[Maya-Python] Render Setup Python API absolute override assign material

[Stefan Tapper]

Hello fellow Maya heads,

I've recently started to dive into Maya standalone land and was so adventurous to work with the unsupported render setup API. (http://help.autodesk.com/view/MAYAUL/2017/ENU/?guid=GUID-FFC3298A-9803-4EAF-B472-D13247319EB0)

Can anyone point me to an working example how to connect a material override to a shadingEngine?

Right now, my code looks like this(method of a class creating a render setup):

@staticmethod
def create_material_override(collection, shading_group, name):
    """
        Creates a material override for the provided collection and
        assigns it to the provided shadingEngine.
    """
    # Create material override
    __ovr = collection.createOverride(name, typeIDs.materialOverride)

    # Connect shadingEngine to override
    try:
        # Maya 2017 Update 4
        __ovr.setOverrideConnection(shading_group.name() + '.message', applyIt=True)
    except Exception as e:
        # Pre Maya 2017 Update 4
        # 2017 Update 3 also has a setMaterial method
        LOGGER.debug(e)
        __ovr.setSource(shading_group.name() + '.message')

    return __ovr

This is working in Maya 2017 Update 4 but throws all kind of "Python Callback failed" errors on Maya 2016.5 (Extension 2 SP2).

Is there a better way to connect the override? I -think- I can not simply connect it via cmds or OpenMaya API2 since the render setup objects are only available thru the render setup API.

Cheers, Stefan

[Stefan Tapper]

^^Forgot to mention the imports in the code example:

import maya.app.renderSetup.model.renderSetup as renderSetup
from maya.app.renderSetup.model import typeIDs