/maps/foo.tif under unix, then you can enter T:\ and /usr/ as an entry in the path map, and the correct location will be used, depending on whether you are generating unix style RIB files or not.

Path Map Listing

The listing at the top of the dialog shows all the path mappings that are currently active. You can modify them by typing directly into the fields of the table, or remove them by clicking the cursor on one and pressing the 'Remove Selected' button below the list. Pressing the 'Add New Path Pair' adds a new entry to the table, which you will need to modify from its initial values.

Load/Save Path Map File

You can save out the path map as a file for later retrieval in other scenes or on other computers. This is useful because most sites would have a set of commonly used path mappings, so saving out a copy saves manually entering them for each new scene.

Site Wide Configuration File

MayaMan makes it easy to to maintain a site-wide configuration file for path mapping which is implicitly included in all rib translations... no need to explicitly load it. The file is found in the root directory of your mayaman install and is called 'path_map'. It consists of pairs of lines, one for windows and then one for linux, ie:


# lines that start with a # or are completely empty are skipped
# otherwise the lines are treated as pairs of paths, the first one
# is for Windows and the second one is for Unix

# setup the mapping for the software server, this will map
# the mayaman, prman, air, etc. installs back and forth provided
# that you've done consistent installs
Z:/software
/nfs/software

# setup the mapping for data disks
F:
/nfs/disk1
G:
/nfs/disk2
H:
/nfs/disk3

Both this data and the additional path mappings added to the scene are output as the 'dirmap' in ribs for PRMan and also for Alfre scripts. Correct use of this feature (and Path Neutral) can result in highly portable ribs.

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