User attribute as part of a filepath in a vray proxy node

[Mdelosrios]

Can I use a vray user attribute as part of a filepath in a vray proxy node?

Let's say I have a vray user attribute in the vray proxy shape and the value is 'cacheVersion=v13', and my original path is '//server/folder/v13/alembic.abc'
if I add the wild card <cacheVersion> in the file path, so it reads '//server/folder/<cacheVersion>/alembic.abc' it gives me an error. Is there a way to do this?

The logic is that I have 30 proxy nodes, I can control that user attribute by linking it to a user attribute in another node, so it makes it easier to update proxies.

[yolov]

Hi there,

Can you give us more info on how you add the user attributes?
On what node you add them? Do you do it manually, or with a script?
Basically any additional info will help here.

[Mdelosrios]

Sure

I am trying both by going to attributes>Vray>User Attrbiutes in the vray proxy shape, and then typing cacheVersion=v13, for example

I also tried adding manually an attribute called vrayUserString_cacheVer and setting it to v13, also don't the vray proxy shape

I have this cache:
\\disks\nas0\CGI\R_n_D\work.miguel.delosriosvila\h oudini\abc\box\box\v05\box.1001.abc

Below are screenshots of how I am trying to set it up
As a user attribute

I get this error

As a string attribute

Same path




If I do it as a literal string, then it can find the alembic

[yolov]

Thanks, that makes it a lot more clear now.

User attributes weren't designed to work in this way for the proxy, maybe it's a bit misleading that we show them as available for the proxy nodes.
User attributes are designed for shading - you can change the shading graph at render per geometry node, for example.
In your case, the proxy node in the scene doesn't change, although the file that's being loaded changes.

It seems that you want to create a single proxy node as a placeholder and change the file to load based on a filename substring. Something like a version label, correct?
It doesn't look like typing v05 in the user attribute field or the file name field is any different for rendering or the workflow (provided this worked). The only convenience is that in the user attribute field you don't have to select the part of the string to replace, you just replace the entire user attribute field?
In this case maybe a scripted approach could work.

OR maybe you place multiple proxy nodes in the scenes, where each one loads a different version of the file?
In this case I'm not sure what I can suggest.
Do let me know if I'm on the right track, though.