Hi Tim, Maya has a feature called "Modules" and it's a pretty clean way to isolate your content and distribute it. It doesn't have the encapsulation of an Addon but it is very similar in other ways.
Steps: 1) Set a custom MAYA_MODULE_PATH or use the default: C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2014\modules. 2) Place a text file in that folder with the following syntax: + ModuleName ModuleVersion ModulePath. Ex. + TimPlugin 1.00 C:\MayaPlugins\TimPlugin. This is kinda like the Addon .xml file. 3) In the TimPlugin folder use the standard Maya folder conventions like "scripts", "plug-ins" or "icons" and populate with your files. This is kinda like the Addon "Application" and "Data" folders. Ultimately you could set this up like a XSI Workgroup and add in your modules. Of course it doesn't have the same class or style as what we're used to in XSI but it is pretty painless. See more here: http://around-the-corner.typepad.com/adn/2012/07/distributing-files-on-maya-maya-modules.html BTW - That site has some nice information and is a good resource. As for what 's required for a Maya plugin to be a python plugin - nothing so different. It gets initialized/uninitialized (Load/Unload), can't really think of anything offhand that's going to throw you. Regarding your menu - try using cmds.evalDeferred like this: cmds.evalDeferred("buildMenu()") userSetup.py get's called early in the loading process and the UI isn't ready. Personally I never use it. I use the Maya.env to do a lot of setup stuff and use the userSetup.mel file to initialize stuff (you can run python in that file as well). Hope that helps, -Nick Breslow From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Tim Crowson Sent: Thursday, April 17, 2014 9:31 AM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: Any recommended tutorials/training on building Maya plugins in Python? And no this isn't the only place I'm asking this :-) I'm getting into the Maya API and I need to port some of our tools over from Soft. Google gives me all kinds of interesting links, but I'm curious to know from people here who have done dev work for both Soft and Maya (there's so many of you, I know right?) if you can recommend resources for learning how to create a proper Python-based plugin in Maya. Basically, what's the equivalent to the XSI Addon or the self-installing plugin? Stuff like that. I think I can figure out the deployment side of things. I'm just wondering what's required for a Python plugin to be a python plugin in Maya. Would be nice to have Ye Olde SDK Wizarde around.... And on another note.... I know this isn't a Maya list.... but since I'm here and you've read this far... here's something on the weird chance you might know... I've been messing around in Maya 2015 with my userSetup.py to have a custom menu pop up in the menu bar at launch. But the userSetup.py file seems get run prior to the Maya Window being initialized, so it fails to add my menu because it can't get the main window to which it needs to add the menu. The main window is simply returned as a NoneType object. The function looks something like this... def buildMenu(): ptr = mui.MQtUtil.mainWindow() # at launch this returns None? mayaWindow = shiboken.wrapInstance(long(ptr), QtGui.QWidget) mainMenu = cmds.menu('MyMenu', p=mayaWindow, l='My Menu') cmds.menuItem(p=mainMenu, d=True, dl='Some Divider') cmds.menuItem(p=mainMenu, l='Some Tool') The error comes from wrapInstance(long(ptr)), because ptr is being returned as None. Anyway, on the off-chance... -- Tim Crowson Lead CG Artist Magnetic Dreams, Inc. 2525 Lebanon Pike, Bldg C, Suite 101, Nashville, TN 37214 Ph 615.885.6801 | Fax 615.889.4768 | www.magneticdreams.com<http://www.magneticdreams.com> tim.crow...@magneticdreams.com<mailto:tim.crow...@magneticdreams.com>
