topic Re: Render Setup commands documentation in Maya Programming Forum

Render Setup commands documentation

InvisioMedia — Mon, 09 Sep 2019 00:37:25 GMT

Hi,

I think some better documentation is now needed on the render setup commands. Just writing help() with the module is absolutely not helping me, the API is obscure and the docstrings are barely readable for me..

The MASH Api documentation pages are super well made and should be taken as a model to follow if I can suggest:

https://help.autodesk.com/cloudhelp/2018/ENU/Maya-Tech-Docs/MASH/MASH.html

That being said, how can I create a material override in python, associated with a collection? I have been able to create my layer and collection but spent the day wandering without being able to do it. I know what type nodeType 'materialOverride' is, but it seems it's useless to know this in this situation, it doesn't appear anywhere in the node editor... No way to get hints with the Echo All function of the script editor neither.

Thanks for your help!!

Re: Render Setup commands documentation

lanh.hong — Mon, 09 Sep 2019 19:22:47 GMT

Hi,

The docs for the Render Setup Python API can be found here:

http://help.autodesk.com/view/MAYAUL/2019/ENU//?guid=GUID-FFC3298A-9803-4EAF-B472-D13247319EB0

The API is unsupported and does not have any official documentation. What usually will help is to look at the Python files located in ..\Python\Lib\site-packages\maya\app\renderSetup.

Here's a sample on how to create a material override.

import maya.app.renderSetup.model.renderSetup as renderSetup

rs = renderSetup.instance() 

# Create render layer and collection
rl = rs.createRenderLayer("MyRenderSetupLayer")
c = rl.createCollection("MyCollection")

# Create material override
materialOverride = c.createOverride("MyMaterialOverride", "materialOverride")

Regards,

Lanh

Re: Render Setup commands documentation

lanh.hong — Mon, 09 Sep 2019 19:28:54 GMT

BTW createOverride method can be found in ..\Python\Lib\site-packages\maya\app\renderSetup\model\collection.py

Re: Render Setup commands documentation

InvisioMedia — Mon, 09 Sep 2019 20:04:16 GMT

Yes that's perfect, thank you so much. Indeed, it's impossible to know what argument is expected in createOverride() with only the help() python function (the doc strings suggested by the maya help). It took me 2 days to find this simple line of command, a little bit frustrating...

I should be good with the "\Python\Lib\site-packages\maya\app\renderSetup\model", thank you! Some documentation would be welcomed, it's not very intuitive to dig in the maya installation python scripts for documentation and help.

Re: Render Setup commands documentation

Sigrid.mohn — Tue, 17 Dec 2019 15:52:51 GMT

agree that some more documentation could be handy I keep hitting a wall in what I would think should be super simple. Currently I am struggling with renaming already created render layers..

Re: Render Setup commands documentation

bdewalleDD7LQ — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 13:09:51 GMT

I strongly agree. The link provided above (https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/maya/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2020/ENU/Maya-Rendering/files/GUID-FFC3298A-9803-4EAF-B472-D13247319EB0-htm.html) is not a documentation but a set of exemples.

A lot of stuff are not covered, and we should not have to retro - engineer maya api methods...

Re: Render Setup commands documentation

wrenA5JDC — Mon, 06 Jan 2025 23:07:13 GMT

Does anyone happen to have the Command to add a Render Settings Collection for all the overrides in the globals? I'm trying to create a custom python that will create a render layer that will contain specific Absolute render overrides for things like min and max samples.

Re: Render Setup commands documentation

sschierwater — Wed, 10 Sep 2025 14:12:12 GMT

The current RenderSetup was introduced in Maya 2016 if i remember correctly... 10 years later you would think there would be a official API documentation...
Quite frustrating as it makes development unnecessarily harder