jackaperkins@gmail.com

Hi, my scale object appears to have 'broken'. (???)

Whenever I open a patch with a scale object, it has zero inlets and outlets (and therefore severs all patch cables connected through it). This is the case with new scale objects that I create from the newobj, ones in old patches that used to work fine, and even the documentation patch for scale!

I even checked my max-externals folder, and the scale file is sitting right there, same as it ever was. Documentation seems to be working fine as well (in that it exists and opens, not that scale works)

broken-scale-object

make sure you don't have an abstraction with the name "scale".

Good idea, but alas no phantom scale patches.

I obviously tried restarting max and my computer, this appears to be a permanent problem.

do you get any messages in the max window?

Not when creating a new scale object from scratch, but if I open a patch that had a scale connected up already (such as scale.help.maxpat) I see a lot of this sort of thing:

jpatchline_completeconnection: index out of range.
patcher: jpatchline_new: index out of range
jpatchline_plugin: box missing outlet number 1
patcher: jpatchline_new: index out of range
jpatchline_completeconnection: index out of range.
patcher: jpatchline_new: index out of range
jpatchline_plugin: box missing outlet number 1
patcher: jpatchline_new: index out of range
jpatchline_plugin: box missing outlet number 1
patcher: jpatchline_new: index out of range
jpatchline_plugin: box missing outlet number 1
jpatchline_completeconnection: index out of range.
jpatchline_completeconnection: index out of range.

I have to assume that's the connections inside of the patch being 'broken' because there's no inlets/outlets for them to connect to.

I really *would* double-check for another Max file in your search path with the name scale. That's what it looks like to me.

Guh, there *was* a weird old copy of scale hidden in a patch I downloaded from the web a month ago.

In such cases a simple double click will to the trick, if something appears, it's a patch. Who performed this terrorist act? A good policy is to never trust what was downloaded and avoid sticking it somewhere in the search path, unless it's an object of course.

if there is something wrong with your patch it must have

group of young angry arabs, so the government says.

if there is something wrong with your patch it must have
been a 
group of young angry arabs, so the government says.

It was actually the infamous 'autechre' generative patch. I had dragged it into a folder that I didn't realize was added to my path. Hurf Durf, so it goes.

jvkr wrote on Thu, 05 November 2009 12:48

Thing is, scale is a relative late-comer to the factory distribution. There was a time when anyone who wanted a 'scale' object either had to patch it herself or write a custom external, or use one of several custom externals that were floating around the Internet and CD collections. So there are, unfortunately, a lot of scale abstractions around.

But, basically, when Max tells you you have a duplicate file in your search path, you 

jvkr wrote on Thu, 05 November 2009 12:48Who performed this terrorist act?

But, basically, when Max tells you you have a duplicate file in your search path, you have a duplicate file in your search path.


It was strange, it was just a blank object. Option clicking it opened up the default help file for scale. I didn't see any other indicators or messages about there being a duplicate object in max.

Broken Scale Object?