Connecting to time

[phillip-1]

Hi There

I have written a deformer, and I would like for the deform function to be called whenever maya does a refresh, like if time changes.... so that if you hit play, my deformer can deform the object over time.

What is the easiest way of doing this?

Hope someone can help,
Phillip

[alexbetts]

Hey Phillip --

Creating a MFnUnitAttribute, & then connecting it to Maya's time1 node (or setting keyframes on it) ought to be able to do this. You could also just create a numeric attribute to accomplish the same thing.

I've not created a deformer but it looks like the new attr should affect the outputGeom attribute built into the deformer.

• Alex

[phillip-1]

Hi Alex,

I did this, but the time1.outTime attribute does not always update. If I drag the time or hit play, the deformer does not update untill the time slider comes to a stop.

I basicaly created a time attribute on my deformer and connected it manually in maya with time1.outTime, since I could not figure out how to get to the time1 node from within my deformer.

Eventhough time1 does not seem to work for my update I am curious to know how to get to the node without having the user select it.

So two questions remain:

1) How do you connect an attribute to the time1 node from within the deformer like in the postConstructor?

2) How do you get your deformer to update at every refresh? (note my deformer is driven by expressions, so there are no keyframes).

[phillip-1]

Ok,

So I gave up trying to find the time1 node, since it didn't seem like it would solve my problem and instead I set my attributes to not be cached (foo.setCached(false)

BUT still no luck ...

the search continues ...
Phillip

[jiann]

You should never try to get the information of other node from within your own node except through attribute connection. Instead, you should create another MPxCommand to do make the connection, or do it manually as what you are doing.