Mitmeshpolygon Getarea Query Through Python Api

[tokyostormdrain]

Hi,

I'm not very au fait with the api or python for that matter, but I needed to get the face area of some polys and one of our tools coders wrote me a little plugin in the c++ api to get the result I needed.
So in an effort for me to start learning the api with a solid but simple example I took his source code and started trying to get it working through the python access to the maya api.

The problem I can't seem to get round is an error thrown when actually calling the getArea() function, it says the the parameters are wrong. I assume it's down to supplying the space(kWorld) and can't get it to work.

Any advice form python api coders or api coders in general who might have a tip for me would be appreciated. Thank you

Here is the function as I have it at the moment. the plugin loads and executes, but throws an error.

// Error: in method 'MItMeshPolygon_getArea', argument 2 of type 'double &'
# Traceback (most recent call last):
# File "C:/Documents and Settings/user/My Documents/maya/2008/scripts/getPolyArea.py", line 42, in doIt
# area = pIter.getArea(area, kWorld) #Here is the problem
# TypeError: in method 'MItMeshPolygon_getArea', argument 2 of type 'double &' //

the proc:

[codebox]def doIt(self,argList):
print "doIt.."
dagPath = OpenMaya.MDagPath()
#myObj = OpenMaya.MItMeshPolygon(dagPath)

	sList = OpenMaya.MSelectionList()

	OpenMaya.MGlobal.getActiveSelectionList(sList)
	iter = OpenMaya.MItSelectionList(sList)

	if(not iter.hasComponents()):
		return OpenMaya.MStatus(kSuccess)

	sList.getDagPath(0, dagPath)

	kWorld = OpenMaya.MSpace.kWorld

	totalArea = 0.0

	while not iter.isDone():
		item = OpenMaya.MDagPath()
		component = OpenMaya.MObject()
		iter.getDagPath(item, component)
		status = OpenMaya.MStatus()

		pIter = OpenMaya.MItMeshPolygon(item, component);

		area = 0.0
		while not pIter.isDone():
			#print "well we got here at least"
			area = pIter.getArea(area, kWorld)		#Here is the problem
			totalArea += area
			pIter.next()

		iter.next()

		OpenMaya.setResult(totalArea)
		return OpenMaya.MStatus.kSuccess	[/codebox]

[stab]

The interpreter is complaining that your 2nd argument "kWorld" is not the correct type the function is expecting. Not knowing too much about the function in question my guess would be that assigning "kWorld = OpenMaya.MSpace.kWorld" is not yeilding the correct type. Perhaps trying to pass OpenMaya.MSpace.kWorld directly into the function will help. E.g:

area = pIter.getArea(area, OpenMaya.MSpace.kWorld)