Help With Paintselectiontool Commands

[ja-go]

Idealy, i would like to have 2 hotkeys to paintselectiontool: 1 with the option for "selecting" and the other with the option for "unselecting"

Here's what I have so far, just copied from the script editor, but gives me errors unless I have the tool options window open.

To paint select

artSelectToolScript 4;
artSelectPaintOperation artSelectCtx Select;
artSelectValues artSelectContext;
toolPropertyShow;

and to paint unselect

artSelectToolScript 4;
artSelectPaintOperation artSelectCtx Unselect;
artSelectValues artSelectContext;
toolPropertyShow;

this gives me an error with regards to artselectpaintoperation unless I have that window open.

It would be soooo much easier to just have something like paintselectiontool -select or -unselect.
But nooo, thay had to make things dificult for me lol.

Thanks in advance.

Also, I have added 2 buttons to my shelf with the correct options selected and that works just fine, but I don't have a hotkey for those (is is possible to have hotkeys to shelf buttons?), and I'm tooo mych of a noob to figureout the commands that these buttons are invoking, though i can see them when i open the shelf with notepad.

[joojaa]

You all ready have hot keys for selecting and unselecting! When you paint its selects when you hold control down it unselected instead (applies to more then just paint selection command, it also applies to normal select where shift toggles, ctrl removes and ctrl/shift adds, if you put the default mode of paint selection to toggle then it works just like normal selection in all regards with ctrl and ctrl shift options).

If you want to hotkey a shelf item you must make it to runTimeCommand and then attach it to hotkey. Go to hotkey editor you may find it way easier.

QUOTE
It would be soooo much easier to just have something like paintselectiontool -select or -unselect.
But nooo, thay had to make things dificult for me lol.

well actually they did that too read the mel reference like your supposed to, to select:

artSelectCtx -e -selectop "select" artSelectContext

to unselect:

artSelectCtx -e -selectop "unselect" artSelectContext

so to do a toggle:
CODE
{// has slight buas to un select since toggle goes there too
$select="select";
if (artSelectCtx -q -selectop artSelectContext!="unselect" )
  $select="unselect";
artSelectCtx -e -selectop $select artSelectContext;
}

PS: consider reading the manual will you? I mean no point in making your own life more difficult like you pointed out.

PPS: its possible to rig the mode to n so it swaps mode with slider just like brishes swap their presure.

[ja-go]

Well ty I guess Joojaa.
But, are you serious???
I browsed through the mel script reference and saw the -st "select" or -st "unselect" options to artSelectCtx, but didn't really understand how to comeup with a complete set of instructions to accomplish my task. I am relatively new to maya, and I really like its customizations, but i'm by no means a mediocre mel scripter, i'm a total noob. I have used the script editor to examine some commands and have come up with my own scripts, but i rely heavely on what the script editor spits back.

I appreciate your help, but I don't think it's fair to read through the script reference (especially if you're new like me) and expect to know what to do. I've seen others ask for all kinds of help and they seem to have a lot more experience, yet they still get stuck easily.

I know i can use shift and ctrl but i'm more interested in having my own hot keys, with your help things are working just fine for me now.

Thanks again.

edit: I guess i was being throws off by expecting to just copy and paste what the script editor echoed. Also, due to my noobish mel scripting i was typing "Select" when it should have been "select" no caps. (not sure why i was under the impression that it wouldn't have mattered, but it did. Oh wait i know why I expected "Select" to work, cus that's what the script editor echoed when i changed modes. Silly me.
-later

[joojaa]

See this is what you do, whenever you echo something, you will know its part of a bigger series of events if

The command is not listed in command reference then you:

whatIs the procedure, then you open the script and read what that procedure does

runTimeCommand -q -c a runtime, then continue as in this list

If it is you read the reference enttry for that command

Thisway you will get the actual going on and you can decipher maya eventually out. You dont need to read the entire manual. Tough you should.

And yes i read the entire manual cover to cover 2 times by before had used maya for more than a month, and you know what it really helped. As all of the above was explained amongst things. And yes its actually meant to be read especially by beginners! (thing is however if you conduct a survey on manual reading, you will find that those people who know most of the software with the longest experience are th ones that read the manual most. Now why do you think they know so much? I mean i read mayas reference section manual daily, and rest of it i skim every now and then. Its not like the effort to read it takes so much time). And yes im serious you should read the manual itll save you a lot of time.