[maya] confused about the 'artAttrCtx' family of commands

Coding
1

I am trying to initialize a Fluid Attribute Paint Context using ‘artFluidAttrCtx’ command so that the default attribute to paint is Velocity instead of Density. I am also trying to set the Clamp range and some other display properties, but no matter what I try, the Tool always initialized to the default settings.

Even creating the context and editing it afterwards doesn’t update the tool!


fluidCtx = cmds.artFluidAttrCtx('rs_fluidAttrCtx', 
                                i1='fluidPaint.png', 
                                p='velocity', 
                                v=[0.0, 0.0, 1.0], 
                                usd=True,
                                dv=True, 
                                cl='upper')
cmds.setToolTo(fluidCtx)

When I look at the Tool Settings UI, it’s still in “Density” mode, Display Velocity is still turned off in the display settings.

If i try:

cmds.artFluidAttrCtx('rs_fluidAttrCtx', e=True, p='velocity')
cmds.artFluidAttrCtx('rs_fluidAttrCtx', q=True, p=True)

I get back ‘Density’…

What am I missing?
Thanks.
(Maya 2012 64bit Windows btw)

2

Solved my issue. Due to my lack of understanding how Fluids work, I disconnected the fluid from the time input to keep the velocity field in stasis. This caused some interaction problems with Artisan.
Changing the Fluid to use a Static Grid and leaving the connection to Time solved my issue.