Floating Tools 4.2.1 for Maya (maya script)

Floating Tools 4.2

[updated 12-03-05]

v4.2.2 Made the ui bigger to more space for cameras... future updates

v.4.2.1 Changes
-Added some orthographic cams "leftcamShape" "backcamShape" "bottomcamShape"
at UI startup if they dont exist.. which are hidden by HideSelectedObjects;
-fixed a prob with Sect3 Shelf Not Saving Shelf...

v.4.2 Changes

-Added some of maya's menus to the Window.. Polygons Subds Curve and Surface
-Added a a Feature To assign a Hotkey to Floating Tools ctrl + (backslash) if a
command for that hotkey doesn't exist. which will Load Ui if closed,
show/Hide UI.
-Script is now too big for Script Editor and must be sourced. Please
read Installation Startup for more info
-changed most of the buttons on the UI to different Type of Button you
will see... more fit on there with less space...
-Took off the channel box from the ui and put more room on the shelfs
thnx to user input.
-Added Command to show hide Channel Box / Layer Editor. which works
even when maya ui is hidden.
-Moved Selector tab to a menu called select.
-Added FT Lite which takes up less space on the screen. some features removed.
-Added a Small place for command line when maya ui is in hidden mode
-Added a Third Section to the Shelves

[ INSTALLATION/STARTUP ]
Extract Files to your /My Documents/Maya/7.0/Scripts/ If youve already got Shelves Fine....
Start Maya. Then Type source "FT4.mel"; in command line.
Script will then be loaded and if a command doesn't exist for ctrl + (backslash) Hotkey...
Floating Tools 4 will be Assigned to load/Show/Hide the UI.
If ft wont start set project directory from the file menu and reload.

[Summary]
Floating Toolbox with shelves, selection sets, jump to camera, some custom scripts, Some Info....

FILE LIST
backupsceneshelp.txt
floatingtoolbox.txt
ft4.mel
Sect1.mel
Sect2.mel

Sect3.mel
startt.mel
tmpp.mel
tmpp2.mel

Load/Show/Hide UI - Hotkey ctrl + works on FT and FTLite. will send the ui to the top of the screen
where the menus are still accessable. Ui can be hidden/unhidden from the scripts menu or by hotkey.
for some reason i cannot type the backslash here.. its ctrl + a slash with the top part going left....

BackupScenes 1.3 - BackupScenes is a easy to use Backup Utility which will Backup scene file and all
Files referenced in the scene. So the scene can be loaded with with the required
textures and paths and rendered in maya or the dos renderer at a later time or
separate computer. Scene Needs To Be Open in the Maya UI and Saved to
File. Relevant Files can then be copied and compressed with Info.txt File and Render.bat
and other desired files such as rendered scenes, weight maps.. etc. Winrar for Dos must
be installed to compress files (the regular win/dos compatable package will work as well);

External Render - Basic script to execute a command line or dos program with parimeters.
which can be used to invoke a 3rd party render application, as long as the
scene location is surrounded in quotes if there is spaces in the directory path.

Custom Poly 2 Subd's Toggle - Converts single or multiple objects to and from subds with vertices
option. I've added setsubdivisiondisplaysmoothness to 3 and deselect object so the surface
can be viewed imediately. the object can be converted back to poly or back to subd without
having to be selected again at any time nothing is selected so long as the object name is
still in memory.

Select Hard Edges - Selects The outer edges of the selected polygon object for example.
1 obj at a time plz. if you need to select multiple objs hard edges use selection sets.
works on Subd's in polygon mode as well.

Selection Sets - kindof like groups but different.. 26grps max.. works on anything which can be
selected. Sets Can Be saved in project directory and automatically loaded with ui once project
directory has been set. Once components to be selected in a set have been renamed..
ie extruded edges... they may have to be re selected manually.

Save Shelves - will save out the shelves to file and load on window startup.

Save and Delete History - Just like it says.. saves scene then deletes all history.

Dupe to New Layer - Makes a copy of selected and sends those to a new layer and makes
turns the layer visibility off..

Export to OBj - Attempts to very quickly and quietly export an obj to the data directory
in the current project directory. of if directory does not exist the object will go to the project directory

Mirror X Y Z - Mirrors selection in each of the directions

MirrorX,Combine,SewEdges - Nice Little Combo script to have if your edges are pretty well
aligned with the pivot. Mirrors the object, Combines into 1 poly model then selects hard
edges using my Select Hard Edges Script and Merges the selected edges within
a .25 threshold. which is pretty close. Undoable..

Shelves - Might be better to add scripts to the main shelf first and get an icon on there..
and description... scripts can be middle mouse dragged in the window..else scripts can
be draged from the script editor to the shelf...

Visibility Slider - Slider for toggling between each of the display modes wireframe through
highqual render

Set Key on all Joints - will query all joints in the scene and set a key for each one.
same command as the Default Set Key under the Animate menu.

Jump To cams - Show all cams to list current cameras and single click to change
modelPanel4's (the Perspective one) current view.




Moddification: - When you execute a script on the shelf the current window stays active however i
recommend in most cases to place the following command at the end of your shelf scripts
so maya UI is set to active window and shortcut keys ex.. will work without having to select maya.

restoreLastPanelWithFocus();

most of my scripts on the Ui have this set already. unfortunately there is not a global switch
for the ui they have to be set on a per script basis. for example if your using maya default
command on the shelf such as ExtrudeEdge copy them to the custom shelf first and open
up shelf editor there you can add the focus command at end. such as

ExtrudeEdge;
restoreLastPanelWithFocus();

and set icon name.. tooltips.. etc. then they can be drag and dropped to the shelf and
problem solved.. dont forget to save shelves!!

- Backupscenes 1.3 and Poly To Subd's Toggle are the only custom scripts on the actual Sect1
shelf at this time. Shelf files can be replaced as long as the shelf has the same name.

- The External menu loads external programs from your pc. The paths for these programs may
need to be modified as well according to your current setup there. the lines in question are
130, 135. Just below those is a place to make another command for another menuitem.. follow
the simple instructions and near the top in the menu's section there is some more
instructions to Label and command the menu.

Enjoy

lgm.