Maya / MotionBuilder COM Port sending custom commands

#1

Hi!
I’m picking up a relatively large codebase with little documentation.

There’s a C# tool that connects to an already open MotionBuilder 2010 scene (in this particular case, though the same exists for Maya as noted at the bottom of this post) and executes various commands.

Some of the commands are built-in MotionBuilder Commands such as Open:

mSocket.Send(“Open “” + pPath + “””);

While others are custom commands such as RelinkTextures:

mSocket.Send(“RelinkTextures “” + pPath + “””);

I can not seem to locate where the actual functions live in order to be able to alter and add to these functions.

These calls to the socket connection are in a custom library called CAppControl that contains a file specifically to control MotionBuilder, CMotionBuilder.cs:

using System;

namespace CAppControl
{
public class CMotionBuilder : CApplicationControl
{
private CSocket mSocket;

  public CMotionBuilder()
  {
        try
        {
            mSocket = new cSocket(4243);
        }
        catch (Exception e)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(e.Message);
        }
  }

    public object Result
    {
        get
        {
            return null;
        }
    }

As well as a file that lists all of the functions but without any actual executable code, CApplicationDataControl.cs:

using System;
using System.Reflection;

namespace CAppControl
{
public interface CApplicationDataControl
{
void OpenFile( string pFile, string pModule );
void RelinkTextures(string cPath);
}
}

I’m sure I am missing something simple to clarify where I find these actual functions. Did the previous developers store them in another file directly in my MotionBuilder install? or a user directory? “Go to Definition” in VS takes me nowhere for these functions. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

More generally also…
I also have commands that execute this way with Maya.
In maya though its sending MEL commands that are recognized and I can find. Where do these commands’ actually functionality exist?