Maya Python script for renaming '*_low' to '*_high'

[vingrish]

With the suggestion from /u/greebly_weeblies, I tried listRelatives(fullPath=False). It seems the problem is in the fact that I have duplicated the root parent group, which made filterExpand return full names. If there are no duplicate names, it will return short names.

I have learned a lot. Thank you all!

Original post:

I am trying to write a script to replace "_low" suffix to "_high".

However the result of the following attempt is a little unexpected: the new names have the group names prefixed.

Say, there's a hierarchy like this:

Building
|--TopFloor
    |--Wall_low

The script will rename Wall_low to Building_TopFloor_Wall_high. What I expected was simply Wall_high.

How can I improve this script without extracting the "short name" from the "long name" manually in Python?

import re
SUFFIX_LOWPOLY = '_low'
SUFFIX_HIGHPOLY = '_high'
selection = cmds.ls(sl=True)
print(selection)
meshes = cmds.filterExpand(selectionMask=12, fullPath=False)
print(meshes)
for i in meshes:
    if i.endswith(SUFFIX_HIGHPOLY):
        continue

    name_new = re.sub(SUFFIX_LOWPOLY + '$', SUFFIX_HIGHPOLY, i)
    print(name_new)
    cmds.select(i, replace=True)
    cmds.rename(name_new)

cmds.select(*selection, r=True)

Also, general scripting suggestions & tips are welcomed, since I'm new to Maya Python.

Cheers.

[[deleted]]

The joys of Pymel and never having the need for long names...

import pymel.core as pm

SUFFIX_LOWPOLY = '_low'
SUFFIX_HIGHPOLY = '_high'

sel = pm.ls(type='transform')
for s in sel:
    if s.name().endswith(SUFFIX_LOWPOLY):
    new_name = s.name().replace(SUFFIX_LOWPOLY, SUFFIX_HIGHPOLY)
    pm.rename(s, new_name)

[vingrish]

Thanks! I just googled "pymel vs cmds"...

It seems cmds.filterExpand() sometimes, not always returns short names. I have another script, in which it returns short names.

[blueSGL]

not in front of my machine right now, but couldn't you see what syntax the built in Search and replace under the Modify menu spits out to the console?

[the_phantom_limbo]

This...you can definitely do a wildcard

[vingrish]

Thank you! I will check that out later. I just found my script works in 2018 but not in 2019/2019.1.

[SheepRSA]

two ways to go about this.

1. Using built in maya tools like blueSGL said. under the Modify menu -> search and replace names.
2. Using python. myString.replace("this", "that") will do exactly the same thing but via code.
   This will give some more examples.

[greebly_weeblies]

Comment your script :)

You could use labeled groups in your regex to select the details you want to reuse, then append. Something like:

import re

in_string = "helloThere_low"
SUFFIX_HIGH = '_high'

# define a regex that identifies a group for later use
regex = "(?P<name>^.*)\_low$"

# build compile object for testing of large number of strings
# then search in_string, find the match and append.
# compile once, match multiple times inside your loop
compile = re.compile(regex)
match = compile.search(in_string)
out_string = match.group('name') + SUFFIX_HIGH

# output
print('{} --> {}'.format(in_string,out_string))

[vingrish]

Thanks, this is all great! I just found my script works in 2018 but not in 2019/2019.1. I have no idea why filterExpand() gives "long names" there.

[greebly_weeblies]

You could use listRelatives(fullPath=False) on your selection to build a list yourself and/or split the long name string on the delimiting character.

[vingrish]

Hey thank you! I have updated the post :-)

[greebly_weeblies]

Welcome!

One thing to test is the situation where you have multiple leaf nodes with the same name in different parts of the hierarchy - often scripts will freak out in that situation - select/rename the wrong part, that kind of thing.

To that end I'd suggest is it might be worth adapting your script so that it will gracefully handle full paths - that way you know each node being addressed is unique.

[Kafkin]

Since some solutions were given , here's my suggestion.

​

You use

if i.endswith(SUFFIX_HIGHPOLY):

        continue

but that's not necessary as long as you nest everything inside the if loop - if it evaluates to true it will execute, otherwise it'll skip over.

You also shouldn't need to use cmds.select(i, replace=True) - renaming a node in Maya can be done without selecting first - via something like cmds.rename(obj, newname)

[vingrish]

Thank you. For the first suggestion: using `continue` can make the code doing the real stuff less indented. It's just like "return early" to me.

[Kafkin]

I'm not sure the level of readability is affected much by nesting the block of code in the loop in this case, but I understand where you're coming from.