"lock" Grouped Geometry For Selection

[loganb]

I'm working on some geometry with lots of small bits grouped together. The group can be hard to select at times - I click on a bit and use the arrow keys to 'walk' up the hierarchy till I have the desired group or sub group selected.

I know i can toggle "select by hierarchy and combinations" but then EVERYTHING has to be selected like that.

is there some way to "lock" a single group or sub group so that it can only be selected at the group node level, with out effecting how I select other parts of my scene?

[joojaa]

QUOTE(loganb @ 03/07/08, 08:03 PM) [snapback]282318[/snapback]
is there some way to "lock" a single group or sub group so that it can only be selected at the group node level, with out effecting how I select other parts of my scene?

No, but you can make a "shape group" (for lack of terminology), you can also chek the display handle attribute of the transform this would show you tick wich you can select the group with.

On the philosophical side of things theres no such thing a s agroup in maya (really quite liiterary), or ig you MUST call it group your still missing vocabulary to 3 differet things. Just tranforms.

But heres a super group you cannot separate even if you try:
CODE
file -f -new;

sphere -p 0 0 0 -ax 0 1 0 -ssw 0 -esw 360
        -r 1 -d 3 -ut 0 -tol 0.01 -s 8 -nsp 4 -ch 1;
sphere -p 0 0 0 -ax 0 1 0 -ssw 0 -esw 360
        -r 1 -d 3 -ut 0 -tol 0.01 -s 8 -nsp 4 -ch 1;

move -r -os -wd 2.681036 0 0 nurbsSphere1.cv[0:6][0:7];
parent -add -shape  nurbsSphereShape2 nurbsSphere1;
delete nurbsSphere2;

[ptb]

actually it is possible using a scriptjob and a small proc. Here's an example:

CODE
global proc sel_certainParent() {
string $parent[] = listRelatives -p;
string $grp_names[] = {"group1","group2"};

if(stringArrayContains($parent[0], $grp_names)==1) select $parent;
}

scriptJob -e "SelectionChanged" "sel_certainParent()" -kws;

at each selection it queries the parent and then decides if it should select it or not. Still very basic, lots of extension possibilities: for example go deeper in the hirarchie (so that not only the next parent is queried) and open a dialog box that lets you choose which of the defined parent you want selected if there are more than one (similar to the multilayer photoshop select context menu)

[joojaa]

No dont use a scriptjob for this. Its the sort of thing that appears to work but cause s a lot of havoc on maya. (in general if you use scriptjobs then your 90% of the time doing it worng and the 10% of time its the only way, but most suers cant spot the 90 form the 10)

First it has a problem with event explosion, which can send maya into a indefinite loop if not carefully orchestrated. Secondly it keeps building a lot of stuff in your undo queue that can choke maya and make undoing impossible (this si not very desireable effect). This dont wont wok if you use a interactive playback. Fourth it don't keep with the scene, whena it does it relies on unchanging names of nodes.

Now most of these things can be worked out, but form a pure philosophical point of view its like fighting windmills as every single time you do something you keep fighting against mayas core philosophy.

As last it slows things down a lot. In general you should allways be VERY carefull when working with changing selections in mel. As aa rule of thumb you sould never change selection in a script unless your presenting something to the user. If you must use zoo trigger for this but in ganral this kind of redirection si not nearly as a good idea as it sounds.

But again the preffered method is this (for some reason very unused method):

CODE
file -f -new;
sphere -p 0 0 0 -ax 0 1 0 -ssw 0 -esw 360
        -r 1 -d 3 -ut 0 -tol 0.01 -s 8 -nsp 4 -ch 1;
sphere -p 0 0 0 -ax 0 1 0 -ssw 0 -esw 360
        -r 1 -d 3 -ut 0 -tol 0.01 -s 8 -nsp 4 -ch 1;

move -r -os -wd 2.681036 0 0;
select -r nurbsSphere1 nurbsSphere2;
group;
setAttr "group1.displayHandle" 1;
setAttr "group1.overrideEnabled" 1;
setAttr "group1.overrideColor " 13;

Now make the view shaded notice how theres red tick in middle. Its there so you can select the group. But it also doesnt stop you form selecting the individual enements at the same time (if you marquee select it will prefeer the group over the individual objects.)

Yes even one sphere in above example form previous post can be still wile other allways moves. for example:

CODE
file -f -new;
sphere -p 0 0 0 -ax 0 1 0 -ssw 0 -esw 360
        -r 1 -d 3 -ut 0 -tol 0.01 -s 8 -nsp 4 -ch 1;
sphere -p 0 0 0 -ax 0 1 0 -ssw 0 -esw 360
        -r 1 -d 3 -ut 0 -tol 0.01 -s 8 -nsp 4 -ch 1;

move -r -os -wd 2.681036 0 0 nurbsSphere1.cv[0:6][0:7];
parent -add -shape  nurbsSphereShape2 nurbsSphere1;
delete nurbsSphere2;
createNode transformGeometry;
connectAttr -f makeNurbSphere1.outputSurface
            transformGeometry1.inputGeometry;
connectAttr -f transformGeometry1.outputGeometry
            nurbsSphereShape1.create;
connectAttr -f nurbsSphere1.worldInverseMatrix[0]
            transformGeometry1.transform;

Now this bring you to a yber method wich can meake you do whatever you want. without needing to resort to scriptjobs. Indeed you can even have all joints invisible and select areas in a continious mesh with this method and see the deformations on those sections if you wish.

Now thsi methodology is persistent and leverages mayas dg to do the job right at all times.

Theres unlimitted variations to thsi such as linking the object to the camera for selection shortcuts etc.