Maya 7 bonustools
 

I've been trying for an hour to get Maya to recognize the Maya 7 bonus tools that I installed but it just wont see them.

Here's the situation:

I have my Maya.env file pointing to a directory where I have a custom UserSetup.mel file. Before installing the bonusTools, The userSetup file was instructing Maya to install some custom menus that I have. Anyway, I edited the UserSetup.mel file per the instruction that came with the bonustools. Basically, there is a line to tell Maya to run the bonustool.mel script to set up the menu. It doesn't work. the custom menus that were created by the custom UserSetup.mel still work but the bonustoolsare nowhere to be seen. Within Maya, under plugins, there are a bunch of new plugins from the bonustool directory but according to the instructions, a "bonusTool" menu should be on the screen.

When I installed the bonus tools, they were installed into the Maya 7.0 directory on my C drive.

When I start Maya, the bonus tool menu does not come up. I'm almost sure that the problem has something to do with the fact that I have my Maya.env file pointing to a UserSetup.mel file that isn't communicating the set up of the bonusTools as it needs to.

Here is my UserSetup.mel file:

// file: userSetup.mel


//
source sourceMelLibrary.mel; sourceMelLibrary;


//
source setupPluginPath.mel; setupPluginPath;

//
// this line will setup the fully expandable
// dynamically built custom menu that all the
// script writers/ tds can add into by simply
// adding scripts or folders there...
//
source advCharTools.mel; advCharTools;


////////////////////////////////
// bonusTools userSetup.mel
////////////////////////////////
//
// if you have an existing userSetup.mel file you will need to append
// this code to have all the bonusTools available
// cut and paste the contents of this file into your existing userSetup.mel
// and restart maya to get the full effect

// scriptJob to rebuild menu as working mode changes
scriptJob
-permanent
-event "MenuModeChanged" "bonusToolsMenu";

// build the menu the first time
source bonusToolsMenu; BonusTools


// publish (ctrl+RMB in channelBox)
// aka Quick Connect Attributes
// uncomment the next line if you wish to use this functionality
publish;


///////////////////////////////////
// end bonusTools userSetUp.mel
///////////////////////////////////



Thanks for any help that can be given.

Re: Maya 7 bonustools
 

first try this:
make a backup of your env file. put it on your desktop.
then open the original and delete whatever was in it.
you env file should be C:\Documents and Settings\username\My
Documents\maya\7.0\Maya.env

the maya 7.0 bonus tools should load up now.
as of maya 7.0 bonus tools is part of maya, no need to parse it in .env

if it does not load up still,

in maya type "bonusToolsMenu" in the command line.

Thanks, Vlad!

OK. We're half way there. When I reset the env file the bonus tool menu did appear and the tools within the menu worked too. The bad news is that my custom menus that I mentioned before disappeared.

Apparently, if the env file doesn't specify a path then the default script path is used. This would have to be C:\program files\alias\maya7.0\ scripts .... So, if I customize the script path in the env file:

MAYA_SCRIPT_PATH=C:\CharacterTools\scripts
XBMLANGPATH=C:\CharacterTools\icons

then Maya will look in the specified script location. I assume that IF Maya finds a UserSetup file in the specified script location then it will run it. As I said before, my UserSetup file is giving Maya instructions for setting up custom menus for me.

As things stand right now, I can either load the bonus tools or I can load my custom menus...... I would like to be able to do both but I don't know enough about this kind of thing to make it happen.

I can snap some pictures of my directories if that will help anyone who might understand this problem.

Some of those bonus tools look pretty good or else I wouldn't even bother.

Any Ideas? Vlad? anybody?

this is very simple.
leave your set up the way it is, with bonustools not automatically loading.

and in your userSetup script
just add "bonusToolsMenu;"
here is mine

Vlad,

You were right.

Actually, it didn't work when I set it up as you suggested but after playing with it for few more minutes I discovered that by writing the usersetup a little differently got it to work. I just had to list the scripts in a different order. Instead of tacking on the bonustoolmenu script at the end of the usersetup file, I listed it first. That was it. It works! Here's what my usersetup file ended up looking like (I took out the comment lines):

bonusToolsMenu;

source sourceMelLibrary.mel; sourceMelLibrary;

source setupPluginPath.mel; setupPluginPath;

source advCharTools.mel; advCharTools;


I don't understand why the last 3 scripts are preceded by "source" but the bonustoolsMenu is not. Probably because I haven't spend enough time understanding MEL. It's a handful just trying to wrap your brain around all of the typical "user" issues.

Thanks for the help Vlad!

How to install Maya 7 Bonus Tools
 

Hi I just dusted off my Maya 7 and forgot how to add bonus tools to it. Also the bonus tools file that you download from area.com comes in a .zip file with only a .rpm file in it no setup file. Am I downloading the wrong thing?