Usersetup.mel

[andy-davis]

This is a total newbie topic in theory!
I've just upgraded to Maya 2009.
For some reason, I can't get my scripts to work at startup.
So I've got my usersetup.mel file in My Documents\maya\2009\prefs
It features the following code:

CODE
polySphere -radius 2 -name "HelloWorld";

I start up maya.... no dice!
I also tried putting the code in a separate file.mel and putting source file.mel into the usersetup.mel
Still no dice.
Doh!

[pixl]

Try putting your userSetup.mel in prefs\scripts, ie:
C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\maya\2009-x64\prefs\scripts

[andy-davis]

Thanks for the quick reply!

Just tried placing it in My Documents\maya\2009\prefs\scripts

Still no luck.
Don't get this, because it used to work on 2008!

[joojaa]

It wont work. Its described in the manual. See after your object creation maya CLEARS the scene and loads the default scene. So either put your sphere in the default scene OR eval deferred

[andy-davis]

I don't know what you mean by eval deferred.
The sphere code is just a test.
What I'm actually trying to do is run a custom script on start up using the source command.

[joojaa]

QUOTE(andy_davis @ 05/29/09, 12:26 PM) [snapback]308493[/snapback]
I don't know what you mean by eval deferred.

Its a command which surprisingly is named evalDeferred. But now that you named source then there is slight caveat if you source things inside eval statements.*

IN any case any geometry, nodes etc. you will try to make gets unmade AFTER you run user setup. The meaning of user setup is to init the mel environment not the scene. Thats what the default scene is for. So if you want to set thing such as playback time, units then you SHOULD do so in the default scene.

*Source is not to be abused, i mean many users do use source where its not needed but source is not a command its a directive and that can cause all sorts of weird things to happen. Inside a eval source gets force re-evaluated redoing the mel environment in the process. Also rather surprisingly source because its a directive does NOT evaluate in the order it appears in the file. All sources get run before any code on the page unless inside a eval block.

[andy-davis]

Thanks for that info about evalDeferred.
What I'm actually trying to do is run a script that sets up a custom menu.
I assumed that I'd only have to run the menu script once and that maya would keep the menu, but when I restart maya, the menu has gone, so I keep having to rerun the menu script.
Hence me thinking that if I did a source operation on the menu script from the userSetup.mel file, I'd get my custom menu.
It does not appear to be as simple as that though!

[joojaa]

By the way nothing to do with maya version per see.

QUOTE(andy_davis @ 05/29/09, 01:06 PM) [snapback]308496[/snapback]
Hence me thinking that if I did a source operation on the menu script from the userSetup.mel file, I'd get my custom menu.
It does not appear to be as simple as that though!

Why would on earth you source anything here? If you source and somebode reevals usersetup then yoru code gets rescourced. But if you call jsut the scripts in point it will not get reevaluated saving maya heaps of time.

So make your code PROPER mel

put it in file named foobar.mel

where there is a function:

global proc ydadayada foobar( ydadayada){
}

Maya then autosources your stuff.

theres a second caveat.

Your function must be PROPER maya code. that is you may not rely on functions that come form other parts of maya unless you know for a fact that the maya start up environment allways does something else first so be sure yoru code does not crash (basically you cant count on this!). The fact that it works inside the script editor does not guarantee anything. As code in file has a wildly different scope.

eval deffered is used because you want to be sure maya has built the thing you try to add something to. I mean the menubar may not exist yet.

So if your code has even single function thats not strictly documented in the command reference, and you havent defined it yourself, then you shoudl open it up to plain commands.

Theres 3rd caveat

Nothing says maya reads the My Documents\maya\2009\prefs\scripts theres plenty fo chance to rearrange what maya calls. maya calls the userSetup.mel wich is in folder that's appended last into the environment (top of stack). So please review your code environment and see theres not in fact 2 userSetup.mel files.