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Kobek
Kobek
Participant
December 13, 2015
Answered

Can't debug the example projects provided with the SDK

  • December 13, 2015
  • 1 reply
  • 1419 views

Hey there.
Just recently I started learning the AE SDK. After reading through the first couple of pages from the SDK Guide I decided to try and build/debug the example visual studio projects.
I tried with the "Skeleton" template project and with the "Resizer effect project" but with both of them I can't seem to make it work.

I have set the AE_PLUGIN_BUILD_DIR enviroment variable to the correct path, and I have also made sure visual studio debugs using AfterFX.exe
However, if I try and launch debug (F5) from visual studio...nothing happens. After Effects DOES open, but nothing happens after that.

I checked my output log and...well its full of messages like :


'AfterFX.exe' (Win32): Loaded 'C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CC 2015\Support Files\AudioFilters.dll'. Cannot find or open the PDB file.

'AfterFX.exe' (Win32): Loaded 'C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CC 2015\Support Files\ProjectConverterHost.dll'. Cannot find or open the PDB file.

'AfterFX.exe' (Win32): Loaded 'C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CC 2015\Support Files\TransmitHost.dll'. Cannot find or open the PDB file.

'AfterFX.exe' (Win32): Loaded 'C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CC 2015\Support Files\DisplaySurface.dll'. Cannot find or open the PDB file.

'AfterFX.exe' (Win32): Loaded 'C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CC 2015\Support Files\FLT.dll'. Cannot find or open the PDB file.

'AfterFX.exe' (Win32): Loaded 'C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CC 2015\Support Files\RG.dll'. Cannot find or open the PDB file.
There are a lot more of these erros...basically for every DLL in the \Support Files\ folder.

At the end of my output log I have the following :

<5060> <AppVers> <5> App Version =     13.5.1.1x48 release

<5060> <AppDirs> <5> App Dir =         C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CC 2015\Support Files

<5060> <AppDirs> <5> Executable Dir =     C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CC 2015\Support Files

<5060> <AppDirs> <5> Resources Dir =     C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CC 2015\Support Files

<5060> <AppDirs> <5> Package Dir =     C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CC 2015\Support Files

<5060> <AppDirs> <5> Plugin Dir =     C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CC 2015\Support Files\Plug-ins

<5060> <AppDirs> <5> Required Dir =     C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CC 2015\Support Files\Required

'AfterFX.exe' (Win32): Loaded 'C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CC 2015\Support Files\aeres1.dll'. Cannot find or open the PDB file.

'AfterFX.exe' (Win32): Unloaded 'C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CC 2015\Support Files\aeres1.dll'

The program '[3244] AfterFX.exe' has exited with code 0 (0x0).



Can anyone tell me what am I missing?

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer

Well, it is normal that if you launch AE in the debugger, nothing different happens than if you would launch AE normally. Meaning you have to create or load a project and apply your plugin, then you can break into the debugger (unless you want to catch global initalisation, that is done on program load).

As for the PDB messages in the log, that is totally ok, as the Adobe plugin DLLs obviously don't come with debug information.

Are the plugins you compiled actually created in the correct path? Are they available in the Effects menu in AE? That is the first thing to check, since when there is no plugin present, debugging is not available :-)

I interpreted your question in a way that your .aex files are actually present and visible from AE, you just can't break into the debugger when one of them is used.

So for your plugin, you should make sure that it contains debug information, else you won't be able to debug.

Please check the following settings for your project in Visual Studio:

- "C/C++" - "Debug Information Format" set to "Program Database"

- "C/C++ - Preprocessor" - "Preprocessor Definitions" string contains the "_DEBUG" define

- "C/C++ - Code Generation" - "Runtime Library" is set to either "/MTd" or "/MDd" (that is the most common mistake when being unable to debug!)

- "Linker - Debugging - "Generate Debug Info" set to "Yes"

1 reply

A
Anonymous
Correct answer
December 13, 2015

Well, it is normal that if you launch AE in the debugger, nothing different happens than if you would launch AE normally. Meaning you have to create or load a project and apply your plugin, then you can break into the debugger (unless you want to catch global initalisation, that is done on program load).

As for the PDB messages in the log, that is totally ok, as the Adobe plugin DLLs obviously don't come with debug information.

Are the plugins you compiled actually created in the correct path? Are they available in the Effects menu in AE? That is the first thing to check, since when there is no plugin present, debugging is not available :-)

I interpreted your question in a way that your .aex files are actually present and visible from AE, you just can't break into the debugger when one of them is used.

So for your plugin, you should make sure that it contains debug information, else you won't be able to debug.

Please check the following settings for your project in Visual Studio:

- "C/C++" - "Debug Information Format" set to "Program Database"

- "C/C++ - Preprocessor" - "Preprocessor Definitions" string contains the "_DEBUG" define

- "C/C++ - Code Generation" - "Runtime Library" is set to either "/MTd" or "/MDd" (that is the most common mistake when being unable to debug!)

- "Linker - Debugging - "Generate Debug Info" set to "Yes"

Kobek
KobekAuthor
Participant
December 13, 2015

Hey. Thanks a lot for your response. I Guess I was expecting for something magical to appear after I ran debug.
I checked all my project settings and all of them are properly configured, to the way you pointed out. Once again, thanks a ton.

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