Today, I ‘m going to expand on the blog post that Owen wrote about the new dockControl command in Maya 2011 and look at some more advanced examples of its usage.
Mainly delete the UI when it becomes hidden, a look at the different methods, adding multiple windows and adding them to layouts.
Delete the docked window when it is invisible
The first problem that will be obvious to users, is that once we create a docked generic window with the dockControl, you lose the ability to bring up that window even after the docked one is closed.
Example: You can easily create a docked window with the dockControl. For example, this brings up the script editor docked on the left:
dockControl -area left -content scriptEditorPanel1Window owensScriptEditorDC;The problem with this approach is that if I close the docked script editor, I won't be able to open the script editor with the main menu (I'll get // Error: line 1: No window found. /).
Using that little cross to close the window doesn’t actually delete the UI, it hides the window. And as we all know, Maya doesn't like multiple Outliner or Script editors… so it’s important to delete the UI so you can open the UI again later.
To do that, you use the –vcc (visibleChangeCommand) and the –io (isObscured) flag to query when the window is obscured and then delete it with the deleteUI command:
$customOutliner = `dockControl -area "left" -content scriptEditorPanel1Window -vcc "if (`dockControl -q -io $customOutliner`) {evalDeferred \"deleteUI $customOutliner\";}"`;Here the syntax is fairly similar except I am giving a name to the control, so I can delete easily afterwards. Secondly and most importantly, I am testing with a query when the window becomes obscured and once it is, delete it with the –vcc and the –io flag.
Doing it this way is more scripting but it will make the Outliner useable in and out the dockControl.
Two ways to use the dockControlYou might all ready know there are two methods to using the dockControl. The simple way is to create a window in the usual way, and then use dockControl instead of showWindow. .
Here is an example of the first method:$mywindow = `window -widthHeight 200 150 -backgroundColor 1.0 1.0 1.0 -t ""`; $tabLayout_1 = `tabLayout -innerMarginWidth 5 -innerMarginHeight 5 -backgroundColor 1.0 1.0 1.0`;string $panel = `outlinerPanel`; string $outliner = `outlinerPanel -q -outlinerEditor $panel`; dockControl -area left -content $mywindow ;Here I have simply changed the showWindow command for the dockControl , and added the appropriate flag.
Second method:The second way is to create the docked window first, and then parent a window underneath it. This also means I have to create a tabLayout that is parented to the Maya Main window previously.
global string $gMainWindow;$tabLayout_1 = `tabLayout -parent $gMainWindow `;$dockedWindow = `dockControl -l "Custom Window" -allowedArea "all" -area "left" -content $tabLayout_1`;OutlinerWindow; control -e -p $tabLayout_1 outlinerPanel1Window; Here, I create my docked window first, and “parent” a window underneath it. This also means I have to create a tabLayout that is parented to the Maya Main window previously.
Clearly these two different approaches will give different results, although the first method is an easier concept, since it only involves changing the last line of the script, the second method is much more powerful. I am actually editing the outliner window (with the –e flag) so the UI will persists when I do a File -> New Scene instead of giving me an ugly white empty area.
Creating multiple tabs with Maya windowsUsing the second method, it becomes quite easy to add multiple Maya windows.
In this example, I create a tabLayout and add multiple windows to it. I create a window with an Outliner and a Hypergraph, and I use the –label flag to name the window “Custom Window”.
global string $gMainWindow;$tabLayout_1 = `tabLayout -parent $gMainWindow `;$dockedWindow = `dockControl -label "Custom Window" -allowedArea "all" -area "left" -content $tabLayout_1`;OutlinerWindow; control -e -p $tabLayout_1 outlinerPanel1Window; HypergraphHierarchyWindow; control -e -p $tabLayout_1 hyperGraphPanel1Window; Next saving this new UI in a layout to reuse itAnyone that has played with the docked window will know that these are not “visible” in the layout editor. Basically, Maya thinks of a layout as to what fits in the panel area, and since we are docking windows outside of it, this won’t work.
Off course, there is a way around this… with a neat little trick …
We know the layouts are saved in the userPrefs.mel. For this example, create a layout with a specific name (here I called it SPECIAL) and then do a search in the userPrefs.mel to find the code associated with it. You will get something like this:
panelConfiguration -label (localizedPanelLabel("SPECIAL")) -defaultImage "" -image "" -sc false -configString "global string $gMainPane; paneLayout -e -cn \"single\" -ps (.....) -ap true (localizedPanelLabel("Persp View")) "modelPanel" (....)
We can add a global procedure called by the configString to create our dock window. So it will look like this :
panelConfiguration -label (localizedPanelLabel("SPECIAL"))
-defaultImage ""
-image ""
-sc false
-configString "CustomWindow; global string $gMainPane; paneLayout -e -cn \"single\" -ps (.....)
-ap true
(localizedPanelLabel("Persp View"))
"modelPanel" (.....)And off course, all we have to do now is to create the global proc and add it to the userPrefs.mel. Simply add this at end of the scripts…
global proc CustomWindow (){ global string $gMainWindow;$tabLayout_1 = `tabLayout -parent $gMainWindow `;$dockedWindow = `dockControl -label "Custom Window" -allowedArea "all" -area "left" -content $tabLayout_1`;OutlinerWindow; control -e -p $tabLayout_1 outlinerPanel1Window; HypergraphHierarchyWindow; control -e -p $tabLayout_1 hyperGraphPanel1Window; }
Subscribe
Recent Comments