Attribute Editor: Allow changes to be made to multiple objects

[trevor.adams]

(Copied from original User Voice forum)

"The Attribute Editor allows for only one object at a time to be edited. The way to change one attribute for numerous objects is either with the Channel Box or an Attribute Spread Sheet. But neither of them holds all the attributes that you can find/modify in the Attribute Editor. Yes, there are ways to go around, including scripting, but the Attribute Editor is much simpler and efficient."

[Anonymous]

I think the Attribute Editor in general could do with modernizing.

It should be easy to author a node interface and exposed widgets (not using MEL).

Houdini has a good system with their drag and drop interface to edit a Houdini Digital Asset / node interface.

Ideally we would have something similar for Maya nodes and / or Bifrost.

[daniel_j8FSTF]

Editing attributes of multiple objects of the same type should really really really be a top priority. As always just look at Softimage on how its done properly..

[Anonymous]

The inability to edit multiple identical items simultaneously, or at least equivalent nodes/attributes really is a slowdown. I also agree that this should be a bit higher up on the todo list as I consider this basic functionality. 

[trevor.adams]

Changing status to "Under Review" - we'll investigate this one further, as this is evidently a popular request.

[Anonymous]

I hope to see it in Maya 2019

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[BenediZ]

I completely agree.

But maybe you consider to have BOTH options for the Atribute Editor? (toggle option in the Preferences)

Default would be to change all selected items, but when you have for example 50 objects choosen, you can currently also click on any of them without loosing this selection when selecting any of them again with CTRL+SHIFT and this gives you currently the ability to change only the attribute of the "last selected".

Just something to have in mind. It's not important for me, because I agree that in 99.9% you want to change the attributes of all selected objects and it's time-consuming to go at the channel box, scroll through and back.

[Anonymous]

There could be simply a string label added next to the attribute name to show it extsts on multiple selected items.

Translate (5)

Where as with the 5 transform items selected, two of the transforms has a custom attribute

My Custom Attr (2)

Changing an attribute would be applied to all selected items, as long as the attribute name and data type is the same.

[userX4542]

Any news on this one? This is so fundamental and the attribute spreadsheet simply doesn't cut the mustard.

[Anonymous]

Take a tool at it - it might help:

https://www.concordiatools.com/tool/attribute-editor-toolkit/

[stuzzz]

hello,

You can achieve this result just by using the Windows->General Editors->Attribute Spread Sheet

[MicroCell3D]

Ich bin auch dafür, dass der AttributeEditor verbessert wird.
Neben der Bearbeitung mehrerer Objekte wünschte ich auch:

• Verwenden von SHIFT oder STRG, um mehrere Attribute gleichzeitig auszuwählen und zu ändern
• Nodes oder Werte im AttributeEditor kopieren
• Eindeutige Kennzeichnung von Attributen, die über das Ende hinausgehen können
• Eigene farbige Markierungen und Notizen für wichtige Werte (übergreifend)

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I am also in favor of the AttributeEditor being improved. In addition to editing multiple objects, I also wished to:

• Use SHIFT or CTRL to select and change multiple attributes at once
• Copy nodes or values in the AttributeEditor
• Clear identification of attributes that can go beyond the end
• Own colored markings and notes for important values (overarching)

[Dautryl]

@stuzzz The attribute editor is nice, but not ideal and doesn't work in every scenario. It would be nice to have a way to toggle the ability to propagate any attribute change to any selected object that have the same attribute. Some software just do it by default and make you select only what you need to change. Some require you to toggle an option somewhere, or hold a specific button while making changes (like Blender lets you hold down the Alt key for that).

The attribute editor doesn't provide a simple-enough solution for that. Needing to open a new editor is already an extra step and "removes" you from the context of the channel/attribute editor where you are already familiar with and from which you most often start working on.

Attributes don't always have the same name between the Attribute Editor and Spread Sheet:

Some attributes do not appear in the list depending on the names display option (the above example show up only in Nice and Long attribute names, not in Short).

Some attributes do not appear at all in the spreadsheet.

Plus, you have to select the right node. Anything you see in different tabs in the attribute editor is unavailable in the spreadsheet, so you gotta learn to navigate through "invisible" nodes in the outlier, or toggle more nodes visibility in the outliner, or use other editors, ...

Overall the user experience is really poor just to be able to make bulk changes on a selection, if even possible at all. It's really not user-friendly to need a different editor that shows different things and requires you to change your selection to see what you already see in the attribute editor in the first place.