Free (possibly useful) App - Plug Tools v1.0

[johnC1984]

Hi there,
Thanks for all the effort!

I too am having problems with the Plugin-Table. It shows nothing and I am unable to Update (Just does nothing). I get the same readout as Suicune i.e

Plug Tools[176] Problem unarchiving /Library/Application Support/Empty Music/Plug Tools/Reference Plugins.plist
18/04/2010 09:13:15 Plug Tools[176] Problem unarchiving /Library/Application Support/Empty Music/Plug Tools/Reference Plugins.plist
18/04/2010 09:13:27 Plug Tools[176] File /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins (Unused) either doesn't exist or couldn't be opened.
18/04/2010 09:13:27 Plug Tools[176] File /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins (Unused) either doesn't exist or couldn't be opened.

I am using 10.5.8 on a dual 2 Ghz G5 PPC running PTHD 8.01 CS2
The two other Compatibility pages work fine.
Any help greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

[erant1]

Hi -
I'm running PT 8.04 on a Mac Pro with OS 10.6.4. I just installed V1.5 of Plug Tools, and while all of my plug ins are reported correctly, there's no information in the "Latest Version" column. Also, the right hand window of Plug Tools has no information in the Plug In Table or Digi Compatibility Page. I'm of course connected to the net, and can access the Digi site (and all plug in manufacturers) with no problems. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

[JB3]

Mark, Great tool. Please keep up the terrific work, keeping plug-ins up to date has long been a true PIA. This is a much needed step in the right direction. And PLEASE create a FAQ, it would really have been nice not to chase through all 10 pages to find the answers to the repeated questions, ha ha ha.

In addition, it wasn't until 1.5 build 100417 that I got the right window to load the Pro Tools Plug-in Table, as with Suicine(?). MacPro dual core Xeon, System 10.5.8, PT 8.0.3cs1.

One last, Mark, 1.5 appears a bit unstable on my MacPro, running great, then beachball and peace-out. This occurred with 1.5 from the home page and from downloading post 85 update (the only version that appears to work on my system).

JohnC1984, try downloading the version referenced in Post #85 and see if it works for you. I am running 10.5.8 on an Intel MacPro, but could not get the Plug Tools Plugin Table to load until the Post 85 version.

Erant1, have you read the previous suggestions regarding preference settings for Plug Tools and use of reload and update buttons? I'm sure you have and if these are not working try my suggestion for johnC1984.

...JB

[FraserTSmith]

Hi,

We are successfully running this ap (and really loving it) on one system here, 10.6.4. We are trying to run the ap on three more, running 10.5.8 but the plug-tools Plug in Table won't load, and Update List and download don't work. I think that the operating system is not allowing the ap to connect to the internet.

On the 10.6.4 version under Plug Tools> services> there is and option> services preferences which takes me to a system prefs window that I can't find the equivalent of in 10.5.8. In Plug-Tools> services on this version I don't have services prefs as an option.

I might be barking up completely the wrong tree here but any ideas how to enable Plug-Tools to connect the URL in 10.5.8?

Thanks

[SessionKat]

What a fantastic example of passion and need put into play. I promise to take this ball and roll it up into perhaps a new Utility offering for Pro Tools releases .....we could build off of this, I'd imagine, making a true stand-alone "Utility" for Pro tools users....adding verification, validations, links, marketing, reviews, user tips, etc.

An automatic SW Updating routine, ala Firefox and the rest of the world.

Playing on a field of dreams, maybe, but why not?


-tv

[kbruff]

Originally Posted by trombino

Hi Everyone,

I have made a new version of Plug Tools available that can automatically detect out of date plug-ins!

There is a small catch though.... I chose to create a database of plug-ins that Plug Tools can reference rather than using the Digidesign compatibility page. Digi's page is incomplete, as users have mentioned in this thread, and the names it uses for the plug-ins doesn't necessarily correlate to the actual names of the plug-ins as they appear on your hard drive. For example, sometimes it lists plug-in bundles without actually naming the plug-ins that make up that bundle... this posed problems for me when trying to parse the page to get meaningful data from it.

Making my own database poses a problem of it's own though - it needs to be maintained. What I would like to see eventually is for Plug Tools to be able to not only pull information from the database, but to be able to edit the database directly. Say, for example, if a user has a newer plug-in on their system than Plug Tools knows about, it would update the database with the new plug-in information. (It would be even cooler if plug-in developers would update the database themselves whenever they released a new version of one of their plug-ins...) But for now, though, I have to rely on myself and Plug Tools users to update the database manually.

At the moment, the database only has accurate information on the plug-ins I have on my own system. In order for Plug Tools to be useful, that database needs to be more complete, and the only way for that to happen at this point is for users to get involved.

I encourage everyone to checkout the new version of Plug Tools, and if they have a plug-in on their system that it doesn't recognize, then to go ahead and add that plug-in to the database using the simple web form I have created. There is no authentication required, I'm using the honor system at this point, so there is nothing stopping anyone from deleting all the plug-ins if they wanted to. I didn't want to bother with authenticating though as I see this as a temporary measure until I can get Plug Tools to read/write MySQL directly. Please be kind. This could turn out to be a disaster but I didn't know of any other way to complete the database.

Download Plug Tools here.

View/edit the plug-in database here.
(Plug-ins that need to be updated do not have a "filename" listed. This is name of the plug-in as it appears on your drive and needs to include the ".dpm" file extension.)



What’s new in version 1.3:

• User can edit reference plugins. File stored locally.
• User can "update" reference plugins from the net, replacing local plugs with those from server.
• preference to "update" reference plugs on startup.
• If not internet enabled, will use local reference file instead of getting new.
• updated server backend to MySQL rather than a plain HTML table. Plugin page is now dynamically created.
• (for now) users can add/edit/delete plugins on server via web interface.
• Main window redesigned. Web page now shares a tab view with the reference plugins table.
• Plug Tools now downloads plug-in list from server.
• Plug Tools can mark out of date plug-ins automatically.
• No longer necessary to specify where Pro Tools is installed.
• No longer necessary to specify out of date plug in folder.
• Plug-In table is sortable.
• Plug-in table colum order, width is persistent.
• You can activate/deactivate plug-ins via a checkbox in the Plug-in Table (moves them to Unused folder)
• clickable links to download plug-ins appear in Plug-In Table

Awesome thank you!

[Redbeard]

Here is a guaranteed way to make (my) Plug Tools crash with a spinning ball.

If you look at the list of plugins on your computer, you may see one called IIDCAssistant.bundle

If you <command R> to find this plug and then delete it, you will surely hang next time you run Plug Tools.

I like my lists to look neat, is there a way to not have this plug display in the list? It is apparently related to iSight camera.

I also have a bunch of UAD .vst plugins that run on the UAD powered platform. Is there a way to get Plug Tools to not list these as well? It doesn't display version numbers, so there is no way to get them to automatically mark as updated and UAD has a tool to check and update them.

[trombino]

Ah... yeah Plug Tools is looking inside bundles for plugins when it shouldn't. I can fix that.

It also sounds like you don't want Plug Tools to be scanning your /Library/Plug-ins folder. You can stop that behavior in Plug Tools' preferences.

[trombino]

Hey everyone,

I've uploaded a new version of Plug Tools that addresses Redbeard's bug, properly handles plug-ins that were in the unused folder on launch, and adds the ability for users to set individual label colors for the plug-ins.

You can download the latest version here: http://emptymusic.com/software/Plug_Tools.html

[Eric Lambert]

Originally Posted by trombino

Hey everyone,

I've uploaded a new version of Plug Tools that addresses Redbeard's bug, properly handles plug-ins that were in the unused folder on launch, and adds the ability for users to set individual label colors for the plug-ins.

You can download the latest version here: http://emptymusic.com/software/Plug_Tools.html

Are you kidding me??? Were have I been? I posted three days ago that someone needs to create this app and it already exists. Bravo sir! Bravo!

Avid should buy this from you and incorporate it into PT.