Maya find if an object is instanced?

Question

In Maya, is there a way via script to find out if an object is an instance or not? Every trick I've tried so far isn't working. Thank you!

score 6 · Accepted Answer · edited Nov 06 '16 at 17:03

6

From source:

# Python code
import maya.OpenMaya as om

def getInstances():
    instances = []
    iterDag = om.MItDag(om.MItDag.kBreadthFirst)
    while not iterDag.isDone():
        instanced = om.MItDag.isInstanced(iterDag)
        if instanced:
            instances.append(iterDag.fullPathName())
        iterDag.next()
    return instances

Edit:

I just realized I wasn't really answering your question and just giving you all the instances in your Maya scene.

Here is an other code you can use to check if a node is an instance :

def pathToDagNode( fullPath ):
    if not cmds.objExists(fullPath):
        return None
    else:
        selectionList = om.MSelectionList()
        selectionList.add( fullPath )
        dagPath = om.MDagPath()
        selectionList.getDagPath( 0, dagPath )
        return dagPath

dag_node = pathToDagNode( '|your|node|full|path' )
print dag_node.isInstanced()

edited Nov 06 '16 at 17:03

Bear

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answered Feb 23 '16 at 14:05

DrHaze

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There might be a way to do that using the maya api 2.0, I'll try to find out. – DrHaze Feb 23 '16 at 14:07
I came accross this exact [problem](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/20232835/maya-python-api-2-0-has-no-mitdag-so-how-traverse-dag-graph). As I'm still stuck with Maya 2014, I can't go further and use maya api 2.0. – DrHaze Feb 23 '16 at 15:20
This only seems to fail with objects on the top of the hierarchy. Thanks for this! – Green Cell Feb 24 '16 at 02:04
Do you know if there's a way to tell beween an instanced object and the original? Both are returning multiple parents. – Green Cell Mar 15 '16 at 03:34

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 23 '16 at 19:25

4

in script:

def is_instanced(shape):
    return len (cmds.listRelatives(shape, ap=True) or []) > 1

if you have the transform:

def is_instanced_xform(xform):
    shape = cmds.listRelatives(xform, s=True)
    if not shape: 
       return False
    return len (cmds.listRelatives(shape, ap=True) or []) > 1

answered Feb 23 '16 at 19:25

theodox

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This needs to take into account hierarchies with no shapes, but that's easy to adjust. Thanks for the good answer! – Green Cell Feb 24 '16 at 02:02
np -- but you won't find instances in hierarchies with no shapes. You can change listRelatives -s to cmds.ls(cmds.listRelatives(ad=True), type=shape) or something like that – theodox Feb 24 '16 at 07:04

Maya find if an object is instanced?

2 Answers2