Maya plug-ins

Before you can use the example plug-ins, you need to build them. You can choose to build the plug-ins in the directory to which they were installed or you can copy the plug-ins to your own working directory.

To build an individual plug-in, you need to load the corresponding solution file (the .sln file) into Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 SP1.

The easiest way to do this is to open Visual C++ and drag and drop the .sln file onto it. When the workspace is loaded, you can select Build Solution from the Build menu. Visual C++ will build your plug-in and place the resulting .mll file in the current directory.

To build all of the example plug-ins, you need to load the Plugins.sln workspace file into Visual C++. As above, the easiest way to do this is to open Visual C++ and drag and drop the Plugins.sln file onto it. When the workspace is loaded, you can select Rebuild Solution from the Build menu.

To load your plug-in into Maya, open the Plug-in Manager window and browse to the directory containing your plug-in. If you want the Plug-in Manager to automatically find your directory, you can build and put the plug-in into a directory defined by the MAYA_PLUG_IN_PATH variable.

Maya API Applications

You can choose to build the applications in the directory to which they were installed or you can copy the applications to your own working directory.

To build an individual application, you need to load the corresponding workspace file (the .sln file) into Microsoft Visual C++. The easiest way to do this is to open Visual C++ and drag and drop the .sln file onto it.

When the solution is loaded, you can select Build Solution from the Build menu. Visual C++ will build your application and place the resulting executable file in the C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2011\devkit\applications directory.

To build all of the example Maya API applications, you need to load the APIApplications.sln workspace file into Visual C++. As above, the easiest way to do this is to open Visual C++ and drag and drop the APIApplications.sln file onto it. When the workspace is loaded, you can select Rebuild Solution from the Build menu.

If, during installation, you added the Maya executable directory to your path, you can run the application immediately. If you did not, you will need to copy your application to the Maya executable directory to run it.

Several environment variables must be set in order to run a standalone Maya API application. These are:

• MAYA_LOCATION
• Path

For example:

set MAYA_LOCATION=c:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2011

set Path=c:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2011\bin;%Path%

Note that %Path% is included so that existing commands are not lost to the shell.

Creating your own plug-in build file

The instructions in the previous section enable you to build and use the example plug-ins included with Maya, but you still need information on creating your own plug-ins. On Windows, the process for creating the source code files is the same as it is on Linux, but in addition you must create Microsoft “Project” files so that Developer Studio knows how to build the plug-in. You can do this using the plug-in wizard, described in the following sections.

Using the Maya Plug-in Wizard for Developer Studio

A “Maya Plug-in Wizard” is provided for both the 32 and 64-bit versions of Maya. This wizard makes it very easy to create project files for your plug-in. It is highly recommended that you use this wizard.

To install this wizard, please follow the instructions contained in the $MAYA_LOCATION/devkit/pluginwizard directory.

To use the wizard, select File > New Project in Microsoft Visual Studio, then select Visual C++ Projects from Project Types and then finally select “Maya Plug-in Wizard” from the Templates area. The wizard will prompt you for the name of the plug-in, the type of plug-in (e.g. Command, Node, Tool, etc.) and the list of libraries the plug-in requires for linking. When you have answered all the questions, the wizard will create a complete project that contains the needed .sln and .vcproj files, and a complete template of the code needed to create your Command, Node, Tool, and so on. This plug-in will compile without any changes, and will be a “do nothing” version of the type of plug-in you specified to the wizard. You just need to edit the .h and .cpp files and add the logic for your plug-in.

Configuring Qt for use in Maya plug-ins

Maya uses Nokia's Qt toolkit, version 4.5, for its graphical user interface (GUI).

Qt is provided under both a commercial license and the open source Lesser GNU Public License (LGPL). How you set up your plug-in build environment varies depending upon the type of license you are using.

If you are uncertain as to which licensing best applies to your intended usage of Qt, please refer to the QT licensing page.

Rebuilding Qt from source

1. Start up a Visual Studio command prompt.

   If you are building for 32-bit Maya, start up a Visual Studio 2008 Command Prompt.

   If you're building for 64-bit Maya, start up a Visual Studio 2008 x64 Win64 Command Prompt.

   If Visual Studio 2008 is installed normally, then you can find these on the Windows Start menu, in All Programs -> Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 -> Visual Studio Tools.

2. Change directory to the folder where the Qt version is installed:

   cd C:\Qt\4.5.3

3. Delete your old configuration of QT.

   If you have previously configured this version of Qt, you may have an old configuration already in place. Delete it by executing the following command:

   nmake confclean

   If you get the following error message:

   NMAKE : fatal error U1073: don't know how to make 'confclean'

   you can safely ignore it. This message simply means that there isn't an old configuration to delete.

4. Configure Qt to use Visual C++ 2008 by executing the following command, all on one line:

   configure -platform win32-msvc2008 -debug-and-release -no-phonon -no-phonon-backend -no-webkit -direct3d

   NoteEven though the -platform flag indicates win32, the command will build a 64-bit version if you chose the Win64 command prompt back in step 1.

   Configuration may take several minutes to run.

5. After configuration is complete, rebuild Qt by executing the following command. It may take an hour or more to run:

   nmake

6. Create the file C:\Qt\4.5.3\bin\qtvars-msc.bat and give it the following contents:

   set QTDIR=C:\Qt\4.5.3

   set PATH=C:\Qt\4.5.3\bin

   set PATH=%PATH%;%SystemRoot%\System32

   set QMAKESPEC=win32-msvc2008

   call "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\VC\vcvarsall" x86

   If you want to build plug-ins for 64-bit Maya, then change the x86 in the last line to amd64. If your system is running 64-bit Windows, then change Program Files in that last line to Program Files (x86).

   Thus, if your system is running 64-bit Windows and you want to build plug-ins for 64-bit Maya, then that last line would be as follows:

   call "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\VC\vcvarsall" amd64

7. From the Windows Start menu, navigate to All Programs -> Qt by Nokia v4.5.3. Right-click on the Qt 4.5.3 Command Prompt item and select Properties from the menu that appears.
8. In the Target field of the Shortcut tab, change qtvars.bat to qtvars-msc.bat then click on the OK button.

   You should now be ready to build the devkit Qt plug-ins.

Building the devkit Qt plug-ins

1. Start up a Qt command prompt, which can be found in the Windows Start menu in All Programs -> Qt by Nokia v4.5.3.
2. Change to Maya's devkit plug-ins directory:

   cd C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2011\devkit\plug-ins

3. Execute the following command:

   nmake -f Makefile.qt

   The .mll files for the plug-ins will end up in the release sub-directory.