API: How can I find the working units?

The below classes compare with the mel currentUnit command.

The below classes have the ability to query both the internal units, and the ui units (except MTime). The internal units, while they can be changed, usually shouldn't be. Defaults for internal units are:

• Linear : Centimeters
• Angular : ? Mine comes up as kInvalid, which is odd. I'd expect it to be Radians though.
• Time : Has no differentiation between internal\ui: There is only ui units. I think when Maya installs this is 24fps (film).

UI units are the ones you can change via Maya's prefs, or via mel.

Linear:

OpenMaya.MDistance

import maya.OpenMaya as om
uiLinearUnit = om.MDistance.uiUnit()

This returns an int value that corresponds to the Unit enum on the MDistance class. Which corresponds to these constants:

1	kInches
2	kFeet
3	kYards
4	kMiles
5	kMillimeters
6	kCentimeters
7	kKilometers
8	kMeters

Angular:

OpenMaya.MAngle

import maya.OpenMaya as om
uiAngularUnit = om.MAngle.uiUnit()

This returns an int value that corresponds to the Unit enum on the MAngle class. Which corresponds to these constants:

1	kInvalid
2	kRadians
3	kDegrees
4	kAngMinutes
5	kAngSeconds
6	kLast

Time:

OpenMaya.MTime

import maya.OpenMaya as om
uiTimeUnit = om.MTime.uiUnit()

This returns an int value that corresponds to the Unit enum on the MTime class. There are a lot of constant values, check the docs for the specifics.

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Also see:

• API: How can I convert from linear internal units to ui units?