Advice for reporting problems with importers/exporters.

Coding Python Support
1

Here is some advice for people who report problems with importers.

  1. If the scripts are distributed with Blender use the bugtracker, some of the authors of scripts dont brows elysuin so the post isnt usefull anyway.
    Emailing the author (email address can often be found in the importer)

The bugtracker is good because its a better way to make sure problems are followed up, they sit there until the issue is resolved.

If the script was released in elysuin then sure- make a post.

Im just thinking of the time that people would make posts about my obj importer and sine I only posted on Blender.org at the time I didnt see the posts.

  1. Link to the script your having a problem. if its distributed with Blender then say which version. also double check you have updated your scripts dir. some bugreports I have seen are from old scripts.

  2. The more information you provide the better.
    If you expect sombody to spend there time chasing up your problem then give them as much data as you can.
    It can be impossible to fix a problem if you cant re-produce it, so giving links to the files, output of the crash and URL’s of the files that show the error are helpfull.

for RJ2005 posted that he could not load textures referenced from 3ds files from a website/program called Celestia.

I did some work on the 3ds importer texture loading so its somthing I could look into and perhaps fix.

Heres a rough ascii flowchart of the paths I might take.

  • find celestia webpage and 3ds model links
    __1.1 yes? Download one of the 3ds files.
    ____* 1.2 file imports correctly
    ______* am I using the same file RJ2005 used?
    ________yes RJ2005 using the same importer as me? post and wait.
    ________no… find out which file caused the problem. goto 1.2
    ____* 1.3 file dosent import correctly. goto 4.0! yay.
    __1.2 no? make a post saying I cant find the webpage and wait for reply, preceed to 1.1

4.0 - Develop and fix problem.

  • Its even worse then this but thats just so you get the idea.
    Ideal bug report
  • This avoids many of the problems with mis-communication set out in above

when I try and import the file

link fo file

some problem happens.

(if there is any error) error message copied from the console

Im using Blender 2.xx and python 2.x.x

The script im using is bundled with Blender x.xx (or link to page)

… and to be realy nice.

Here is a picture of what it should look like (insert screenshot of file in MAX or whatever app your importing from)

  • Cheers