TextureMonkey and Alienbrain

Well that wasn't so hard... using the same win32com interface as the one I am using in to control PhotoShop, I have been able to check out files from Alienbrain within the TextureMonkey script with minimum fuss.

Having access to Ben Deda's Alienbrain python interface was a massive help in this! I suggest anyone trying to drive AlienBrain with python to have a good look through it.

The script is now pretty self sufficient.

• It allows a user to export all their maps from a Photoshop document to specified folders
• It names the exported textures appropriately, based on the document and layer names 
• It is smart enough to know when to export a texture with an Alpha  channel
• It can check file permissions and attempt to check out files if required
• If the files are checked out by another user, AlienBrain shows a dialogue of who has it checked out
• If it can't obtain file write permissions it closes down and informs the user.   

Two issues with the I would like to resolve to make it as user friendly as possible:

• Currently every time the script runs, it attempts a new connection with Alienbrain. ping Alienbrain somehow so that it doesn't need to keep connecting every time the script is run, and will only attempt to connect if a connection is not present. 
• hide the cmd window when the script is executing for as little distraction as possible.