When you download a script it will contain a script file and occasionally a custom configuration form and some associated icon images. The script file does the work, the configuration form simply provides arguments to the script and fires it at the appropriate time.

The script files generally end with .pl (perl) or .py (python). The forms end with the .cfg suffix. Images are generally pngs, but can be tiffs or any image format that modo supports.

Scripts are referenced off of the hard drive when requested by a command in modo. The forms (cfg files) are simply platforms for launching the scripts. They often contain input boxes to give the script specific arguments that it will need to perform its task.

Script Installation

When installing scripts you have a couple of different options. You can place them in the user script folder that is in the 'C:\Documents and Settings\userName\Application Data\Luxology\Scripts' or you can create a custom scripts folder and reference them from there. For more information on how to do this, view the 'Professional modo Config Setup' tutorial. If there are accompanying config files, don't place the config files in the scripts folder. Keep reading to see where those should go.

Keep in mind two things if you decide to use modo's default script location.

a. In windows, the 'C:\Documents and Settings\userName\Application Data\Luxology\Scripts' directory is hidden by default. To be able to see it, open up windows explorer and go to 'Tools / Folder Options". Click on the view tab and then toggle the setting that says 'Show hidden files and folders'. You will now be able to see the special directory by default.

b. The scripts directory that we are speaking about is NOT the one found in the program files directory under this path: 'C:\Program Files\Luxology\modo 202\extra\scripts'.

Config or Form Installation

As with scripts, configs or forms have a couple different options where they can be placed as well. It can be placed in the 'C:\Documents and Settings\userName\Application Data\Luxology\Config' or you can create a custom 'resrc' folder to put the config into. For more information on how to do this, view the 'Professional modo Config Setup' tutorial.

Unlike scripts, modo must be closed and relaunched in order for modo to see the config once it has been placed into the folder.

Again, it is the script that performs the actual work. The config or form simply is the interface to the script and provides the necessary information to the script in order to get it to do what you want.

Scripts can be fired by 3 different means in modo.

a. By pressing 'F6'.

F6 will open a dialogue box where you can point to a specific script that you are wanting to fire

b. By typing the script in the command line.

Example: @yourScript.pl

c. By using a form or other sort of menu in modo to launch the script. Oftentimes there will be a form that is included with the script within the zip file that you download.

Scripts can use 'arguments'.

Scripts can have something called 'arguments'. Arguments are extra data that the script uses when it executes. Arguments are placed after a script. A script can have more than one argument. For example, a script with one argument (in this case the argument '1') would look like:

Example: @yourScript.pl 1

A script that has more than one argument (in this case the arguments '4' and 'on') would look like:

Example: @yourScript.pl 4 on