topic How to simplify layer renaming process? in Maya Forum

How to simplify layer renaming process?

leeman — Sun, 17 Mar 2019 22:12:49 GMT

Renaming display layers seems to require extra steps.

double click on layer
backspace to beginning of Name: line, OR use mouse to select layer name, OR
simultaneously press ctrl-shift-left arrow
type layer name

In a perfect world, it would be great to just right-click on the layer name, choose Rename, then type the new name.
Since that's not doable, I would be glad just to have the Name: field automatically selected.

Since that doesn't seem doable, I'd be glad just to have a macro that would perform the equivalent selection method of ctrl-shift-left arrow .

Avoid wasted key clicks
Any suggestions?

Thank you.

Re: How to simplify layer renaming process?

sean.heasley — Mon, 18 Mar 2019 14:33:38 GMT

Hi @leeman

I actually agree and its weird that you can't right click and change the name like you can in Photoshop or other programs that have layer editors.

That said, I highly recommend posting this on the Maya Idea Board!

This is a great place for the community to share ideas or feature they want to see in the future of Maya and this board is regularly checked by the dev team!

Re: How to simplify layer renaming process?

leeman — Tue, 19 Mar 2019 16:28:55 GMT

Thank you, Sean. Great suggestion: 'Idea Board'. My next step.

Realizing it may take a while for an 'Idea' to become reality. Hoping to come up with a 'hack' I can use in the meanwhile... Mel script would be great, but haven't managed to discover anything by echoing commands, in the script editor.

Might resort to some sort of a macro, perhaps via Dragon Naturally Speaking. Seems that triggering a series of keystrokes will do the job... double-click selected layer, then ctrl-shift-left arrow (to select text in the Name field of Edit Layer menu, ready for typing.) Double-clicking in the Name field could replace the ctrl-shift-left arrow method of selecting the text in that field.

Used 'echo all commands' in the Script Editor... I suppose this code could be useful, if I knew how to turn some of the details into variables... That's down the 'learning curve' road, for now. Thanks in advance, for any suggestions.

layerEditorLayerButtonSelect 0 layer1;
layerEditorDisplayLayerManagerChange;
createLayerEditorQuickEditWindow { "layer1" };
layerEditorQuickEditWindowSave { "layer1" };
setAttr layer1.displayType 0; setAttr layer1.color 0; setAttr layer1.overrideColorRGB 0 0 0; setAttr layer1.overrideRGBColors 0; ; rename layer1 test;
layerEditorLayerButtonRename layer1 test;
// Result: test // 
statusLineUpdateInputField;
deleteUI -window LayerEditorQuickEditWindow;