Importing Revised Macros and Effect on Pop-Ups

[Yehnfikm8Gq]

I've been playing with Pop-Up and Floating menus. They seem to be very useful for multi-user applications and for hotkey "multipliers" (one hotkey effectively gives up to 36 new hotkeys). What I've found very annoying is an extension of the "Import a revised macro" issue.

 

If you revise the master copy of a macro and import to a Macro File, it is imported without overwriting the old version - you have to delete that as a separate action (whether manually or by maintenance macro). Unlike ME3 you don't seem to get a warning that a hotkey (for example) already exists. You don't get a warning that the macro name already exists and no option to overwrite the existing. That in itself is annoying.

 

The next problem is if the macro is on a Pop-Up or Floating Menu. When the old version is deleted, whether before or after the import, the item disappears off the Menu. You have to edit the Menu to add it back.

 

Has anyone any workarounds for this? Along with the lack of Global Replace, it's another area that needs to be improved for maintaining MEPro systems. I suppose in the multi-user environment one would replace the entire edited mex file rather than importing the revised macro to each PC.

[Cory]

One MEX to rule them all.

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I suppose in the multi-user environment one would replace the entire edited mex file rather than importing the revised macro to each PC.

This is what I do. For all my clients I maintain a single MEX on a file server that they all use. I then make that folder a 'package' where all my supporting files are. In each macro one of the first routines is to get the path of the current MEX and then all the references to supporting file like INIs and such are all relative and the package is portable. What's more I maintain a nearly identical folder for development. A sandbox. Then I have a macro that moves the dev MEX to the active, en/disables several macros, makes a date stamped backup and prompts me for the changes it saves to a log.

 

I've played with multiple files in various ways and this is the most sensible IMHO. You have found one example of many. I like experimenting too but in the end I've found the most practical way to do things is to use the tool as it was intended.