It seems as though platinum does reach windows 256 character length currently.
 
I decided to create a VStPluginZ folder in the same location and copy and paste the VstPlugins folder to it to see if windows alerts to filename/s too long.
I was worried that using an external HDD to test the character length may give a false reading and it did.
When copying to VstPluginZ windows alerted to Blue Cat Audio Data folder.
 
When i reduced the filename length of the Blue Cat folder one character the platinum scan ran, when i added the extra characters Platinum scan hung. So i decided to dig deeper.
 
So i downloaded tree size professional.
I then did a character length scan on the Blue Cat Audio folder located in the Cakewalk VstPlugins directory.
I have found that if the total character length reported by TreeSize is 285 then platinum will scan ( Either via the startup Vst Scan or the Plugin Manager scan).
If the total character length reported by TreeSize is 286 then platinum will :
A) Hang on the startup Vst scan.
or
B) Crash the cakewalk plugin manager scan.
Both of these are comfortably beyond the windows 10 character limit of 256 characters.
 
My apologies Noel for stating in my title that platinum did not scan the 256 character limit, i was confused by the external HDD character test i was applying combined with Ableton's ability to currently scan file lengths longer than 286 characters.
 
I don't want to waste anyone's time so i dove into this properly this morning to make sure.
 
I guess some good may come from this and that is if your Vst scan hangs please check the following.
 
1) Download TreeeSize Professional Trial version ( Run as Admin )
2) In the TreeSize GUI > On the "Home" Tab > Click "Select directory to scan" then navigate to and select: C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\VstPlugins.
3) In the TreeSize GUI > Click the "Tools" tab > Then Click " Open TreeSize file search " >scroll down to and select : " Files with long paths "
4) A new window will now pop up displaying all the files located at ( C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\VstPlugins ) that are above 255 characters.
5) Now select the tab  " Other Filters " > then scroll down to " Full Path longer than : " > change this value from 255 to 285 > Then click start ( located top left of GUI)
6) You should see no files displayed now, however if you do then you have a file longer than 285 inside your
( C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\VstPlugins ) folder and that is why your Platinum Vst Scan is hanging.
 
Remember the Maximum File/Character length for the Cakewalk Vst Scan to function is 285.
 
Please forgive me and thanks for your help.
 
 
 

I can’t imagine a fix being released for Platinum. If there is a real issue that Noel can find I’m pretty sure the fix will only be applied to CbB.
They would have to go back to the code from the Oct/2018 release of Platinum; 7 months ago.

The max length of path's is defined by a constant in Windows called _MAX_PATH which is defined like this
#define _MAX_PATH 260 // max. length of full pathname
 
While the OS itself supports longer paths (with the NTFS file system) most of the Win32 API file system API is limited to 260 char paths. You can read more about it here if you are technically inclined. To utilize long paths an application has to use a special prefix on the file name and also the enumeration API's are different.
In not a trivial thing to change since there are many dependencies on standard path lengths all over in Windows.
I had to deal with this in the clean audio command since this was one of the root causes for it hanging.
 
I'll look into the VST scanner as well. While I can fix the hang actually handling the longer paths might be harder to do due to dependencies. Even if we fix it the user may need to "opt in" for long path support since its not enabled by default. Caution: Its possible that enabling that may cause other apps on the system to crash. Most Windows apps have this limitation is it has been there since the beginning of time so internal data can get corrupted if suddenly long paths are available in the app before the app is long path aware. 
 
Obviously this will only be addressed in CbB not earlier versions of the software.

is this the old 8.3 chestnut again?

pwalpwal
is this the old 8.3 chestnut again?

No you are confusing paths with file names. the 8.3 file name collisions related to scanning were removed a long time ago. This issue affects any Windows app that tries to access paths that are greater than 260 characters.

Noel Borthwick [Cakewalk]

pwalpwal
is this the old 8.3 chestnut again?

No you are confusing paths with file names. the 8.3 file name collisions related to scanning were removed a long time ago. This issue affects any Windows app that tries to access paths that are greater than 260 characters.

yeah you're right, just wondered if in the days of 8.3 the path limit was shorter (without bothering to check) and there was some hungover bit of code from then, but no

Does this mean I can't use this folder structure for Cakewalk?

C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Virtual Studio Technology Plugins\Virtual Studio Technology Plugins 64-bit\Virtual Studio Technology Plugins 64-bit Version 3\Virtual Studio Technology Plugins 64-bit Version 3 Effects > Virtual Studio Technology Plugins 64-bit Version 3 Effects Dynamics > Virtual Studio Technology Plugins 64-bit Version 3 Effects Dynamics - Multi Processing

You mean the plugin system can't handle that?  

And here I am, mainly storing my plug-ins in C:\Vstplugins\[Developer], making all categorizing in my plug-in menu layouts. Man, I really must be oversimplifying things.

Noel Borthwick [Cakewalk]

pwalpwal
is this the old 8.3 chestnut again?

No you are confusing paths with file names. the 8.3 file name collisions related to scanning were removed a long time ago. This issue affects any Windows app that tries to access paths that are greater than 260 characters.

This is still a slight issue: eg. there are CW plug-ins that have different 8.3 filenames in 32 and 64 bit versions (I forget which off the top of my head - it's one of the percussion strip or similar) which leads to the plug-ins needing to be added twice to a custom plug-in layout if you want to use the same layout in both bitness versions.  The plug-in has the same UID, so moving between versions of CW/SONAR are fine, but a manual plug-in layout needs the extra step.  Less of an issue now CbB is 64 bit only but...