[Maya] Creating a custom Assembly Reference node?

Coding
1

Hi everyone,

Has anyone had experience creating a custom assembly reference node in Maya? I’ve poked around a bit in the sceneAssembly devkit solution but haven’t had much success.

Can these be created as a virtual node in Python or will I need to create a custom assembly reference through a plug-in?

Thanks!

2

Ah, so after some digging and a bit of help I was able to get the missing piece to my custom node creation. I couldn’t find this bit readily available so posting it below!

The magic is in the _createVirtual() method.


import pymel.core as pm
from pymel.internal.factories import virtualClasses

class CustomReference(pm.nt.AssemblyReference):
    ''' Custom assembly virtual class '''

    @classmethod
    def _isVirtual(cls, obj, name):
        ''' Return if node is virtual

        Usually determined by a custom attribute or subclassing from a custom node.
        '''
        return True

    @classmethod
    def _preCreateVirtual(cls, **kwargs):
        return kwargs

    @classmethod
    def _postCreateVirtual(cls, node, **kwargs):
        pass

    @classmethod
    def _createVirtual(cls, *args, **kwargs):
        ''' This was the missing piece from my earlier attempts.

        This method will actually create the requested node, override this to create an assembly reference.
        '''
        kwargs['type'] = 'assemblyReference'
        node = pm.assembly(*args, **kwargs)
        virtualized = pm.PyNode(node)

        return node.longName()

    def helloWorld(self):
        ''' Custom method '''
        print 'Hello world from a custom assembly!"

virtualClasses.register(CustomReference, nameRequired=False)

myassembly = CustomReference()
myassembly.helloWorld()