Expressions Editor Error Message

[kelg]

I am trying to do math expressions from the Maya Character Creation book--and when I type in a command, I get this: Error: Attribute not found or variable missing '$':

I am following the book page by page so i dont know what's up.
I was on page 136 and it says to type Sphere.translateY = Cube.rotateZ

I get that message.

I skippd it and went back to the figure rigging and was typing BackRoot.rz = 0 + BackBend.rz;

got the same problem.

i hate math

[failure]

Also chek that they realy have capital letters in their names since sphere and Sphere are differet things. And because maya uses camelscript its most commonly to see sphrere as opposed to Sphere

[kelg]

Yeah i checked that and it still happened. I even thought maybe I should remove the spaces or something.
I wonder if it is some screwy default setting I am missing.

[zdoodle]

Unless you renamed the sphere yourself - it's named pSphere1 by maya

[failure]

This board messes up identities. How horrible.

[kelg]

I did rename it. In the book it says rename it Sphere. I generally do it in the attribute editor.

[failure]

Are you sure you didn't rename a shape node instead of transform node?

[joojaa]

Actualy this error can also spring up idf theres OTHER errors in the expression, or the type is wrong!

[failure]

Well, I can't see any other errors if this:

CODE
Sphere.translateY = Cube.rotateZ

is the whole expression.

[joojaa]

OK we could debug this if you kleg could run this in the commendline

CODE
ls -st Sphere Cube

and tell us what maya returns!

Maya should return 4 items 2 should be transforms.

[kelg]

I renamed the polycube in the mesh node type window of the attribute editor

and I renamed the nurbssphere in the nurbssurface node type window of the attribute editor

when I typed in the 1s -st Sphere Cube in the expressions editor command line I got: 2 expressions
but I havent bene able to replicate that

when I type it in the Mel command line I get syntax error

I tried closing it down and reboot it, creating a new scene
created a new sphere and cube, renamed them as before

and when I typed in the same command in the expressions editor I get syntax error

ditto

I notice that even though I changed the names of the items,
in the upper line at the top of the maya window frame , where it says Maya 7.0/untitled--nurbSphere1 and pCube1 when I click on the object
even though the mesh is defined as Cube nurbSurface as Sphere

and the same is true in the expressions editor , the object is referred tio as PCube1

[failure]

When you create poly cube there are 3 nodes created:
pCube1 (type: transform)
pCubeShape1 (type: mesh)
polyCube1 (type: polyCube)

what you're trying to access thru expression are attributes of transform node so you need to rename transform node pCube1 to Cube;

It's similar with nurbs sphere. Again 3 nodes are created:
nurbsSphere1 (type: transform)
nurbsSphereShape1 (type: nurbsSurface)
makeNurbSphere1 (type: makeNurbSphere)

Again, you need to rename the transform node.

and its not:

CODE
1s -st Sphere Cube

it should be:
CODE
ls -st Sphere Cube

LS instead of 1S

[kelg]

Aha!
Thanks! I think that solved it.