![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rodgreen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/image\/Icons\/rename_intermediate.png\")
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[Download Script]<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n This is the second part to a three part tutorial on renaming objects in Maya. In the first installment<\/a> we established a collection of procedures and a simple UI that allows multiple objects to be renamed.<\/p>\n Some issues were identified with the methods used previously and so in this next stage I'm going to evaluate the procedures and improve the script. Specifically this tutorial will address the following issues:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We need to advance the existing tool to support the following:<\/p>\n Description:<\/p>\n While none of my core or utility procedures rely on switching and querying selection I do a lot of interfacing with the user through their selection. So a unified selection query procedure is important. The long and flatten flags returns the objects with long paths and flattened individualized list respectively.<\/p>\n i.e.<\/p>\n <\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p><\/blockquote>\n would return as<\/p>\n <\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n Description:<\/p>\n As the default rename procedure doesn't always return the long version of the object we'll create this wrapper procedure to ensure it does.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Description:<\/p>\n Pretty routine procedure that returns the first index of a given 'item' in a string array.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Details:<\/p>\n This procedure will be called constantly throughout and therefore should be as efficient as possible.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Description:<\/p>\n This procedure does a nice little trick of giving you the index mapping between $unmodified and $modified string arrays. What this basically means is it gives you how the order of strings has changed between the two given arrays.<\/p>\n Why is this needed?<\/p>\n If you reorder an array of objects there's no way to tell what order they were originally in and thus destroying the users specific selection order. So we create a list of indexes that provide a 'mapping' between the original list and the modified list.<\/p>\n i.e.<\/p>\n If you sent this procedure a string array<\/p>\n and a string array<\/p>\n This procedure would return the index (int) array<\/p>\n as index '1' represented "mouse", index '2' represented "cat" and index '3' represented "dog" in the $unmodified array.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Details:<\/p>\n The following line is added for performance. Setting the found index to a zero length string or "" will speed up the string comparison inside the 'stringArrayFind' procedure:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Description:<\/p>\n This will take the input integer value and pad it with preceding zeros so that it fills a certain text length.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Details:<\/p>\n If the $inputInt is longer in string length then the specific $length it will return the original int as a string.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Description:<\/p>\n Counts the number of times $char appears in the given string ($string)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Description:<\/p>\n Returns the smallest value in the given int array ($intArray)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Description:<\/p>\n This will step through a given string array ($stringArray) and sort that array based on the integer values found in $intArray.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Details:<\/p>\n The return array is sorted in a descending order<\/p>\n would return<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Description:<\/p>\n Primarily a wrapper procedure that collects the hierarchy depth for each object (via 'countCharInString') and passes that along with the object array to the 'sortStringByInts' procedure.<\/p>\n Details:<\/p>\n The "|" character that is passed to 'countCharInString' procedure represents a 'level' in the hierarchy. The way Maya represents a long path of an object is by listing out all parents in order distguishing each object with a "|" or pipe<\/em> character.<\/p>\n i.e. '|pCube1|pCube2|locator1'<\/p>\n which translates to 'locator1' being a child of 'pCube2' which is a child of 'pCube1' which in turn is a child of the world.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Description:<\/p>\n This is the entry point for the rename routine and so it handles the main iteration over the specified objects.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Details:<\/p>\n Here we have our custom built hierarchy sort routine.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lets pass this newly sorted list through our string array mapper and see how it was reordered:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Now we have the mapping we can step through the mapping and process each object collecting the new name for each object and adding it to the $newNamesUnsorted string array.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This creates a string to use for the objects new name. It overrides the objects name with the $newName along with given increment options<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This double checks that the new name we are going to assign to the object is unique in the scene (at all levels in the hierarchy)<\/p>\n Then rename the object at the identified index and reassign it back into the original $unsortedObjs array:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Description:<\/p>\n The start of a UI for renaming select objects in a scene. Albeit still simple the structure of this procedure is easy enough to extend.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n
What's the goal exactly?<\/h3>\n
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What could go wrong?<\/h3>\n
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Lets get started…<\/h2>\n
\nUtility procedures<\/h3>\n
\n\n<\/pre>\n
getSelection (Unchanged)<\/h4>\n
global proc string[] getSelection()\n{\n\treturn (ls("-selection", "-long", "-flatten"));\n}\n<\/pre>\n\n
{"locator1", "pCube1.uv[0:2]"}<\/pre>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n
{"|pCube1|pCube2|locator1", "|pCube1.uv[0]", "|pCube1.uv[1]", "|pCube1.uv[2]"}<\/pre>\n<\/blockquote>\nrenameLong (Unchanged)<\/h4>\n
global proc string renameLong(string $object, string $newName)\n{\n\treturn longNameOf(rename($object, $newName));\n}\n<\/pre>\nstringArrayFind (Unchanged)<\/h4>\n
global proc int stringArrayFind(string $item, string $array[])\n{\n for($i = 0; $i < size($array); $i++) if($array[$i] == $item) return $i;\n return -1;\n}\n<\/pre>\ngetStringArrayMapping (Unchanged)<\/h4>\n
global proc int[] getStringArrayMapping(string $unmodified[], string $modified[])\n{\n int $returnArray[] = {};\n\n string $searchList[] = $unmodified;\n\n for($i = 0; $i < size($modified); $i++)\n {\n int $foundIndex = stringArrayFind($modified[$i], $searchList);\n $returnArray[$i] = $foundIndex;\n $searchList[$foundIndex] = "";\n }\n\n return $returnArray;\n}\n<\/pre>\n$unmodified[] = {"dog", "mouse", "cat"}<\/pre>\n$modified[] = {"mouse", "cat", "dog"}<\/pre>\n$returnArray = {1, 2, 0}<\/pre>\n$searchList[$foundIndex] = "";<\/pre>\n
padInt<\/h4>\n
global proc string padInt(int $inputInt, int $length)\n{\n string $returnString = $inputInt;\n\n for($i = size($returnString); $i < $length; $i++) $returnString = ("0" + $returnString);\n\n return $returnString;\n}\n<\/pre>\ncountCharInString<\/h4>\n
global proc int countCharInString(string $char, string $string)\n{\n\tint $count = 0;\n\tfor($i = 1; $i <= size($string); $i++) if(substring($string, $i, $i) == $char) $count++;\n\treturn $count;\n} <\/pre>\nintArrayFloor<\/h4>\n
global proc int intArrayFloor(int $intArray[])\n{\n int $returnInt = $intArray[0];\n for($eachInt in $intArray) if($eachInt < $returnInt) $returnInt = $eachInt;\n\n return $returnInt;\n}\n<\/pre>\nsortStringByInts<\/h4>\n
global proc string[] sortStringByInts(string $stringArray[], int $intArray[])\n{\n\n\tstring $returnArray[] = {};\n\tint $arrayToSearch[] = $intArray;\n\tint $loopCount = size($arrayToSearch);\n\n\tint $floor = intArrayFloor($intArray);\n\t\n\tfor($retIndex = 0; $retIndex < $loopCount; $retIndex++)\n\t{\n\t\tint $iMax = $floor;\n\t\tint $indexFound = -1;\n\t\tfor($i = 0; $i < $loopCount; $i++)\n\t\t{\n\t\t\tint $eachInt = $arrayToSearch[$i];\t\n\t\t\tif( $eachInt >= $iMax )\n\t\t\t{\n\t\t\t\t$iMax = $eachInt;\n\t\t\t\t$indexFound = $i;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t}\n\n\t\t$arrayToSearch[$indexFound] = ($floor - 1);\n\t\t$returnArray[$retIndex] = $stringArray[$indexFound];\n\n\n\t}\n\n\treturn $returnArray;\n\t\n}<\/pre>\nsortStringByInts({"dog", "mouse", "cat"}, {2,0,1});\n<\/pre>\n{"dog", "cat", "mouse"}\n<\/pre>\nsortObjectsByHierarchy <\/h4>\n
global proc string[] sortObjectsByHierarchy(string $objectArray[])\n{\n int $ints[] = {};\n for($eachObj in $objectArray) $ints[size($ints)] = countCharInString("|", $eachObj);\n\n return sortStringByInts($objectArray,$ints);\n} <\/pre>\nCore procedures<\/h3>\n
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renameObjects (Modified!)<\/h4>\n
global proc string[] renameObjects(string $unsortedObjs[], string $newName, int $padding)\n{\n\n string $sortedObjs[] = sortObjectsByHierarchy($unsortedObjs);\n int $mapping[] = getStringArrayMapping($unsortedObjs, $sortedObjs);\n int $startIndex = 0;\n string $newNamesUnsorted[] = {};\n<\/pre>\n\n for($i = 0; $i < size($unsortedObjs); $i++)\n {\n string $eachName = ($newName + "_" + padInt($startIndex + $i, $padding));\n while(objExists($eachName))\n {\n $startIndex++;\n $eachName = ($newName + "_" + padInt($startIndex + $i, $padding));\n }\n $newNamesUnsorted[size($newNamesUnsorted)] = $eachName;\n }\n\n for($eachIndex in $mapping)\n {\n $unsortedObjs[$eachIndex] = renameLong($unsortedObjs[$eachIndex], $newNamesUnsorted[$eachIndex]);\n }\n\n return $unsortedObjs;\n} <\/pre>\n\n
string $sortedObjs[] = sortObjectsByHierarchy($unsortedObjs);<\/pre>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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int $mapping[] = getStringArrayMapping($unsortedObjs, $sortedObjs);<\/pre>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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for($i = 0; $i < size($unsortedObjs); $i++)<\/pre>\n<\/blockquote>\n
string $eachName = ($newName + "_" + padInt($startIndex + $i, $padding));\n<\/pre>\n
while(objExists($eachName))\n {\n $startIndex++;\n $eachName = ($newName + "_" + padInt($startIndex + $i, $padding));\n }<\/pre>\n\n
$unsortedObjs[$eachIndex] = renameLong($unsortedObjs[$eachIndex], $newNamesUnsorted[$eachIndex]);<\/pre>\n<\/blockquote>\n
UI procedures<\/h3>\n
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renameObjectsUI (Modified!)<\/h4>\n
global proc renameObjectsUI()\n{\n\n\n global string $renameObjectsWindow;\n if (`window -exists $renameObjectsWindow`) deleteUI -window $renameObjectsWindow;\n $renameObjectsWindow = `window -widthHeight 308 100 -sizeable 0 -title "Rename Objects Intermediate" "renameObjectsWindow" `;\n \n columnLayout;\n\n rowColumnLayout -numberOfRows 4;\n\n \n string $paddingCtrl = `intFieldGrp -numberOfFields 1\n -label "Padding"\n -ann "How much to pad integer suffix"\n -cw 1 90\n -cw 2 30\n -value1 2`;\n\n string $newNameCtrl = `textFieldGrp\n -label "New Name"\n -ann "Enter new name to rename object(s) to"\n -cw 1 90\n -cw 2 208\n -text "myObject"`;\n\n\n\n setParent..;\n\n\n\n rowColumnLayout -numberOfColumns 4\n -columnWidth 1 100\n -columnWidth 2 100\n -columnWidth 3 100;\n\n \n \n button -l "Cancel" -c "deleteUI -window $renameObjectsWindow;";\n button -l "Defaults" -c "renameObjectsUI();"\n -ann "Reset settings to defaults";\n\n button -l "Apply" -c ( "renameObjects(getSelection(),"\n + "("" + textFieldGrp("-q", "-text", "" + $newNameCtrl +"")), "\n + "("" + intFieldGrp("-q", "-value1", "" + $paddingCtrl + "")));")\n -ann "Do rename!";\n\n setParent..;\n\n showWindow $renameObjectsWindow;\n\n} <\/pre>\nThats it!<\/h4>\n