Loading the Evaluation Graph Shelf
In Maya 2016, in the 'Bonus Tools', there's a special shelf_EM.mel that you can load. This will provide a bunch of custom tools to helping to debug the EG.Few gotchas: After you load the shelf, you'll...
View ArticleHow can I query data about my graphics card?
You can call to the ogs command to get info on your graphics card:ogs -deviceInformation; Prints a long string with all sorts of info for your adapter, driver, api, gpu stuff,...
View ArticleHow can I reset the Viewport 2.0 renderer?
In the same way you can issue a:dgdirty -a; command to trigger all nodes in Maya to re-evaluate, you can use this command:ogs -reset; To do the same thing for your Viewport 2.0 renderer. Told it can be...
View ArticleHow can I get a list of component-level selections, in the order picked?
When I originally created this post in Jan of 09', Maya had no built-in way for tracking component level selection order: You'd pick a bunch of verts (for example), and the ls command would return them...
View ArticleHow can I get Maya's help to open in Chrome
Starting in Windows 10, whenever I'd try to access Maya's help, it would open it in Edge/Internet Explorer instead of Chrome, even though I'd set Chrome as my default browser.My buddy Conant Fong...
View ArticlenParticles to Polygons: Why don't I see my mesh?
When running the 'Modify -> Convert -> nParticle to Polygon' tool, why doesn't the new mesh show up?Select the nParticle node in the Attribute Editor, and under 'Output Mesh', lower the...
View ArticleHow can I force an open file to "save as"?
import maya.cmds as mc mc.file(renameToSave=True) From this tip by Morgan Loomis.
View ArticleMaya compiler versions
These posts have a pretty extensive overview:Maya 2008 -> 2013Maya 2014Maya 2015Maya 2016Maya 2016.5, aka "Extension 2".Maya 2017Also see:Python & Qt versions in Maya
View ArticlePython & Qt versions in Maya
MayaPythonQtCompatible PyQtCompatible PySideWin CompilerLinux CompilerMac Compiler8.52.4.320082.5.132bit & 64bit vc8.0 + SP1 + qtHotfix, Intel 9.1.03432bit & 64bit, gcc 4.1.2, Intel...
View ArticleLegacy DG Profiler
Starting in Maya 2013, they have a 'DG Profiler', that was supported up until around Maya 2016, when they introduced the evaluation graph: When that happened, a whole new profiler was introduced. This...
View ArticleMaya's Profiler
Starting in Maya 2013, they have a 'DG Profiler', that was supported up until around Maya 2016, when they introduced the evaluation graph: When that happened, a whole new profiler was introduced....
View ArticleHow can I change my view's background color?
The easiest way is to just call to the CycleBackgroundColor runtimeCommand over and over to run through the presets. It in turns calls to the cycleBackgroundColor.mel script, which:Queries the...
View ArticleHow can I get Maya's File -> Open dialog to open to the current directory?
Maya's File -> Open dialog never seems to open where I want it to. Ever. And normally I avoid hacking Maya's internal scripts, since you have to do it every new version that comes out. But currently...
View ArticleHow can I find out the U and V value of a UV?
polyEditUVExample: find a UV called object.map[21]polyEditUV -q -uValue object.map[21]; Example: Select a vertex, and find it's U value:string $sel[] = `ls -fl -sl`; string $UV[] =...
View ArticleHow can I play a sequence of images as a movie?
Simple overview:Make sure your image sequence follows this naming convention : imageName.#.iffWhere the # is a non-padded number. Like myImage.1.iff, myImage.2.iff, etc.Create a poly plane.Create a...
View ArticleHow can I author a progressWindow context manager?
Starting with Python 2.5, they introduced the new with statement, which is known as a 'context manager'. See official...
View ArticleMaya binary file parse error: : (12) bad root block
I recently got this error on file open (and the file didn't open):Maya binary file parse error: : (12) bad root block Come to find out, the file was saved as mayaAscii, but with a .mb file...
View ArticleMaya binary file parse error: : (5) bad block
Opened a scene, and saw this error listed 3x in a row:Maya binary file parse error: : (5) bad block Not sure why. But a later version of that same file failed on save, breaking all the animCurve...
View ArticleHow can I find all Outliners in Maya?
The default name for the Outliner is outlinerPanel1, but I've ran into intsances where there is either more than one, or it's somehow got renamed :Simport maya.cmds as mc outliners = [] panels =...
View ArticleHow can I remove a namespace by renaming its nodes?
Update:At a certain point Maya's namespace command made this super easy: (but this will delete all the nodes too...)import maya.cmds as mc mc.namespace(deleteNamespaceContent=True,...
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