pymel.core.animation.deformerWeights

deformerWeights(*args, **kwargs)

WARNING NOTE - THIS COMMAND IS PART OF THE BONUS TOOL AND ISN’T FULLY SUPPORTED YET. Command to import and export deformer weights to and from a simple XML file. The weight data is stored in a per-vertex fashion along with a point cloudcorresponding to the vertices from the geometry input to the deformer. For example a cluster deformer would have the following information: On import the weights are then mapped back to a specified deformer based on the specified mapping method. Note that the geometry used to perform the mapping association is not the visible shape but rather the incoming geometry to the deformer. For example, in the case of a skin cluster this would be the bind pose geometry.

Flags:

Long name (short name)		Argument Types	Properties
defaultValue (dv)		float
	Manually set the default value. Default values are values that are not written to file. For example, for blendShapes the default value is automatically set to 1.0 and these values are not written to disk. For skinClusters the value is 0.0. If you want to force all weights to be written to disk you can set a defaultValue = -1.0. Flag can have multiple arguments, passed either as a tuple or a list.
deformer (df)		unicode
	Specify the deformer whose weights should be exported or imported.
export (ex)		bool
	Export the given deformer
ignoreName (ig)		bool
	Ignore the names of the layers on import, just use the order of the layers instead. This can be used for case that joint names have been changed. Leaving it on only name that match on import will be write to the deformer.
im (im)		bool
	Import weights to the specified deformer. See the method flag for details on how the weights will be mapped to the destination deformer.
method (m)		unicode
	Specify the method used to map the weight during import. Valid values are: index, nearest, barycentricand over. The indexmethod uses the vertex index to map the weights onto the object. This is most useful when the destination object shares the same topology as the exported data. The nearestmethod finds the nearest vertex in the imported data set and sets the weight value to that value. This is best used when mapping a higher resolution mesh to a lower resolution. The barycentricmethod is only supported with polygon meshes. It finds the nearest triangle of the target geometry and rescales the weights by how close the source point is to the vertices. This is normally used with a coarse mesh being mapped to a high resolution mesh. The overmethod is similar to the indexmethod but the weights on the destination mesh are not cleared prior to mapping, so that unmatched indices keep their weights intact.
path (p)		unicode
	The path to the given file. Default to the current project.
positionTolerance (pt)		float
	The position tolerance is use to determine the radius of search for nearest and barycenteric searches. This flag is only used with import. Defaults to a huge number.
shape (sh)		unicode
	Specify the source shape. Export will write out all the deformers on the shape node into one file.
weightTolerance (wt)		float
	The weight tolerance is used to decide if a given weight value is close enough to the default value that it does not need to be included. This flag is only used with export. The default value is .001.
worldSpace (ws)		bool
	For spatially based association methods (barycentric and nearest), the position should be based on the world space position rather then the local object space.

Derived from mel command maya.cmds.deformerWeights

Example:

import pymel.core as pm

# Create plane and a cluster.
#
pm.file( f=True,new=True )
pm.polyPlane( ch=1, w=10, h=10, sx=5, sy=5, ax=(0,1,0) )
pm.cluster('pPlane1', name='testCluster')
# Modify some weights on the -x side of the character
#
pm.select( ['pPlane1.vtx[5]', 'pPlane1.vtx[11]', 'pPlane1.vtx[17]', 'pPlane1.vtx[23]'])
pm.percent( 'testCluster', v=0.5 )
# export the weights from the cluster node
#
pm.deformerWeights ("clusterWeights.xml", ex=True, deformer="testCluster")