Coding

Zeroing out. Or in.

Posted by Alastair

Today I wrote a little tool that simply groups whatever you have selected, for the purposes of cleaning up transforms. Also works with multiple objects selected and groups them all under a group in the same worldspace as the first selected object.
Grab the code here and place it on your shelf.

import maya.cmds as cmds
import maya.OpenMaya as om

grpList = cmds.ls(sl = True)

parentObj = cmds.listRelatives( grpList[0], parent = True )
cmds.group( em = True, name = grpList[0] + '_Zero_GRP' )
cmds.parentConstraint( grpList[0], grpList[0] + '_Zero_GRP' )
cmds.delete( grpList[0] + '_Zero_GRP_parentConstraint1' )
cmds.scaleConstraint( grpList[0], grpList[0] + '_Zero_GRP' )
cmds.delete( grpList[0] + '_Zero_GRP_scaleConstraint1' )
cmds.parent( grpList[0], grpList[0] + '_Zero_GRP' )
try:
    cmds.parent( grpList[0] + '_Zero_GRP', parentObj )
    om.MGlobal.displayInfo( grpList[0] + ' now has a group above it' )
except:
    om.MGlobal.displayInfo( grpList[0] + ' has no parent object, grouped in world space' )

cmds.select( grpList[0] )
newParent = cmds.listRelatives( parent = True )
listEndNumber = len(grpList)
remainingObj = grpList[1:int(listEndNumber)]

for i in remainingObj:
    cmds.parent( i, newParent )

om.MGlobal.displayInfo( grpList[0] + ' now has a group above it' )

 

Generative coding

Posted by Alastair

I keep coming back to procedural generation. Something about the unpredictable nature of parametric design really piques my interest.
I’ve begun scripting a system that will be the basis of a generative project, here it is:

import maya.cmds as cmds
import random

curveNumber = 1
curveName = 'string' + str(random.randrange(1,100))
count = 0

for i in range(0,curveNumber):
    pointNumber = random.randrange(4,100)
    pointArray = [(0,0,0)] * pointNumber
    cmds.curve( name = curveName + str(count).zfill(3), degree = 3, point = pointArray )
    pointCount = 0
    directionX = (random.random() -0.5 )
    directionY = (random.random() -0.0 )
    directionZ = (random.random() -0.5 )
    curveAmount = 0.00001 * random.randrange(1,100)
    for i in range(0,int(pointNumber)):
        oldCurveAmount = curveAmount
        cmds.setAttr( curveName + str(count).zfill(3) + '.controlPoints' + str([pointCount]), pointCount * directionX * curveAmount, pointCount * directionY, pointCount * directionZ * curveAmount )
        curveAmount = curveAmount * 1.1
        print curveAmount
        print oldCurveAmount
        pointCount += 1
    count +=1

This script creates curves of different lengths and CV counts, then arcs them in different directions. I’m hoping to have them arc back as the angle becomes steeper to create an organic curving line.

Naming and renaming

Posted by Alastair

During the last job I was on, we were receiving rigs from another company.
These rigs did not always match our hierarchy and naming conventions, so, part of my job was to recompile these rigs to match our conventions. One common and potentially time consuming job was the renaming of control curves.
We would receive them with naming conventions along the lines of ‘*_Ctrl_01’, ‘*_Ctrl_02’ and so on.
Renaming every control in the rig is neigh on impossible, so I wrote a script to do so!
The script I wrote was smashed together with no time for optimization but now with a little time on my hands I have rewritten it to be user friendly and fast.
Here it is, have a look!

import maya.cmds as cmds

selection = cmds.ls( sl = True)

for i in selection:
    shape = cmds.listRelatives( i, shapes = True )
    if shape == None:
        print 'No shape for ' + i + ', aborting.'
    else:
        try:
            a,b = i.split('_Ctrl')
            cmds.rename( i, a + b + '_Ctrl' )
        except:
            print 'No Ctrl in name of ' + i

Saving time

Posted by Alastair

I spent today putting finishing touches on a script that saves a new version of the current scene. and a button icon to go with!
ALRsaveVer
Grab the script here and pop it on your shelf.

################################################################################################
################################################################################################
###                             Save new version of current scene                            ###
###                                  By Alastair Richardson                                  ###
###                                         May, 2013                                        ###
###                               Intended for Maya Ascii files                              ###
###          Use:                                                                            ###
###             padding is the number of digits in the version number.                       ###
###                                                                                          ###
###             versionIndicator is the characters that come before                          ###
###             the version number. May be _V or _v depending on your                        ###
###             pipeline.                                                                    ###
###                                                                                          ###
###             fileCountNumbering can be set to True or False.                              ###
###             If set to True, the next version number will be obtained                     ###
###             by counting the number of files in the working folder.                       ###
###             This method is unpredictable if folder contains additional                   ###
###             files or folders.                                                            ###
###                                                                                          ###
###             If set to False, the next version number will be obtained                    ###
###             using the current version number, can be risky if rolling                    ###
###             to old versions is required.                                                 ###
###                                                                                          ###
################################################################################################
################################################################################################

padding = 3
versionIndicator = '_v'
fileCountNumbering = True

################################################################################################
###                                                                                          ###
###                             Change script at your own risk                               ###
###                                                                                          ###
################################################################################################
import maya.cmds as cmds
from pymel.core import *
import maya.OpenMaya as om
import os

def saveNewVer():
    # find directory
    currentDir = cmds.file( query = True, location = True )
    splitDir = currentDir.split('/')
    length = len(splitDir)
    lessOne = length - 1
    shortDir = splitDir[0:lessOne]
    directoryToOpen = '/'.join(shortDir)
    # create next version number of file
    if fileCountNumbering == True :
        # find the next version based on number of files on directory
        currentFileName = splitDir[length -1]
        versionSpilt = currentFileName.split(versionIndicator)
        currentName = versionSpilt[0]
        files = os.listdir( directoryToOpen )
        mayaAscii = []
        for i in files:
            try:
                a,b = i.split('.')
            except:
                print i + ' has no extension'
            if b == 'ma':
                mayaAscii.append(i)
            else:
                print str(i) + ' is not a Maya ASCII'
        nextVersion =  len(mayaAscii) + 1   
    else:
        # find version by disecting current file name at _v
        currentFileName = splitDir[length -1]
        versionSpilt = currentFileName.split(versionIndicator)
        sansMA = versionSpilt[1].split('.')
        currentVersion = sansMA[0]
        currentName = versionSpilt[0]
        nextVersion = int(currentVersion) + 1
    # do the saving
    newDirName = directoryToOpen + '/' + currentName + versionIndicator + str(nextVersion).zfill(padding)
    Mel.eval( "source addRecentFile.mel" )
    Mel.eval('addRecentFile "%s" "%s";' % (newDirName + '.ma', 'mayaAscii'))
    cmds.file( rename = newDirName )
    cmds.file( save = True )
    om.MGlobal.displayInfo( 'saved to ' + newDirName )
saveNewVer()

 

Notepad ++

Posted by Alastair

I use Notepad ++ as my script editor when I’m working on large coding projects.
Because when Maya crashes it takes any unsaved script changes with it!
But being used to the MEL command highlighting in the Maya script editor I went hunting and turned up this:
http://www.creativecrash.com/downloads/applications/syntax-scripting/c/mel-language-definition-for-notepad-
Then I picked up a Maya-ish theme and modified the language to work with Maya Python syntax highlighting:
N++themeFiles

How to:

Put Waher-style in C:\Program Files (x86)\Notepad++\themes

put jbMayaPython in C:\Program Files (x86)\Notepad++\plugins\APIs

put userDifineLang in C:\Users\*USER*\AppData\Roaming\Notepad++

 

load the theme with notepad++’s theme loader then
select the language with the language dropdown.

Cluster tool

Posted by Alastair

I wrote a bit of code that will create a cluster on polygon geometry regardless of selection type, eg face, edge or vertex. Speeds things up a little.

import maya.cmds as cmds
def makeCluster():
	selection = cmds.ls(sl=True)
	for i in selection:
		string = str(i)
		try:
			object,selected = string.split('.')
			sel,CVnum = selected.split('[')
			if sel == 'e':
				verts = cmds.polyListComponentConversion(selection,fromEdge=True,toVertex=True)
				cmds.select(verts, r=True)
			print 'passed edge'
			if sel == 'f':
				verts = cmds.polyListComponentConversion(selection,fromFace=True,toVertex=True)
				cmds.select(verts, r=True)
			print 'passed face'
			if sel == 'vtx':
				print ' no conversion needed'
			print 'passed vtx'
		except:
			print 'object selected'

	cmds.cluster()
makeCluster()