MEL: Delete Targets From A Blendshape Node

Cleaning up a blendshape node in Maya can be a nightmare. It makes it really difficult to remove targets from the node and even when you do it leaves ghost indexes that can only be removed if you know what they are. The script below allows you to highlight the targets you want to keep in the Channel Box and remove all of the others. Clean and simple. It does this by building a new blendshape node with only your highlighted targets and reconnecting everything exactly the way it was originally. This includes ordering the input stack in the same order it found them.

Code Can Be Found Here: jgRebuildBlendshapeNode.mel

A smart man (or woman!) might wonder why Maya has such a difficult time simply deleting some blendshapes. A discussion for another day I suppose.

This script utilizes the jgReturnMeshDeformers procedure from yesterday's post. Read about it here.

MEL Script: Print Toolbox

One of the best things about scripting is that it gives you the ability to design your own tools that compliment and speed up your workflow. When I'm using Maya I am in constant need of information from my scene. Whether I'm debugging a broken file, preparing scenes for delivery to a client, or setting up a rig, I always need little morsels of data from the scene to do this. To help me with this I wrote this simple little toolbox that let's me get a lot of the data in just a click.

It's a small floating gui with a half-dozen buttons that let you print out some very useful information.

Features:

• Print Transform Values: Prints out basic transform values in the script editor for everything selected in an easy to read format.
• Print SDK Count: Prints the number of set driven keys in your scene.
• Print Joint Count: Prints the number of joints in your scene.
• Print Selection Count: Tells you how many objects are selected.
• Print All Nodes Count: Gives you the total number of nodes in your scene.
• Print Selected To Array: This will print out your selected objects into an array that you can copy from the script editor.

There are of course an enormous number of random things that you may want to print out at any given time but these are the ones that I need to use on a day to day basis. Perhaps in an updated version I'll add the ability to customize which buttons appear and allow you to print out a load of other things. For now, enjoy!

Get the Print Toolbox here: jgPrintToolbox.mel

As always feedback and comments are welcome. If you're just getting into MEL scripting take a look at the script itself to see how it's working.