2012 in review

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The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 4,900 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 8 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.

Multi-Model Importer

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Hi There

Something that can get a bit annoying is only being able to import one model into Xsi at a time. Yeah we can drag a whole bunch of models in from explorer but if we create our own Multi-Model Importer plugin, firstly we’ll be rid of the mentioned annoyance and secondly we can add a whole lot of functionality to out import plugin, like where to look for the models, or what to call them and in this example inorder to keep the scene nice and neat I’m even going to get this plugin to place each model type in a specific category.

My categories will be:

  • Characters
  • Lights
  • Cameras
  • Props

And to keep this from getting complicated, while I’m here I’m just going to make those models. An because this is a coding blog I’ll make and export the models with code 😉

import os
from random import randint
xsi = Application

# This Xsi Project's folder path
project_path    = xsi.ActiveProject.Path

def Randomize_Position(obj):
    # Get random numbers between -10 and 10 and set as position
    obj.Kinematics.Local.posx.Value    = randint(-10,10)
    obj.Kinematics.Local.posy.Value    = randint(-10,10)
    obj.Kinematics.Local.posz.Value    = randint(-10,10)

# Create Cube called "Cube_Character"
cube_obj    = xsi.CreatePrim("Cube", "MeshSurface", "Cube_Character")
Randomize_Position(cube_obj)    
model_path    = os.path.join(project_path, "Models", "Cube_Character.emdl")
xsi.ExportModel(cube_obj, model_path)

# Create Sphere called "Sphere_Character"
sphere_obj    = xsi.CreatePrim("Sphere", "MeshSurface", "Sphere_Character")
Randomize_Position(sphere_obj)
model_path    = os.path.join(project_path, "Models", "Sphere_Character.emdl")
xsi.ExportModel(sphere_obj, model_path)

# Create Spot Light called "Spot_Light"
spot_obj    = xsi.GetPrimLight("Spot.Preset", "Spot_Light")
Randomize_Position(spot_obj)
model_path    = os.path.join(project_path, "Models", "Spot_Light.emdl")
xsi.ExportModel(spot_obj, model_path)

# Create a Camera called "Main_Camera"
cam_obj        = xsi.GetPrimCamera("Camera", "Main_Camera")
cam_obj.Kinematics.Local.posz.Value = 50
model_path    = os.path.join(project_path, "Models", "Main_Camera.emdl")
xsi.ExportModel(cam_obj, model_path)

# Create a Cylinder called "Cylinder_Prop"
cyl_obj        = xsi.CreatePrim("Cylinder", "MeshSurface", "Cylinder_Prop")
Randomize_Position(cyl_obj)
model_path    = os.path.join(project_path, "Models", "Cylinder_Prop.emdl")
xsi.ExportModel(cyl_obj, model_path)

Note: os.path.join below adds the slashes between folder names depending on the opperating system you’re on. So for windows it would put “\\” between the project_path, “Models”, and “Cylinder_Prop.emdl” and for mac or linux, “/” would get put between them. The using os.path makes your plugins a lot easier to take across multpile Opperating Systems.

Now that thats done you should have all those objects exported to your Models folder

And we can continue with our plugin:

So as with all the previous plugins, you need to start by creating it 😛

File >> Plug-in Manager >> File >> New >> Command.

Set the Command Name to: Multi_Importer and in the “Command Definition” tab, Add an Argument (by clicking “Add”).

Change the name to “default_folder”. Then click “Generate Code”.

The reason we added that “default_folder” option is that if we want to call this command from another plugin, we can tel it where to look for models to import. When you’re working with loads of models in loads of folders it can save quite a bit of time if your tools just “jump” to the correct folders instead of the users having to browse manually each and everytime they want to load or reload a model.

So lets setup this plugin to do some PyQt magic. At the top:

from PyQt4.QtCore import *
from PyQt4.QtGui import *

And in the “Multi_Importer_Execute” we need to get the Qt Softimage Anchor:

    import sip
    sianchor = Application.getQtSoftimageAnchor()
    sianchor = sip.wrapinstance(long(sianchor), QWidget)

But now instead of creating our own custom QDialog like we did with the AnimationCopy Plugin we’re going to use the existing QFileDialog. You can find out more about it here. And if we look around a bit zyou go further down it’s even got the perfect function for us here.

QStringList QFileDialog.getOpenFileNames (QWidget parent = None, QString caption = QString(), QString directory = QString(), QString filter = QString(), Options options = 0)

Now all we need to do is set that up. The QStringList tells us that this function returns a QString list, and the rest tells us what we need to input.

    modelPath_lst    = QFileDialog.getOpenFileNames(parent = sianchor, caption = "Import Models", directory = default_folder, filter = "*.emdl")

The parent we set to be the sianchor (which we must always do), the filter we set to look for anything that ends in “.emdl”. Remember, the * tells Xsi and in this case PyQt to look for anything and everything, so when the QFileDialog is launched, we will only be able to see files ending in “.emdl” and folders so we can navigate to the desired files if need be. The directory is set to our default_folder variable but currently the default_folder isn’t set toi anything so if we run the plugin without inputting a default_folder, its not going to take us anywhere useful.

To make it default to your Xsi project’s Models folder, at the top of your plugin import the os module.

Then after the bit that says:

null = None
false = 0
true = 1

Add a variable named “models_folder” and set it to this project’s path:

models_folder    = os.path.join(Application.ActiveProject.Path, "Models")

And in the Multi_Importer_Init  function, change the line:

    oArgs.Add("default_folder",constants.siArgumentInput,"None")

to:

    oArgs.Add("default_folder",constants.siArgumentInput, models_folder)

Now the default_folder variable is set to this Xsi project’s Models folder by default.

So when you save and run your plugin, it should popup something looking like this:

To get the models the user selected after they press the “Open” button we loop through the modelPath_lst just like we do with standard python lists. From there we can import each model but remember, the QFileDialog returns QObjects, so the QStringList it returned will be full of QStrings. If you give Xsi a QString it won’t know what to do with it so turn the paths into standard python strings first:

    for mdl_path in modelPath_lst:
        mdl_obj    = Application.SIImportModel( str(mdl_path) )[1]

Now you have a Multi-Selection Model Importer :D.

For those of you that have a programming background and know what threads are, unfortunately you cannot run Xsi’s ImportModel function in anything other than the main thread. If you don’t know what I’m talking about don’t worry, you’ll come across Threading sooner or later 😉

Next thing to do is add the imported models to their relevant categories.

So firstly, we need to determine the category of each imported model. To do this I’m going to create a function near the top of our plugin:

After:

null             = None
false             = 0
true             = 1
models_folder    = os.path.join(Application.ActiveProject.Path, "Models")

Add:

def Get_Cat(mdl_obj):
    mdl_cat    = None
    # Look at each category name in the cat_lst
    for cat in cat_lst:
        # If the category name is in the model's name
        if cat in mdl_obj.Name:
            # Then set the mdl_cat that will be returned to this category
            mdl_cat    = cat
            # Stop the loop here. There's no point looking further if the category has already been found
            break
    return mdl_cat

And then in the loop that imports the models, after the line:

        mdl_obj	= Application.SIImportModel( str(mdl_path) )[1]

Add

        mdl_cat	= Get_Cat(mdl_obj)

This plugin may be used to import models that aren’t in any of the categories though so rather than limit it to only being able to import models with a category, if the model has no category “None” is returned for the mdl_cat. So when this happens we can just LogMessage that the specific model has no category:

        if mdl_cat    == None:
            Application.LogMessage("Multi_Importer: the model " + mdl_obj.Name + " doesn't have a valid category.", constants.siWarning)

Otherwise if the category is valid we:

  1. Look for that category null.
  2. If the null doesn’t exist, create it.
  3. Parent the model under the null.

And the code for that is:

        else:
            cat_nll    = Application.ActiveSceneRoot.FindChild(mdl_cat, constants.siNullPrimType, "", False)
            if not cat_nll:
                cat_nll    = Application.GetPrim("Null", mdl_cat)
            Application.ParentObj(cat_nll, mdl_obj)

Above, we look under the Active Scene Root for an null named whatever is stored in the mdl_cat variable. Note the False at the end. This tells Xsi to only look directly under the Scene_Root and not within objects under the Scene_Root incase a Character has a null in it named Character in it’s rig setup or for any other reason.

And after running the tool, if you select all the available models for import you should get something like this in your scene:

Note: If your Camera null is named Camera1 and the same for your light null, it is because there is already a object named camera in your scene and another object named light. Xsi will automatically add a number to the end of an objects name if that name already exists elsewhere because no two objects may have the same name (unless they are under Models). So just delete the camera and light before running the pugin.

And finally:

When you want to export and object from Xsi it has to be in a model. If it isn’t already Xsi will create and put the object you want to export in one. You could export Obj’s but those won’t keep all the information as models do. Models store everything that was applied to that object in the Xsi scene so when you import it again it will have the same animation, constraints, settings and everything else it had in the original scene. This is why exporting objects as models is in most cases the way to go.

The thing is when you import a model you may not necessarily want to keep the actual model but only want to keep the object inside. For instance, a Character or Prop would generally be rigged so you’d want that to stay in a model when in Xsi but a Light or Camera may have no reason what so ever to be kept in a model.

So for the Light and Camera Categories we’ll set the plugin to remove the objects from the model:

Within the loop that imports the models, after the line where you set the model’s parent to be the relevant category null:

            if mdl_cat in ["Light", "Camera"]:
                for child_obj in mdl_obj.Children:
                    Application.ParentObj(cat_nll, child_obj)
                Application.DeleteObj(mdl_obj)

This checks if this model’s category is a Light or Camera. If so it finds all the objects directly under the model and parents them directly under the category null (removing them from the model). Lastly we delete the empty model object.

 

And that’s that 😉

When you run the plugin on an empty scene the expolrer should look like:

 

# Multi_ImporterPlugin
# Initial code generated by Softimage SDK Wizard
# Executed Thu Oct 11 19:02:20 UTC+0200 2012 by jared.glass
# 
# Tip: To add a command to this plug-in, right-click in the 
# script editor and choose Tools > Add Command.
import win32com.client
from win32com.client import constants
from PyQt4.QtCore import *
from PyQt4.QtGui import *
import os

null             = None
false             = 0
true             = 1
# Path to this project's Models folder
models_folder    = os.path.join(Application.ActiveProject.Path, "Models")
# List of categories to be created
cat_lst            = ["Character", "Light", "Camera", "Prop"]

def Get_Cat(mdl_obj):
    mdl_cat    = None
    # Loop through categories and check if the category is in the model's name
    for cat in cat_lst:
        if cat in mdl_obj.Name:
            mdl_cat    = cat
            break
    return mdl_cat    
        
def XSILoadPlugin( in_reg ):
    in_reg.Author = "jared.glass"
    in_reg.Name = "Multi_ImporterPlugin"
    in_reg.Major = 1
    in_reg.Minor = 0

    in_reg.RegisterCommand("Multi_Importer","Multi_Importer")
    #RegistrationInsertionPoint - do not remove this line

    return true

def XSIUnloadPlugin( in_reg ):
    strPluginName = in_reg.Name
    Application.LogMessage(str(strPluginName) + str(" has been unloaded."),constants.siVerbose)
    return true

def Multi_Importer_Init( in_ctxt ):
    oCmd = in_ctxt.Source
    oCmd.Description = ""
    oCmd.ReturnValue = true

    oArgs = oCmd.Arguments
    # The default_folder is set to the models folder incase no default_folder is specified
    oArgs.Add("default_folder",constants.siArgumentInput, models_folder)
    return true

def Multi_Importer_Execute( default_folder ):

    Application.LogMessage("Multi_Importer_Execute called",constants.siVerbose)
    
    import sip
    sianchor = Application.getQtSoftimageAnchor()
    sianchor = sip.wrapinstance(long(sianchor), QWidget)
    modelPath_lst    = QFileDialog.getOpenFileNames(parent = sianchor, caption = "Import Models", directory = default_folder, filter = "*.emdl")
    
    # Loop through file paths of the selected models
    for mdl_path in modelPath_lst:
        mdl_obj    = Application.SIImportModel( str(mdl_path) )[1]
        mdl_cat    = Get_Cat(mdl_obj)
        if mdl_cat    == None:
            Application.LogMessage("Multi_Importer: the model " + mdl_obj.Name + " doesn't have a valid category.", constants.siWarning)
        else:
            # Try find existing Category Null, if there isn't one then create it.
            cat_nll    = Application.ActiveSceneRoot.FindChild(mdl_cat, constants.siNullPrimType, "", False)
            if not cat_nll:
                cat_nll    = Application.GetPrim("Null", mdl_cat)
            # Put the model under the specific category null
            Application.ParentObj(cat_nll, mdl_obj)
            
            # Check if this model's category is light or camera
            if mdl_cat in ["Light", "Camera"]:
                # Get all the objects inside the model (in our case there is only one but there may be more)
                for child_obj in mdl_obj.Children:
                    # Put each object that is inside the model under the category null
                    Application.ParentObj(cat_nll, child_obj)
                # Delete the mepty model
                Application.DeleteObj(mdl_obj)

        
    return true

Part 1 – Modules

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Technically any python file (a file with the “.py” extension) can be imported as a module.

The PyQt4.QtGui we were using earlier was a module and so is the win32com.client we have in our plugins. Anything you can “import” can technically be called a module.

Why make a module?

Most modules group a set of similar functions. This makes those functions a lot easier to find since they’re all grouped in the specific module but it also keeps your code neater since the various functions are sorted into various modules. Modular programming does not nescessarily refer to creating as many modules as possible but it does mean grouping things that can be and turning code that is used more than once into a function rather than just typing out the same set of commands a few times. And modular programming is definately something to aspire to, for the same reasons that modules are created. It just makes for more efficient and managable programs.

e.g: the python “os” module contains varous functions that deal with the current opperating system. Like the command os.makedirs which makes a specified folder and os.listdir which lists all the files and folders within a specified folder etc.

How to make a module?

Making modules is as simple as saving a python file, literally. So lets create out own module called “test.py” and put in a function that prints test:

def Print_ItemsInList(list):
    for item in list:
        print item

Now save that as “Test.py”

Importing a custom module:

We have four ways to do this.

1. The easiest is to put the module we want to import into the same folder as the script we’re running and then just import the module’s file name.

Note this doesn’t work if you’re using Xsi’s Script Editor though but you can try it with IDLE which is the IDE (Script Editor) that comes with python. I prefer using Notepad++ when I develope outside of Xsi and there’s this awesome post here on how to get Notepad++ to run python.

So in IDLE, Notepad++ or whatever IDE you decide to use (except the Xsi Script Editor), type the following code:

import Test
my_list = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
Test.Print_ItemsInList(my_list)

Then save that in the same folder as the “Test.py” module you created and run it.

You should see something like this outputted:

1
2
3
4
5
6

The above method is the ONLY method that DOESN’T work with Xsi. All the following methods do.

 

2. Adding the module’s path to the system path (its a lot easier than it probably sounds :p )

In python there is a list stored in the sys module that contains all of the folders to look in that have modules to load. All we need to do is add our module’s folder path to the sys.path and we’ll be able to import it.

Note: This method DOES work for Xsi.

In my case mt Test.pt module is saved in “C:\Users\jared.glass\Autodesk\Softimage_2011_Subscription_Advantage_Pack_SP1\Data\Scripts” but note that with python, a “\” needs to be doubled to “\\”. This only happens with the backslash because it can act as an escape character. You don’t need to worry about that too much just remember that with python to double up your backslashes.

At the top of your script you run the code:

import sys
sys.path.append(“C:\\Users\\jared.glass\\Autodesk\\Softimage_2011_Subscription_Advantage_Pack_SP1\\Data\\Scripts”)

import Test

And the output should be the same as before.

 

You can also use python’s imp module. It allows you to import a module directly into a variable and can be safer than just adding a module to your python path if you have many modules in different locations, but that have the same name.

import imp

Test  = imp.load_source(‘Test’, “C:\\Users\\jared.glass\\Autodesk\\Softimage_2011_Subscription_Advantage_Pack_SP1\\Data\\Scripts”)

etc

 

3. Python’s site-packages folder.

When you install a python module (like PyQt) the parts of that module that python uses get placed in here. On my system it’s C:\Python26\Lib\site-packages.

For this method all you need to do is copy your module into that folder and you’ll be able to import it.:

import Test

etc

The reason I mentioned this method last though is that since you are placing your module in a local folder, if you create a plugin or tool that people use from other computers, they will have to copy the file too. So I reccomend you rather place the modules you want to import in a folder on your server and use the imp or sys.path methods so that no matter which computer your plugin is being run from, it will be able to see and use your module.

Part 7 – Creating a Simple PyQt Plugin

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To create a PyQt Xsi Plugin you start off the same way as creating any other Command Plugin. There are only really two main differences between writing a plugin that has PyQt and one that doesn’t. The on comes into play when you want to test your plugin while developing it but I’ll show you an easy little trick later. The other is that you create your own custom class (well you actually just add onto one of the PyQt ones) and in there you put all your GUI and PyQt Code. You don’t have to do it this way but it is reccomended and does gives you ULTIMATE POWER!!! (Also as I keep saying, its not that difficult 😛 )

For this exercise we’ll make an Animation Copying tool that will allow a user to select two objects and transfer animation from one to the other. That part of the plugin will only be a few short lines though. The most important part of this tutorial will is the introduction to how PyQt works.

So, lets get started. Create a Command Plugin called “Animation_Copy”:

File >> Plug-in Manager >> File >> New >> Command.

Set the “Command Name” field to “Animation_Copy” and hit “Generate Code.

Now we have the skeleton of our plugin. All we need to do is add the fleshy bits.

Firstly, we need to import the PyQt modules. This is done with the commands:

from PyQt4.QtGui import *

“PyQt4” is the version of PyQt we are using. “QtGui” is the module we want, filled with all the GUI elements called “Widgets” and finally the “import *” tells python to just import everything in that module. As opposed to having to go:

from PyQt4.QtGui import QPushButton, QTextEdit

and so on.

Next we create that “custom class” thing I wrote about earlier.


class AnimationCopy_Dialog( QDialog ):
    def __init__( self, parent ):
        QDialog.__init__( self, parent )

The name of the class above is “AnimationCopy_Dialog”. The “QDialog” in the brackets that follow it just mean that this is actually a QDialog (a standard PyQt Widget). This means that our class currently is just a QDialog class with a different name.

the function “__init__” is run whenever the class is innitialized (when you call “AnimationCopy_Dialog()”). “QDialog.__init__( self, parent )” is calling the original QDialog’s init function to run to setup the widget. “self” is the same as java’s “this” or kinda like “this_model” in ICE. Its just a variable that references this instance of the class. And “parent” we will get to in a moment.

To display the AnimationCopy_Dialog we created we need to add some code to the “Execute” function of our plugin:

import sip
sianchor= Application.getQtSoftimageAnchor()
sianchor= sip.wrapinstance( long(sianchor), QWidget )
dialog    = AnimationCopy_Dialog( sianchor )
dialog.show()

The PyQt for Softimage plugin that we installed earlier amongst other things, acts as a parent for all QWidgets you want to use within Xsi. The first 3 lines will always be the same. After that we create and store the AnimationCopy_Dialog in a variable named dialog and finally we call the “.show()” function that makes the AnimationCopy_Dialog (stored in the dialog variable, remember 😉 visible.

The sianchor gets passed into the AnimationCopy_Dialog which sets the AnimationCopy_Dialog‘s parent to be the sianchor.

To test the plugin, just create a button that calls it. I.e the button code would be:

Application.Animation_Copy()

Everytime you want to run your plugin, you just need to save it and press the button. This is the one little trick I was talking about.

You need to do this as opposed to just calling the plugin’s “Execute” function otherwise Xsi won’t reload your PyQt code and it won’t work properly.

At this point your code should look like this:

# Animation_CopyPlugin
# Initial code generated by Softimage SDK Wizard
# Executed Mon Sep 17 18:00:17 UTC+0200 2012 by jared.glass
# 
# Tip: To add a command to this plug-in, right-click in the 
# script editor and choose Tools > Add Command.
import win32com.client
from win32com.client import constants
from PyQt4.QtGui import *

null = None
false = 0
true = 1

class AnimationCopy_Dialog( QDialog ):
    def __init__( self, parent ):
        QDialog.__init__( self, parent )

def XSILoadPlugin( in_reg ):
    in_reg.Author = "jared.glass"
    in_reg.Name = "Animation_CopyPlugin"
    in_reg.Major = 1
    in_reg.Minor = 0

    in_reg.RegisterCommand("Animation_Copy","Animation_Copy")
    #RegistrationInsertionPoint - do not remove this line

    return true

def XSIUnloadPlugin( in_reg ):
    strPluginName = in_reg.Name
    Application.LogMessage(str(strPluginName) + str(" has been unloaded."),constants.siVerbose)
    return true

def Animation_Copy_Init( in_ctxt ):
    oCmd = in_ctxt.Source
    oCmd.Description = ""
    oCmd.ReturnValue = true

    return true

def Animation_Copy_Execute(  ):

    Application.LogMessage("Animation_Copy_Execute called",constants.siVerbose)

    import sip
    sianchor= Application.getQtSoftimageAnchor()
    sianchor= sip.wrapinstance( long(sianchor), QWidget )
    dialog    = AnimationCopy_Dialog( sianchor )
    dialog.show()    

    return true

And when you click the button you made to test the plugin you should get a QDialog that looks like this:

Now to add some Widgets to the QDialog.

What we need to be able to do is

  1. Select an object to copy the animation from.
  2. Select an object to copy the animation to.
  3. Click a button that runs the code to copy the animation.

So lets get started.

Widgets:

The code to create widgets will need to go in our AnimationCopy_Dialog classes “__init__” function so that they are created as soon as the AnimationCopy_Dialog is initialized and we do that like this:

        # Create Widgets
        from_label            = QLabel("From: ")
        self.fromObj_label    = QLabel()
        fromPick_button        = QPushButton("Pick from Object")
        center_label        = QLabel(" >> ")
        to_label            = QLabel("To: ")
        self.toObj_label    = QLabel()
        toPick_button        = QPushButton("Pick to Object")

Layout:

But that only created the widgets. We still need to add them to the AnimationCopy_Dialog‘s layout for them to actually show.

        # Layout
        layout                = QHBoxLayout(self)
        layout.addWidget(fromPick_button)
        layout.addWidget(from_label)
        layout.addWidget(self.fromObj_label)
        layout.addWidget(center_label)
        layout.addWidget(to_label)
        layout.addWidget(self.toObj_label)
        layout.addWidget(toPick_button)

Now when you press click your test button, the widgets should be added to the AnimationCopy_Dialog yay!

The Creation of the widgets is pretty straight forward. We just create widgets and store them in variables. With the layout though when creating it we do QHBoxLayout(self) as opposed to just calling QHBoxLayout(). This sets “self” as the layout’s parent. Making the layout the layout used by AnimationCopy_Dialog and that’s why whatever we add to the layout gets added to the AnimationCopy_Dialog.

Also you may have noticed that for some of the created Widgets I give the variables they get stored in a “self.” prefix (like self.toObj_label). This makes sure the variable is accesable anywhere within the class whereas the other variables only exist within the “__init__” function. We do this because later if someone clicks the toPick_button we want to set or change the text displayed by the self.toObj_label.

Connections:

If you click the buttons you’ll notice that nothing happens. This is because they are not “connected” to anything. We need to connect the button to a function so that everytime the button is pressed, the function is run. First we need to create the function we want to run:

    def Pick_FromObj(self):
        from_obj    = Application.PickObject()[2]
        self.fromObj_label.setText( from_obj.FullName )

And then in the “__init__” we “connect” the button we want to our function. (Remember to get more info on what exactly “Application.PickObject” does, open the Xsi SDK Guide and under the index tab type “PickObject”).

        # Connections
        fromPick_button.clicked.connect(self.Pick_FromObj)

Now when we test our plugin and click the fromPick_button the self.fromObj_label will display our picked object’s FullName.

Now we just need to copy the code and alter it for the toPick_button and self.toObj_label.

All that is left now is to setup the part of the plugin that actually copies the animation from the “from object” to the “to object”. For this we’re just going to create another button called “Copy Animation” and connect it to a function that does just that.

So, add the code:

        copy_button        = QPushButton("Copy Animation")

to the section of code where you created all your other widgets.

This is all fine and dandy but if you were to just add this button to your layout now, you’d get something like

which to be honest doesn’t look as good as

To setup the Plugin’s layout to look like the second image we need to use the QGridLayout instead of the QHBoxLayout.

You can find documentation on the QGridLayout here and all the other QtGui Widgets you can create here.

From the QGridLayout documentation there are two things that we need to take a look at:

  • addWidget (self, QWidget, int row, int column, Qt.Alignment alignment = 0)
  • addWidget (self, QWidget, int row, int column, int rowSpan, int columnSpan, Qt.Alignment alignment = 0)

The first addWidget function tells us that we can specify a QWidget followed by the row and column to place the widget in. The second also gives us these options but it also goes further to allow us to stretch the widget over an amount of columns and rows.

All the previous widgets will be placed on the first row of our QGridLayout and the copy_button will be placed on the second row but we’ll set it to take up the entire second row. Also remember that with programming, things tend to start from 0 instead of 1. So the very first row and column of the QGridLayout will both be 0.

So replace all the previous QHBoxLayout code with the new QGridLayout code:

        # Layout
        layout                = QGridLayout(self)
        layout.addWidget(fromPick_button    , 0, 0)
        layout.addWidget(from_label            , 0, 1)
        layout.addWidget(self.fromObj_label    , 0, 2)
        layout.addWidget(center_label        , 0, 3)
        layout.addWidget(to_label            , 0, 4)
        layout.addWidget(self.toObj_label    , 0, 5)
        layout.addWidget(toPick_button        , 0, 6)
        layout.addWidget(copy_button        , 1, 0, 1, 7)

Now when you run the plugin the copy_button should be on the second row and take up the width of the entire second row like in the picture above.

Next we need to create the function that does the actual Copying of the Animation:

    def Copy_Animation(self):
        fromObj_fullName= str( self.fromObj_label.text() )
        toObj_fullName    = str( self.toObj_label.text() )
        # Make sure user picked from and a to objects.
        if not fromObj_fullName or not toObj_fullName:
            QMessageBox.critical(self, "Invalid Selection", "Please select a valid from_object and to_object")
        else:        
            # Copy and Paste animation
            Application.CopyAllAnimation2(fromObj_fullName)
            Application.PasteAllAnimation(toObj_fullName)
            QMessageBox.information(self, "Success", "Animation copied.")

First we get the names we stored in self.fromObj_label and self.toObj_label by calling their “.text()” functions. This gives us a QString, which is fine for PyQt but we cannot pass PyQt elements to Xsi functions (like “CopyAllAnimation2”) so we turn it into a string with the “str( )”. Then we check if  fromObj_fullName or toObj_fullName don’t have any names stored inside them. If they don’t we popup a QMessageBox telling them about the issue, otherwise if there is an object name in fromObj_fullName and toObj_fullName, we copy and paste the animation and let the user know it was a success with the last QMessageBox.

And that’s that. Another awesome plugin done!!!

Now that you have an idea of how to use PyQt there is a whole new dimension of functionality and epicness you can add to your tools.

I hope I have managed to help you on voyage across the see of code. Thanks for reading 🙂

And if you want, there’s even more in the Veteran Category.

As usual I have included my version of the finished plugin below:

# Animation_CopyPlugin
# Initial code generated by Softimage SDK Wizard
# Executed Mon Sep 17 18:00:17 UTC+0200 2012 by jared.glass
# 
# Tip: To add a command to this plug-in, right-click in the 
# script editor and choose Tools > Add Command.
import win32com.client
from win32com.client import constants
from PyQt4.QtGui import *

null = None
false = 0
true = 1

class AnimationCopy_Dialog( QDialog ):
    def __init__( self, parent ):
        QDialog.__init__( self, parent )

        # Create Widgets
        from_label            = QLabel("From: ")
        self.fromObj_label    = QLabel()
        fromPick_button        = QPushButton("Pick from Object")
        center_label        = QLabel(" >> ")
        to_label            = QLabel("To: ")
        self.toObj_label    = QLabel()
        toPick_button        = QPushButton("Pick to Object")
        copy_button            = QPushButton("Copy Animation")

        # Layout
        layout                = QGridLayout(self)
        layout.addWidget(fromPick_button    , 0, 0)
        layout.addWidget(from_label            , 0, 1)
        layout.addWidget(self.fromObj_label    , 0, 2)
        layout.addWidget(center_label        , 0, 3)
        layout.addWidget(to_label            , 0, 4)
        layout.addWidget(self.toObj_label    , 0, 5)
        layout.addWidget(toPick_button        , 0, 6)
        layout.addWidget(copy_button        , 1, 0, 1, 7)

        # Connections
        fromPick_button.clicked.connect(self.Pick_FromObj)
        toPick_button.clicked.connect(self.Pick_ToObj)
        copy_button.clicked.connect(self.Copy_Animation)

    def Pick_FromObj(self):
        from_obj    = Application.PickObject()[2]
        self.fromObj_label.setText( from_obj.FullName )

    def Pick_ToObj(self):
        to_obj    = Application.PickObject()[2]
        self.toObj_label.setText( to_obj.FullName )

    def Copy_Animation(self):
        fromObj_fullName= str( self.fromObj_label.text() )
        toObj_fullName    = str( self.toObj_label.text() )
        # Make sure user picked from and a to objects.
        if not fromObj_fullName or not toObj_fullName:
            QMessageBox.critical(self, "Invalid Selection", "Please select a valid from_object and to_object")
        else:        
            # Copy and Paste animation
            Application.CopyAllAnimation2(fromObj_fullName)
            Application.PasteAllAnimation(toObj_fullName)
            QMessageBox.information(self, "Success", "Animation copied.")

def XSILoadPlugin( in_reg ):
    in_reg.Author = "jared.glass"
    in_reg.Name = "Animation_CopyPlugin"
    in_reg.Major = 1
    in_reg.Minor = 0

    in_reg.RegisterCommand("Animation_Copy","Animation_Copy")
    #RegistrationInsertionPoint - do not remove this line

    return true

def XSIUnloadPlugin( in_reg ):
    strPluginName = in_reg.Name
    Application.LogMessage(str(strPluginName) + str(" has been unloaded."),constants.siVerbose)
    return true

def Animation_Copy_Init( in_ctxt ):
    oCmd = in_ctxt.Source
    oCmd.Description = ""
    oCmd.ReturnValue = true

    return true

def Animation_Copy_Execute(  ):

    Application.LogMessage("Animation_Copy_Execute called",constants.siVerbose)

    import sip
    sianchor= Application.getQtSoftimageAnchor()
    sianchor= sip.wrapinstance( long(sianchor), QWidget )
    dialog    = AnimationCopy_Dialog( sianchor )
    dialog.show()    

    return true

Part 6 – Installing PyQt for Softimage

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This is a lot easier than you may think. All you need is the PyQt install and the PyQt for Softimage Plugin.

Before we start though, you need to download and install pywin32 (for windows users only). Its a straight forward install, just click next till it’s done. Pywin just adds some extra functionality to the windows version of python that is needed to keep things running smoothly.

 

Now, you can download PyQt from Riverbank website.

If you’re on Mac or Linux you’re going to have to compile PyQt yourself, but for Windows users you simply have to download one of the installers, run it and viola; all done!

The current version of Xsi is using Python 2.6 and as I mentioned in the previous post, the PyQt Plugin for Xsi is x64 so you’ll need to download PyQt-Py2.6-x64-gpl-4.9.4-1.exe. The important bits in PyQt-Py2.6–x64-gpl-4.9.4-1.exe show that the python version is 2.6 and system type is x64 . So if you use a version later than 4.9.4 it should still work as long as you download the one where those two are right.

For the PyQt for Softimage Plugin go to https://github.com/caron/PyQtForSoftimage and find the link https://github.com/downloads/caron/PyQtForSoftimage/PyQtForSoftimage_beta4.xsiaddon. Then Right-Click on it and choose to save the link. This will download the plugin for you (you can also do it on the link example posted here).
For Mac and Linux users: there are some build instructions to help you out too on the PyQt for Softimage page.

Now that we’ve downloaded everything we need, all that is left is to install, so install the PyQt file you downloaded from the Riverbank site and afterwards, open Xsi.

In Xsi go File Menu >> Add-On >> Install.

Click the button to the right of “Filename” and select your downloaded “PyQtForSoftimage_beta4.xsiaddon”. If you want to install it to a workgroup you can by selecting “Workgroup” from the “Root Location” combo. Otherwise leave it as is to install the plugin to your Xsi User Prefferences folder.

Then click Install and you’re done!!!

After restarting Xsi you can start creating PyQt GUIs  in Softimage and take your plugins to the next level 😀

…and in the next lesson I will show you how 😉

ALSO: A huge HUGE thanks to Steven Caron and Jo Benayoun for this awesome plugin.

Part 5 – What is PyQt and how does it make my plugins AWESOME?!

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GUIs (Graphical User Interfaces) add a world of functionality to your code but most importantly make the tools you create user friendly.

Xsi provides its own GUI system called PPGs (Property Pages). Starting off though these can be a nightmare and are quite limited in what they can do for you. As an artist dabbling in code they may seem pretty cool but as a programmer dabbling in Xsi they are very limited and the logic is quite different from what the average coder should be used to. Because of this I’m going to completely ignore PPGs and instead go through the way more powerful world of PyQt.

PyQt is just a set of modules that create “links” between python commands and your opperating system’s. All this means is that when you create a Window with PyQt on windows, your window will look like a windows window and not the standard grey Xsi windows (Property Pages). On mac the PyQt windows will look like Mac windows etc.

Below is a rough idea of the visually maginficent things you can create in PyQt:

 

I’m currently working on Windows and will go through the setup for windows but it is possible to get this working on Mac and Linux.

The PyQt plugin for Xsi (which I will cover later) has only been compiled for the 64bit version of windows. So if you’re on Linux or Mac you have two choices: Either switch over to Windows x64 OR go looking online for help on compiling a version and if you’re lucky a compiled version for your opperating system.

Once PyQt and the PyQt Plugin for Xsi are installed on your system all the code you write will be the same, whether on Windows, Mac or Linux. This is the beauty of Python and PyQt. You only need to write a bit of code once and it works on all three operating systems!!!

But enough talk. Lets get started!

Part 4 – On Event Plugins

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If you have worked much with any programming language you should be familiar with Triggers/Events/Callbacks or one of the other many names for them. If not, don’t worry; Events in Xsi are really easy. Basically an On Event plugin is run when a certain event takes place. So if we create a “siOnSelectionChange” Event, the plugin will be run every time change what is selected i.e. by selecting something else.

So to illustrate this I’m going to create two cubes, a Polygon Mesh cube and a Surface cube. If I set my Viewport to dislpay Shaded, the two cubes look exactly the same. What I want is a quick way to tell what “Type” the object I have selected is so I can easily tell if it’s a Polygon Mesh, Surface or whatever else. For this we want our plugin to check what Type the selection is every time we change what we have selected, so the “siOnSelectionChange” Event will be perfect for this.

To create an On Event plugin you start the same way as every other plugin.

Click File >> Plug-in Manager >> File >> New >> Event

Then we setup the plugin. I’ve set the name to “SelectedType_SelectionEvent” so that just by looking at the plugin name I get an idea of what it does.

After that click on the “Event Definition” tab to select the event you want. Near the bottom you’ll find the “siOnSelectionChange” Event.

Once you’ve checked that, scroll to the top and hit the “Generate Code” button.

To get the selected object’s Type we can do something like:

# Get a the selected objects and store in a list called "selected_lst"
selected_lst = Application.Selection

# If no objects are selected
if len(selected_lst) == 0:
    Application.LogMessage("No Selection")

# If there is more than one object selected
elif len(selected_lst) > 1:
    Application.LogMessage("Multi Selection")

# Otherwise there must only be one object selected
else:
    # Note if I want to get the first item in a list I use my_list[0] and not my_list[1]
    # A list's order actually goes [0, 1, 2, 3]
    # So if I have a list ["banana", "apple", "pear", "grape"], "pear" is at position [2]
    selected_obj = selected_lst[0]
    # Log the type of the selected object
    Application.LogMessage(selected_obj.Type)

 

And just like with the commands, all we need to do is add our code to the plugin’s “_Execute” function and then save the plugin.

So now when I select an object, the plugin tells me what I’ve got selected:

And as soon as I select something else or even if I select nothing the plugin will detect the selection has changed and Log what ever we told it to.
The entire plugin looks like this:

# SelectedType_SelectedEvent
# Initial code generated by Softimage SDK Wizard
# Executed Wed Aug 1 17:57:30 UTC+0200 2012 by jared.glass
#
# Tip: To add a command to this plug-in, right-click in the
# script editor and choose Tools > Add Command.
import win32com.client
from win32com.client import constants

null = None
false = 0
true = 1

def XSILoadPlugin( in_reg ):
    in_reg.Author = "jared.glass"
    in_reg.Name = "SelectedType_SelectionEvent"
    in_reg.Major = 1
    in_reg.Minor = 0

    in_reg.RegisterEvent("siOnSelectionChangeEvent",constants.siOnSelectionChange)
    #RegistrationInsertionPoint - do not remove this line

    return true

def XSIUnloadPlugin( in_reg ):
    strPluginName = in_reg.Name
    Application.LogMessage(str(strPluginName) + str(" has been unloaded."),constants.siVerbose)
    return true
    # Callback for the siOnSelectionChangeEvent event.

def siOnSelectionChangeEvent_OnEvent( in_ctxt ):
    Application.LogMessage("siOnSelectionChangeEvent_OnEvent called",constants.siVerbose)

    Application.LogMessage("ChangeType: " + str(in_ctxt.GetAttribute("ChangeType")),constants.siVerbose)

    # Get a the selected objects and store in a list called "selected_lst"
    selected_lst = Application.Selection

    # If no objects are selected
    if len(selected_lst) == 0:
        Application.LogMessage("No Selection")

    # If there is more than one object selected
    elif len(selected_lst) > 1:
        Application.LogMessage("Multi Selection")

    # Otherwise there must only be one object selected
    else:
        # Note if I want to get the first item in a list I use my_list[0] and not my_list[1]
        # A list's order actually goes [0, 1, 2, 3]
        # So if I have a list ["banana", "apple", "pear", "grape"], "pear" is at position [2]
        selected_obj = selected_lst[0]
        # Log the type of the selected object
        Application.LogMessage(selected_obj.Type)

    # Return value is ignored as this event can not be aborted.
    return true

 

Part 3 – Plugins that take Input and give Output.

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Today I’m going to start backwards.

Output:

To set a plugin to give Output is really, really easy. All we need to do is change the line at the end of the plugin’s “_Execute( )” function from:

return true

to

return [Whatever we want]

We can return a string, an object, a list, a list of objects and pretty much every other python data structure we could ever want.

The reason I may want a plugin to give output is if I have a scenario where I need to do something, and some of the code is already in the plugin but the same plugin is also used by other tools so I can’t change the actual way the plugin works or other tools may break.

So for this example what I want to do is to select all the polymeshes in my scene except any called “cube”. Now I already have a plugin that selects all the polymeshes in my scene (called SelectAll_PolyMeshes). So all I need to do is to get that list and see if there are any objects called “cube” in it and if so, remove them from the selection. Simple 🙂

First I need to set my SelectAll_PolyMeshes command to output (return)  the list of polymeshes so the plugin looks like:

# SelectAll_PolyMeshesPlugin
# Initial code generated by Softimage SDK Wizard
# Executed Thu Jul 19 18:18:51 UTC+0200 2012 by jared.glass
#
# Tip: To add a command to this plug-in, right-click in the
# script editor and choose Tools > Add Command.
import win32com.client
from win32com.client import constants

null = None
false = 0
true = 1

def XSILoadPlugin( in_reg ):
    in_reg.Author = "jared.glass"
    in_reg.Name = "SelectAll_PolyMeshesPlugin"
    in_reg.Major = 1
    in_reg.Minor = 0

    in_reg.RegisterCommand("SelectAll_PolyMeshes","SelectAll_PolyMeshes")
    #RegistrationInsertionPoint - do not remove this line

    return true

def XSIUnloadPlugin( in_reg ):
    strPluginName = in_reg.Name
    Application.LogMessage(str(strPluginName) + str(" has been unloaded."),constants.siVerbose)
    return true

def SelectAll_PolyMeshes_Init( in_ctxt ):
    oCmd = in_ctxt.Source
    oCmd.Description = ""
    oCmd.ReturnValue = true

    return true

def SelectAll_PolyMeshes_Execute( ):

    Application.LogMessage("SelectAll_PolyMeshes_Execute called",constants.siVerbose)

    # Find all the polymeshes in the scene and store them in a python list.
    polymesh_lst = list(Application.ActiveSceneRoot.FindChildren("*", "polymsh"))

    # Create a list to store the meshes names in
    polymeshName_lst= []
    # Loop through the mesh objects and store their names
        for polymesh in polymesh_lst:
            # Add the meshes name to the mesh name list
            polymeshName_lst.append(polymesh.FullName)

    # Join the names in the list into a string and sepperate each name by a comma. eg "sphere, cone, cube"
    polymeshSel_str = ", ".join(polymeshName_lst)

    # Tell Xsi to select the names in the polymeshSel_str
    Application.Selection.SetAsText(polymeshSel_str)

    # The return that we will change
    return true

Now, we want the list of polymesh objects to check for “cube” in the name and then to remove the object from the selection. All we need to do is to change the

return true

right at the end to

return polymesh_lst

After you’ve added that save the “”SelectAll_PolyMeshes” plugin to update it in Xsi.

now if we:

print Application.SelectAll_PolyMeshes()

we should get something that looks like:

# [<COMObject <unknown>>,  <COMObject <unknown>>, <COMObject <unknown>>, <COMObject <unknown>>]

Thats the list of Xsi objects.

From that I can do

polymesh_lst = Application.SelectAll_PolyMeshes()

instead of printing it so I can actually store the data in a list.

From here the rest is cake. So in the end my code looks like this :

    # Get the list of polymeshes from the plugin.
    polymesh_lst = Application.SelectAll_PolyMeshes()
    # Loop through the polymeshes and check the names.
    for polymesh in polymesh_lst:
        # Check if the polymeshe's name is cube
        if polymesh.name == "cube":
            # If it is, remove it from the selection
            Application.Selection.Remove(polymesh)

Input:

(Also called Arguments)

Setting up a plugin to take input is just as easy, it just requires a few more lines of code to be replaced. For this example we’re going to change the “SelectAll_PolyMeshes” Plugin, but in such a way that it won’t change the way it works with any of the other tools that may use it (like the one we just made that removes cube from the selection). This is a lot easier than it sounds. So we’re going to set the plugin to take in part of an objects name, and only if that part of the name is in a PolyMeshe’s name, does the PolyMesh get selected.

So we will be able to call the command Application.SelectAll_PolyMeshes()

like Application.SelectAll_PolyMeshes("part_of_some_object_name")

First thing we need to do is to add a variable to the plugin’s “Init” (The Init is run when the plugin is initially compiled by Xsi – When you launch Xsi or Reload the plugin by Saving it from the Script Editor). This variable will tell Xsi that the plugin takes some input.

So in the “SelectAll_PolyMeshes_Init” we add:

oArgs = oCmd.Arguments
oArgs.Add([Argument Name],constants.siArgumentInput,[Default Value])

I’m going to call the argument “part_of_name” and the default will be None.

This means that if something just calls Application.SelectAll_PolyMeshes(), part_of_name will be set to None and I can tell the plugin to ignore the part of name search and run as it had before my changes.

Next bit is to pass the argument (part_of_name) into the _Execute function. This will allow us to use part_of_name inside the _Execute.

After this I can edit the actual code within the _Execute as I please:

    # Loop through the mesh objects and store their names
    for polymesh in polymesh_lst:
        # If the part_of_name was specified and therefore is not the default None...
        if not part_of_name == None:
            # If the part_of_name is in the object's name...
            if part_of_name in polymesh.Name:
                # Add the meshes name to the mesh name list
                polymeshName_lst.append(polymesh.FullName)
            else:
                # Add the meshes name to the mesh name list
                polymeshName_lst.append(polymesh.FullName)

So my entire plugin looks like:

# SelectAll_PolyMeshesPlugin
# Initial code generated by Softimage SDK Wizard
# Executed Thu Jul 19 18:18:51 UTC+0200 2012 by jared.glass
#
# Tip: To add a command to this plug-in, right-click in the
# script editor and choose Tools > Add Command.
import win32com.client
from win32com.client import constants

null = None
false = 0
true = 1

def XSILoadPlugin( in_reg ):
in_reg.Author = "jared.glass"
in_reg.Name = "SelectAll_PolyMeshesPlugin"
in_reg.Major = 1
in_reg.Minor = 0

in_reg.RegisterCommand("SelectAll_PolyMeshes","SelectAll_PolyMeshes")
#RegistrationInsertionPoint - do not remove this line

return true

def XSIUnloadPlugin( in_reg ):
    strPluginName = in_reg.Name
    Application.LogMessage(str(strPluginName) + str(" has been unloaded."),constants.siVerbose)
    return true

def SelectAll_PolyMeshes_Init( in_ctxt ):
    oCmd = in_ctxt.Source
    oCmd.Description = ""
    oCmd.ReturnValue = true

    oArgs = oCmd.Arguments
    oArgs.Add("part_of_name",constants.siArgumentInput,None)
    return true

def SelectAll_PolyMeshes_Execute( part_of_name ):

    Application.LogMessage("SelectAll_PolyMeshes_Execute called",constants.siVerbose)

    # Find all the polymeshes in the scene and store them in a python list.
    polymesh_lst = list(Application.ActiveSceneRoot.FindChildren("*", "polymsh"))

    # Create a list to store the meshes names in
    polymeshName_lst= []
    # Loop through the mesh objects and store their names
    for polymesh in polymesh_lst:
        # If the part_of_name was specified and therefore is not the default None...
        if not part_of_name == None:
            # If the part_of_name is in the object's name...
            if part_of_name in polymesh.Name:
                # Add the meshes name to the mesh name list
                polymeshName_lst.append(polymesh.FullName)
            else:
                # Add the meshes name to the mesh name list
                polymeshName_lst.append(polymesh.FullName)

    # Join the names in the list into a string and sepperate each name by a comma. eg "sphere, cone, cube"
    polymeshSel_str = ", ".join(polymeshName_lst)

    # Tell Xsi to select the names in the polymeshSel_str
    Application.Selection.SetAsText(polymeshSel_str)

    return polymeshName_lst

And if I want to select ALL the PolyMeshes I run Application.SelectAll_PolyMeshes()

but if I only want to select PolyMeshes with say “sphere” in the name, I run Application.SelectAll_PolyMeshes("sphere"). This sets the part_of_name variable from None to "sphere".

Note:

When creating a plugin you also get the option to add input arguments:

I do use this but I find I end up changing existing plugins that don’t take arguments (or that I want to take even more arguments) much more than I use this tool to create them.

Start Here!!!

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Hi there 🙂

This Guide will cover Basic to Advanced Scripting, Programming, Plugin Development, Class Creation and much more. Including lots of handy titbits and explanations, like how to successfully use the Xsi help files. The goal being to equip you with the knowledge and tools you need to create awesome scripts, plugins and even external tools that speed up your workflow and make you a super programming genius!!! Which all results in your life being made a whole lot easier and giving you more time to spend on the artistic side of things, or you could even move over completely and work as a super programming genius. Either way this blog puts the power in your hands 😉

Hope you enjoy!
(And feel free to let me know what you think)

The Lessons are split up into sections:

  1. Recruit – Introduction to Scripting
  2. Trooper – The simple programming side of scripting
  3. Hardened – Basic Programming and Plugins
  4. Veteran – Classes, Modules, Threads and PyQt for Xsi.

And the Sections are made up of the following lessons:

Recruit:

  1. Easily turn echoed commands into buttons.
  2. Applying a command to multiple objects.

Trooper:

  1. Finding Parameters (Introduction to the “Object Model”).
  2. Finding How to Access Parameters Visually.
  3. Finding parameters and their values with code.
  4. Successfully using the help files.

Hardened:

  1. Creating a Plugin.
  2. Adding a Plugin to a Menu.
  3. Plugins that take Input and give Output
  4. On Event Plugins
  5. What is PyQt and how does it make my plugins AWESOME?!
  6. Installing PyQt for Softimage
  7. Creating a Simple PyQt Plugin

Veteran:

  1. Modules
  2. Multi-Model Importer

 

You can also download these lessons in PDF Book form here.