Basic plugin dev?

[Anonymous]

Hey guys,

Let me start by saying that I have not coded seriously in many years (used to write in visual studio).  I have been scripting in python for quite some time. 

My question is this :

I run a CG department and I want to be able to have inhouse plugins organzed within mayas plugin manager. Does the plugin manager only handle C plugins or are scripts handled there as well ? I'd also like be able to manage custom shelves etc.  

I tried to do this using Maya modules paradigm, and maybe I will still end up there. But all my scripts are python and because of this things like shelf loading dont really work.

To make a long story short, i dont really need to get to hardcore. I just need to understand Maya's plugin development a little more and where to go do simple things like I mentioned above.

Thanks ! 

[RFlannery1]

The plugin manager handles all plugins, whether C++, C#, or Python.  It does not manage individual Python scripts.

We use individual Python scripts to manage our custom shelves, menus, and marking menus.  We run a script at startup that calls the other scripts.  If you want to make a plugin for your custom shelves, I think you could do something similar with a startup script.  The script could make sure your plugin is loaded, and then run any commands or scripts from the module.