Using more then 126 chars for naming models...

Question

Today i noticed that models in Shockwave3D can have a maximum
number of 126 characters. I needed to know that because i have to
store some Informations in the names of the models when i export
them (i have not option to use the "userdate" when exporting the
models).
But now something interesting happend when i tried to create
long names in director via lingo. If the names are longer then 126
charakters they are limited to the first 126.
if you use for example this code to generate a new group:
member("world").newgroup("Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,
consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod
tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliq")
this are 126 chars, you get a group with exact this name.
if you now add more charakters at the end it will produce
another group with the same name as the group above. You can check
this in the Objectinspector.
use now this code:
member("world").newgroup("Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,
consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod
tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliqLorem ipsum dolor sit amet,
consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod
tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliq")
It will produce a second Group with exact the same name. The
good thing is, that you can still reference to the model with that
long name, the bad thing is, you can't read the full name of the
model anymore.
What does this mean in the end?
There is a visible name of the model that can be read by
lingo, but there is the "real" name of the model that can be used
to reference to models. If the names have more then 126 chars you
can only see the shortend name but its still nessesary to reference
to the longer name.
if you try this in the message window (this are 127 chars, i
added a "2" as last character):
member("world").newgroup("Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,
consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod
tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliq2")
put member("world").group("Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,
consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod
tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliq2").name
-- "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit,
sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna
aliq"
but
put member("world").group("Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,
consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod
tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliq").name
will give you an error!
Conclusion:
It's better not to use more then 126 characters for naming
models.
But if you want to prevent your 3D models from being used by
other people, then you can use longer names and add for example a
serialnumber to the models, behind char 126. So you can generate
shockwave apps that need to know the correct name of the model.
if you give your models in your 3D app names like this:
"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit,
sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna
aliq_12345"
(132 chars)
the last part is in this example the serialnumber "_12345"
you can only reference to the models with
serialnum="_12345"
rightname=member("world").model[1].name & serialnum
put rightname.position
Maybe interesting to some people that want to make external
w3D files unconfortable to handle for other people, you still can
reference to the models by their numbers. I think it will only
prevent models form the "CloneModelFromCastmember" command, not
much... in the end there is no real protection when external *.w3d
files are used...
regards!

Answer 1

hondo3000 wrote:
> I know that this is not more then a gesture. but if
people try to use "3DPI"
> for example and push the "CloneModelsFromCastmember"
button it will not work.
> CloneModelFromCastmember needs to know the model by
name.
>
> Using the "clone" comand like this:
> member("world").model[1].clone("clone001")
>
> will produce a errormessage and a model that is named
like the original one.
>
> But you are right, this is absolute useless at all. if
you know a little lingo
> its possible to copy models in different ways.... So
sorry for posting this
> here, it was just little bit late and i was not thinking
long enough about
> it...
hehe Don�t worry! It�s good to post here things
like these. I already
faced the character limitation and couldn�t use
userData either because
the modeler needed to use Maya. Can�t recall how did I
solve it... I
think that using a database. Anyway, now we know that we
won�t be able
of stealing your models with 3DPI
Regards,
Agust�n Mar�a Rodr�guez
www.onwine.com.ar > Macromedia Director demos & code