What is the correct / most efficient way for adding tools to Maya?

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I73

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Sep 30, 2016, 4:02:58 PM9/30/16
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I am working on a deployment package for Maya and we're doing a huge migration, currently I am pulling tools, shelves, icons from a main and saving it to the Maya C:\Users\user\Documents\maya\2016 directory.

 

I am wondering if this is the best way to handle Maya reading tools, I have tried in the past to work with the Maya environments/env but I did not have much luck and attributed it to bugs, but is that a better way to handle the deployment of tools? 

 

ANY suggestions I would greatly appreciate!!! 

I73

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Sep 30, 2016, 5:00:38 PM9/30/16
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I am trying sys.path.append. is this suggested?

Eric Thivierge

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Sep 30, 2016, 6:10:00 PM9/30/16
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Sorry can't reply more than to say to look into Modules for packaging sets of tools.

--------------------------------------------
Eric Thivierge
http://www.ethivierge.com

On Fri, Sep 30, 2016 at 5:00 PM, I73 <wesley....@iugome.com> wrote:
I am trying sys.path.append. is this suggested?

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yury nedelin

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Oct 1, 2016, 11:54:53 AM10/1/16
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I agree with Eric. It's an easy way to it.

On Sep 30, 2016 3:10 PM, "Eric Thivierge" <ethiv...@gmail.com> wrote:
Sorry can't reply more than to say to look into Modules for packaging sets of tools.

--------------------------------------------
Eric Thivierge
http://www.ethivierge.com

On Fri, Sep 30, 2016 at 5:00 PM, I73 <wesley....@iugome.com> wrote:
I am trying sys.path.append. is this suggested?

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Marcus Ottosson

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Oct 1, 2016, 2:05:58 PM10/1/16
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I wouldn’t necessarily put it as black/white.

As software distribution goes, whether inside or outside of Maya, you have a few options.

  1. Utilise target platform conveniences, such as the mentioned “modules” feature of Maya
  2. Utilise conveniences in the software platform, such as pip install and anaconda
  3. Utilise conveniences in the OS, such as wrapping up your software into a self-extracting installer such as .msi or InnoSetup on Windows, apt-get on Debian-based systems and yum on RedHat-based systems.
  4. DIY, such as building your own software hub to keep track of installing, updating and monitoring your software. Autodesk does this, for example, with their “Autodesk Desktop” app. Microsoft does this with their Visual Studio installer application. Qt does this, to enable an interactive listing of packages fetched live off the internet.

Each of these have their pros and cons that you’ll need to weigh against your goals. For example, if you are distributing an operating system, odds are you’ll have no choice but to go with (4) and roll your own bootstrapping installer on bare metal. On the other hand if you ship software written in a cross-platform language to a cross-platform platform, such as Maya, then your installation instructions could be simply:

Copy/paste this into your Script Editor

Being the expert at your software project, you will know best which option is better suited for you It is unlikely that the approach you choose is the best fit for everyone. As an example, I’ve shipped software as both copy/paste this, pip install this and install using this InnoSetup executable because the approach chosen was a best fit for the particular project and audience I was targeting.

Good luck!

I73

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Oct 4, 2016, 6:49:23 PM10/4/16
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I am currently using the userSetup.py to load in my tools with sys.append. 
Thanks for your suggestions guys! 
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