Maya selection import - python

I'm trying to figure if it's possible to import a maya file into a Maya scene, but only certain things objects (such as locators named "xyz" and it's animation) but skip everything else. (I'm not looking to import a folder amount of files, but select certain elements from a maya file)
I've been searching low and wide for something resembling what I'm after, but I' can't seem to find it.
Is it possible with Maya's Python API?

Feels like you will be much better off solving this problem at an earlier stage, than waiting until Maya importing.
If it's a .ma file, you can probably parse and do filtering on it, and save the relevant elements into another .ma file. Otherwise I found this forum question seems to be relevant:
http://tech-artists.org/t/loading-mb-ma-outside-of-maya/2344

Related

How best to enable non-programmers to run a Python program

I have written a Python script which models an academic problem which I wish to publish. I will put the source on Github and some academics that just happen to know Python may get my source and play with it themselves. However there are probably more academics that may be interested in the model but that are not python programmers and I would like them to be able to run my model too. Even though they are not programmers they could at least try out editing the values of some of the parameters to see how that affects the results. So now my question is how could I arrange for a non-python programmer to run a Python program as easily (for them) as possible. I would guess that my options may be...
google colab
an online python compiler like this one
compiling the program into an exe (and letting the user set parameters via a config file)
something else?
So now a couple of complications that makes my problem trickier.
The output of the program is graphical and uses matplotlib. As I understand it, the utilities that turn python scripts into exe files struggle or fail altogether when it comes to matplotlib.
The source is split into two separate files, one small neat file which contains the model and the user might like to have a good look at it and get the gist of it even if they're not really a python programmer. And a separate large ugly file which just handles the graphics - an academic would have no interest in this and I'd like to spare them the gory details.
EDIT: I did ask a related question here - but that was all about programmers that won't mind doing things like installing python and using pip... this question is in relation to non-programmers who would not be comfortable doing things like that.
Colab can handle the 2 problems, but you may need to adapt some code.
Matplotlib interface: Colab can display plots just fine. But you may want user to interact with slider, checkbox, dropdown menu. Then, you need to use Colab's own Form UI, or pywidgets. See an example here
2 separate python files: you can convert one of them to a notebook. Then import the other. Or you can create a new notebook that import both files. Here's an example.

Maya Python creating a script with a script

I've got a kind of weird question--but would be immensely useful if it is possible--in Maya using Python, can I take in several points of user input and have Python create a separate script for me? In this instance, I want to take in controller and locator names and have Python spit out a complete IKFK match script also in Python (it's really just a lot of getAttr and setAttr commands, although with 6 if statements per limb for PV matching.) The only other wrinkle there is that it has to be able to prefix hierarchy names in the script if necessary if the rig is imported into a new scene rather than just opened. There's an expression component to my switches that it would be nice if Python could make for me, too.
Is this possible or am I crazy?
That's no problem. Just write a textfile with a .py extension into a path where maya can find it. Then you have to import it somewhere. Creating expressions is not a problem either.
Maybe it could make sense to think about the approach you choose. Imagine you have written a dozen of these new python files and you discover a problem in the script, you will have to redo it. I'd try to collect all data and only write the required informations into a textfile e.g. in json format. Then you can read the data and rebuild your skeletons.

Help with PyEPL logging

I have never used Python before, most of my programming has been in MATLAB and Unix. However, recently I have been given a new assignment that involves fixing an old PyEPL program written by a former employee (I've tried contacting him directly but he won't respond to my e-mails). I know essentially nothing about Python, and though I am picking it up, I thought I'd just quickly ask for some advice here.
Anyway, there are two issues at hand here, really. The first is this segment of the code:
exp = Experiment()
exp.setBreak()
vt = VideoTrack("video")
at = AudioTrack("audio")
kt = KeyTrack("key")
log = LogTrack("session")
clk = PresentationClock()
I understand what this is doing; it is creating a series of tracking files in the directory after the program is run. However, I have searched a bunch of online tutorials and can't find a reference to any of these commands in them. Maybe I'm not searching the right places or something, but I cannot find ANYTHING about this.
What I need to do is modify the
log = LogTrack("session")
segment of the code, so that all of the session.log files go into a new directory, separate from the other log files. But I also need to find a way to not only concatenate them into a single session.log file, but add a new column to that file that will add the subject number (the program is meant to be run by multiple subjects to collect data).
I am not asking anyone to do my work for me, but if anyone could give me some pointers, or any sort of advice, I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks
I would first check if there is a line in the code
from some_module_name import *
This could easily explain why you can call these functions (classes?). It will also tell you what file to look in to modify the code for LogTrack.
Edit:
So, a little digging seems to find that LogTrack is part of PyEPL's textlog module. These other classes are from other modules. Somewhere in this person's code should be a line something like:
from PyEPL.display import VideoTrack
from PyEPL.sound import AudioTrack
from PyEPL.textlog import LogTrack
...
This means that these are classes specific to PyEPL. There are a few ways you could go about modifying how they work. You can modify the source of the LogTrack class so that it operates differently. Perhaps easier would be to simply subclass LogTrack and change some of its methods.
Either of these will require a fairly thorough understanding of how this class operates.
In any case, I would download the source from here, open up the code/textlog.py file, and start reading how LogTrack works.

How to use SVG DOM in Python

This question may sounds dumb, but I can't manage to find a correct answer on my own.
I am trying to use the SVG DOM interface in my python script. I would like to use getComputedTextLength but I can't find how even if I firstly thought it would be available thanks to modules or a packages like python-svg or something like that.
I am sure there is something I miss, but I can't find what.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thank you.
EDIT: I forgot to talk about what my script actually does. It's a Python script used to generate a SVG file from data grabbed on the Internet. My script needs to write texts and repeat them all along a path. Also, as I know the exact length (in pixels) of the path I need to know the length of the text in order to repeat it only what I need to. That's why a method like getComputedTextLength would be helpful.
Try this: http://www.gnu.org/software/pythonwebkit/
I don't think this is possible. DOM is one thing and calling browser's function is other thing. I only saw Python module which help you to create tree structures like HTML or SVG but they don't provide any other additional functionality. (Btw., last time I look even browsers had problems correctly computing getComputedTextLength but that was some time ago...)
You could try better luck with fonttools.

Jump to Model/View/Controller in emacs

Most rails modes for emacs have this kind of functionality. You are in a controller file over a function "kaboosh" in
"app/controller/bla.rb" and with a keyboard shortcut you switch to "app/views/kaboosh.erb" or to app/models/bla.rb".
A similar functionality exists for .c and .h files using ff-find-other-file.
I checked jump.el and findr.el but all seems a little bit complicated.
I tried searching this for django projects (it would have helped a lot) but no luck.
Anyone knows a simple way (etags?) that it's easy to define the connection between current file/function and target file and then bind it to a keyboard shortcut?
Tags is set up well to jump you to the definition of a function. M-. will take you to the first occurrence of a function definition, C-u M-. will take you to the next (and one after that, and after that...). Perhaps the C-u M-. solves some of your problem.
Regarding associations between files, and wanting a rails like interface, it looks like you could pull out the appropriate chunks of code and customize them for python.
Specifically, you'll need the jump package, make a similar jump schema like the rinari-jump-schema (found in rinari.el). The jump schema uses 'ruby-add-log-current-method (found in ruby-mode.el), and you'd just need to customize that to return the current method name for Python syntax.
It doesn't look like anyone has done this for Python yet, you could be the first. I believe those are the only pieces you'll need.

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