drop down in maya

[chennaiaras]

Hi all,

I want to have a custom drop down menu in maya, Iam using the version maya2008. I tried to create my own plugin(.mll) for maya.

I did all the steps of installing mayapluginwizard in visual studio 2008 and created a project. A default file of 'mycmdcmd.cpp' is there.

But how to write my own code and build the project and get it loaded in maya. (listing in plugin manager and autoload).

Final thing i require is this :

I need to have the drop down menu 'MyMenu' and if it down there i need to have 'axmesh' command.

Please help me anyone. I am entirely new to Maya world.

regards,
aras

[crackerjack]

Hi,
If you are looking for a drop down menu with different options, you don't really need to write a plugin to get the job done.You can use even MEL(Maya Embedded Language) to create custom menus and windows.

you can create a custom menu called "MyMenu" using the following command

menu -l "MyMenu" -p MayaWindow -to true MyMenuObj ;

you can add items to the same menu by using

menuItem -l "ItemName" -c "command to execute" menuItemObj;

[chennaiaras]

Hi crackerjack,

Thanks for the reply.. Let me try this thing.

I want to have 'axmesh' under MyMenu. So, menuItemObj is 'axmesh'.

What shud i substitute for MyMenuobj.

Moreover, where shud i execute these commands.. In the scriptWindow of Maya?..

I need to have this 'Mymenu' automatically whenever i open Maya.

Please clear me these points.

regards,
aras

[crackerjack]

ofcourse you should be executing those commands in the script editor.If you want the menu to be loaded every time you run maya, then you need to save the script in MyDocuments>maya>version>scripts and also include the line

source "your script name.mel";

in the userSetup.mel in the same directory.If the script doesn't exist create one and save it in the same path

global proc myMenu()
{
global string $gMainWindow;
global string $MyMenuObj;
if (`menu -exists $MyMenuObj`)
   {
deleteUI $MyMenuObj;
}
string $name = "My Menu";
$MyMenuObj = `menu -p $gMainWindow -to true -l $name`;
menuItem -p $MyMenuObj -l "axmesh" -c ("your command ");
}

[chennaiaras]

Hi crackerjack,

I just pasted the script u have given as userSetup.mel and saved it in the scripts folder.

No results. what shud i do?.

regards,
aras

[crackerjack]

You shouldn't be pasting the script in to userSetup.mel directly.userSetup.mel will contain only the code

source "your script name";
myMenu();

The actual menu code should be saved in the same path with the "ur script name"