Why doesn't the MTNS macro work any longer?

[Deleted User] · December 2017

I have the macro mtns, which I gleaned from somewhere ages ago, and it worked well until the Update 14. It now recognizes the command, but does nothing - it is supposed to come up with a dialogue. I use this often, especially for cliffs on big overland maps.
Can anyone tell me why it doesn't work any longer.
Here is the macro

MACRO MTNS1
ECOFF
SELSAVE
LWIDTH 0;LSTYLE solid;FSTYLE solid
GOLAYER TMPMOUNTAINS
GOLAYER TMPPATH
GOLAYER MOUNTAINS
SHEET MOUNTAINS
ASKBOX DEFAULT VALUES
Step 5
Steep side length 5
Smooth side length 10
Color 0
Line width 0
IFERR Choose
GO NoChoose
:Choose
GV RV 5
GV RV ^DEnter step value (5)
GV SL 5
GV SL ^DEnter steep side length (5)
GV SS 10
GV SS ^DEnter smooth side length (10)
GN CL 0
GN CL ^DEnter color: (0)
GV LW 0
GV LW ^DEnter line width: (0)
GO Selection
:NoChoose
GV RV 5
GV SL 5
GV SS 10
GN CL 0
Gv LW 0
:Selection
GE FL ^DSelect smooth line
IFERR MacroDone
COLOR CL
SELBY1
CHANGEL FL TMPMOUNTAINS
GV RANDOM 1234
LWIDTH LW
GLEN LV FL
GN LN LV/RV
GV PSTEP 100/LN
GV PRCV PSTEP
GP P0 % 0 FL
:DrawSide
GV LFC (1-(PRCV-50)*(PRCV-50)*0.8/2500)
IFN 100-PRCV-PSTEP/2 DrawBackBone
GP P1 % PRCV FL
GP P2 % PRCV+(PSTEP/100) FL
GBRNG BR P1 P2
GSIN RD1 RANDOM
GV RANDOM RANDOM+200
GSIN RD2 RANDOM
GV RANDOM RANDOM+200
GP P2 ref P1 <BR+90*(1+0.1*RD1),(SL*(LFC+0.1*RD2))
FPATH P1 P2;
GSIN RD1 RANDOM
GV RANDOM RANDOM+200
GSIN RD2 RANDOM
GV RANDOM RANDOM+200
GP P2 ref P1 <BR-90*(1+0.1*RD1),(SS*(LFC+0.1*RD2))
FPATH P1 P2;
GV PRCV PRCV+PSTEP
GO DrawSide
:DrawBackBone
GV PRCV PSTEP
:Loop
IFN 100-PRCV-PSTEP/2 EndLoop
GP P1 % PRCV FL
FPATH P0 P1;
GP P0 P1
GV PRCV PRCV+PSTEP
GO Loop
:EndLoop
FPATH P1 % 100 FL;
GOLAYER TMPMOUNTAINS
HIDE MOUNTAINS
ERA FL
SHOWA
GOLAYER MOUNTAINS
:MacroDone
SELREST
COLOR 0
ECON
ENDM

Loopysue · December 2017

Hi Quenten

I don't tend to use many macros. Only the ones that are mentioned a lot publicly, like EDITSHADING, or FLIPSHADING (the later of which doesn't seem to be necessary any more since about update 13). Maybe the same thing has happened with this one (which I've not heard of before).

I also remember that updates and re-installations can sometimes overwrite macros written by users (which is one of the reasons I don't tend to bother with them - too much to worry about when life is so busy). Maybe that is what has happened here? Maybe its been updated and given a slightly different name?

One thing I'm guilty of.... well, two things actually, is that I haven't yet done update 14, and I don't tend to read the update notes all that thoroughly. Its like a blind spot of mine - looking at but not managing to take in a page of text...

[Deleted User] · December 2017

The macro isn't in any of the standard CC3+ stuff, it is one which has to be loaded when you need it. Never had a problem before.

Loopysue · December 2017

One that the user adds, then.

Hmmmm... I assume its still physically there, or you wouldn't have been able to reproduce it above?

Monsen · December 2017

Do you have the complete macro? The one above is missing several lines at the end, making it impossible to test properly.

kathorus · December 2017

Yeah, I put an ENDM at the end and was able to run it up to the "Select Smooth Line" command, where it bailed because I don't have the DrawBackBone command, which I assume is another macro.

[Deleted User] · December 2017

I don't know why the text cut out at the end, even when I tried to edit it. Here it is as an attachment

kathorus · December 2017

Also, when I did get back the error on the DrawBackBone, I hadn't updated to 3.80, after updating and trying the full macro, I get nothing.

[Deleted User] · December 2017

Exactly - it worked perfectly with update 13, but not at all with update 14

kathorus · December 2017

I took off the ECOFF and SELSAVE from the beginning and the SELREST and ECON on the end and it runs again, but errors again on with the DrawBackBone function, it could be that I'm not running this on the correct type of entity.

Monsen · December 2017

As written, I couldn't go get that macro to work in any CC3+ version, I tried 3.80, 3.79, 3.77 and 3.74, with all of them showing the exact same behavior.

But it works fine if you change the line
Line width 0
to
Line width 0;

The ; properly terminates the input to the askbox command, otherwise CC3+ doesn't know when the lines with text to put in the box ends and where the next command begins.

(Note that when the macro crashes, it may mess up some settings, so make sure to restart CC3+, then issue the selbyd command to revert selection method to the normal one)

[Deleted User] · December 2017

Did all that - the :, the selbyd etc. No luck. And yet it worked perfectly before I upgraded to 3.80

kathorus · December 2017

I was able to run it with Monsen's fix.

Monsen · December 2017

Then I don't know what is going on unfortunately. Adding the ; to properly terminate DRAWBOX input made it run perfectly for me (well, I assume perfectly, since I don't remember exactly how the output should look, but it does draw a bunch of fractal lines across the smooth path, which looks reasonable to me.)

[Deleted User] · December 2017

Interesting that you and kathorus have it running normally with 3.80, yet i still can't get it working. I'll post what I have in the macro revised again - just in case I 'corrected' the wrong thing

kathorus · December 2017

Try this version.

Joachim de Ravenbel · December 2017

Hi.

This macro comes from here.

The file works fine with update 14 on my computer.

[Deleted User] · December 2017

Yes, kathorus, yours works perfectly. I use this for cliffs a lot. And thanks to Joachim who designed it.

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Why doesn't the MTNS macro work any longer?

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