scripting shader variations
 

In Renderman, it's easy to use a per object float attribute to affect a shader network in Slim. Can the same be done in the hypershader? Basically I'd like to add a float attribute to a whole bunch of objects and then use the remapHSV node to do something like:

remapHsv.value[1].value_FloatValue = $objName.variation;

Should be simple, but I've never actually done it in Maya before. I tried setting up a switch node, but that seems to force me to input foo1.variation, foo3.variation, foo3.variation manually for each of the hundreds of objects in my scene.

Thanks for the help,
-tarmy