Playbackoptions

[paolog]

Is there a way of detecting from a script when animationStartTime or animationEndTime have been changed in the Maya UI?

I want two int fields in my own GUI that update whenever animationStartTime or animationEndTime change. I tried this:

string $first_frame_field = intFieldGrp -label "First frame";
string $last_frame_field = intFieldGrp -label "Last frame";

connectControl -index 2 $first_frame_field playbackOptions -q -animationStartTime;
connectControl -index 2 $last_frame_field playbackOptions -q -animationEndTime;

but of course that doesn't work, because playbackOptions -q -animationStartTime and playbackOptions -q -animationEndTime each return just a number, not an attribute.

I also want a control that is linked to the current global time.

Are there suitable attributes somewhere that I can attach my controls to?

Thanks.

[joojaa]

You can attach a scriptJob to playbackRangeSliderChanged (or for the inner values playbackRangeChanged)

[paolog]

QUOTE(Joojaa @ 03/07/07, 01:08 PM) [snapback]261737[/snapback]
You can attach a scriptJob to playbackRangeSliderChanged (or for the inner values playbackRangeChanged)

Thanks. I've never used scriptJob before, and it looks like this is a very handy command. What I needed was:

scriptJob -event "playbackRangeChanged" update_playback_range;

and

scriptJob -event "timeChanged" update_current_time;

where update_playback_range and update_current_time are global functions that query the playback range and current time respectively and display these values in my controls.

[joojaa]

Well its usefull only if you understand not to call it all the time. (its a very good way of ensuring you dont get anything done because maya maxes the procs)

So befre you write a single scriptjob triplechek thet you cant write without one.

[paolog]

QUOTE(Joojaa @ 03/07/07, 02:54 PM) [snapback]261758[/snapback]
Well its usefull only if you understand not to call it all the time. (its a very good way of ensuring you dont get anything done because maya maxes the procs)

So befre you write a single scriptjob triplechek thet you cant write without one.

These are being called only when a user clicks on the time slider or changes the playback range, so it's not going to be called many times a second (unless, of course, the user slides the time slider up and down).

"Maya maxes the procs" - could you put that into plain English, please, so I know what you're talking about? Do you mean it gets overloaded by calling the procs repeatedly?

OK, triple-checking in the only way I currently know how, because the only feedback I've had here and from my colleagues is "use scriptJob":

Is there any way I can do this without using scriptJob?
Is there any way I can do this without using scriptJob?
Is there any way I can do this without using scriptJob?

[joojaa]

Yes here, but see thing is if you get into habit of doing a scriptJob every time you do something it builds up. So suddenly you could have 25 scripts trigger for every single event you ever do.

Also scriptjobs are suppresed for playback so even if the scriptjob may seem like the tool to use at times it isn't, so if you end up doing a script job connected to a attribute make sure you know exactly what your doing (here actually a expression is better).

So now you are handed the keys to how maya operates and its assumed you know exactly what your doing and are prepared to pay the price of any mishaps.

Especially bad are on idle on ilde low (wich ensure nothing other than maya runs), attribute change and selection change