MEL command to find groups

[msj3s]

Is there a MEL command that can be used to find all or any group(s) in a scene? Also is there a MEL command to find the names of the children in that group?

Thanks.

[macaronikazoo]

well a group is just a transform node, without a shape node attached - so basically you have to do something like this:

string $transforms=ls -type transform;
for( $obj in $transforms ) check to see if has shape or not...

that'll give you the "groups". to find children, just use:
listRelatives -ad -type transform $obj;

to get a list of all child "objects" under the parent $obj.

[joojaa]

Ok my curiosity is finaly risen.... this is a question that pops up every now and then so there must be something here. I mean in my workflow i would never imagine needing to know all groups. Atleast never had.

So what is it some kind of an excersise that is issued from above or within so that you gain better undertsanding of maya. Or is there realy some concern here, where people actualy have problem identtifying groups...

or is this somekind of valuable information for a exporter of some kind? That i would understand, if they had some other grouping mechanism.

Then one mention. technicaly you could decribe groups in this manner. But the system allows for more than one kind of thing, for exampla what is a transfrom that owns several shapes then?? I mean i use this all the time when some poor guy comes over to me and satrts complaining that: its hard to be in hierachy mode, and that this patched modell just realy isnt one object. When i place all shapes under just one transform node they seem happy, and flabergasted. Se hey dont se wahts going on. They se just one object in outliner, somethingf that cant be done they think!

[bentneuron]

The unfortunate thing about the way groups are defined in Maya is that many times I deal with the problem of particular scripts requesting information from every transform in the scene, and then failing because it hits a transform that has no shape node beneath it (or at least not as an immediate child). This happened to me a lot more often when I was working on my first MEL scripts, but it can still be a pain in the ass.

Also, because there is no clear indication through the viewport that a user has selected an object that in fact belongs to a group, many times confusing problems crop up that require troubleshooting; such as when an object that is part of a group is not behaving as expected when dealing with light linking, sets and layers.

-bN

[joojaa]

Actualy there is a clear indication that you slected a group! UNless you succeded in selecting both members of your group and children! If you have selected a group then theres nothing that turns white in your wievport unless you select multiple groups that is.

Also this is exactly why theres the select hierachy root mode. BUt using root mode makes some rigging tasks a bit adorous but its well worth it.

[zqw]

How do you put multiple shape nodes under a single transform (without getting a chlid transform node)?
Sounds useful!

I messed around with 'parent -s'...
I turned on display->shape in outliner and messed around with middle drag...
I always get another transform node, never two shapes under one transform.