Is there any update on Automation Toolkit for Indies and Teams accounts ?

[jawarb7514696]

Hi,

I would like to use Substance Designer in my current python pipeline but even if SD python library is available in the tree directory I need "designer.dll" file to create a context to work. I found a topic by adobe employee saying that they are working on it? Is there any update on Automation Toolkit for Indies and Teams accounts ? Can we still subscribe to Allegorithmic to get access to this python api ?

[Mark_Edwards · Accepted solution]

I've been trying for 2 months and have a few tickets open.  I got to talk to an account manger again yesterday and they are checking with their manager, I had the same conversation a month ago but it went nowhere.  Still trying, will post update if I get anywhere and the process to get it. 

I suspect because it's not "user facing" as such and not node / account locked because it runs as batch process they can't figure out how to fit it into the sales pitch so dumped it into enterprise for now until they figure it out.  Hopefully no PHB decides it's not in keeping with the general mission statement and bins it because it's the main feature of designer and there's nothing competitor wise to move to really that's as fast and versatile.

If you have access to your old algorithmic account and had an indi subscription there you can get access to the last version you had before you transferred your account but it wont be the latest.  Mines about a year out of date so need to run older python but unless you are after any of the new new features it works fine, I'm using sbsbaker rather than python but I tested the python when I started as I thought I might need it for current project and it still worked.  There's linux version there as well.

[jawarb7514696]

Hi Mark,

Unfortunately I just started using Substance Designer and I don't have any acess to the older algorithmic subscription. I'll give a shot to open source alternatives until they take a decision about their technology. Thank you for your help.

[Mark_Edwards]

Latest update for me,

Support closed off my ticket when I asked for it to be escilated (again) gave them 1 star hopefuly will get reopened.

Still waiting on account manager to come back, so far has give me options that don't include the automation tool kit, tried chasing again this morning.

Started trying to reach out on linked in to see if Adobe has any way of engaging with startups like unreal, unity, houdini, well everyone else does from a licencing point of view.

So no resolution yet.

[Sam23564212vd72]

I've been chatting with Adobe.  Seems you need to have a VIP Enterprise account to access the Tool Kit.  You'll be looking at over $2000/year (per license too I think) for this.  I Feel a little abused and it seems short sighted, i my mind, to restrict/charge people to automate in this day and age.  It hits small start-up and/or individuals trying to create workflows which then sell more licenses but hey, sell out to a big corporation and this is what happens.

[Mark_Edwards]

It's got a better, but agree not ideal, with the latest release sbsbaker.exe is now included with designer, so we have access to sbsrender for automating texture creation, sbsbaker for automating the baking process and the python api for any automation in the GUI.  as a startup that gets me quite some way out of the box, next automation step I can just get some teams accounts and run in parallel on something like paperspace which is a bit hacky but works.  then eventually full automation where I'd need the kit but that's further down the road.  (I realise it very much depends on overall workflow if that is a viable path but it is for me)

My biggest issue was I couldn't even get to the conversation for get a price. 2k a year for a licence I can run headless across a server farm is not that outlandish in a business context but I couldn't get to that point to get a quote which was causing my initial frustration but happy now I have licenced access to sbsbaker 🙂 will worry about that conversation later, I'm just being careful with my coding to keep things fairly modular in case I need to swap out later which would be the same for any project.