Fully working IntelliSense with Maya API 2.0 in Visual Studio 2015

[Anonymous]

Good Evening,

for 4 days now I am trying to configure the code completion for visual studio with no success. @"RobotProdigy" posted a solution for PyCharm but it doesn't work so well in VS. I can only see the classes and not the functions of the classes. If I hover over a variable it doesn't shows the type which leads to the issue that I cant see the functions.

I think the old api works because in OpenMaya.py are all classes with functions defined. In the old one I only forward the import from OpenMaya -> _OpenMaya_py2.py. So its the same as imprting _OpenMaya_py2.

Does anyone has a good solution for this problem ?

Regards

[robotProdigy · Accepted solution]

Ah man, I wish I had seen this earlier. I discovered the Visual Studio solution before discovering the PyCharm one. I was planning on posting both on my website as soon as I get a blog up.

Here's the Visual Studio IntelliSense solution that is working for me. Going through all the steps for the audience. FYI, I'm using Visual Studio Community 2015 and Maya 2016. Also, if you're using Maya 2016, there is a prerequisite - download and install Maya 2016 devkit. If you're using 2015, you already have it.

One possible caveat. I'm not sure how attach to process is going to work with the solution. I haven't used it - this will have to be something you guys verify. Plus any other unforeseen issues with this setup.

1. Open, and add one line of code to the following 4 devkit files. If you want, make a copy of them first so you can revert back without having to re-download the devkit.
   1. open file C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2016\devkit\other\pymel\extras\completion\py\maya\api\OpenMaya.py. It should be empty. Add the following line of code, and save. 
      

      from _OpenMaya_py2 import *

   2. Open OpenMayaAnim.py from the same directory. It should be empty. Add the following code and save.
      

      from _OpenMayaAnim_py2 import *

   3. Open OpenMayaRender.py from the same directory. It should be empty. Add the following code and save.
      

      from _OpenMayaRender_py2 import *

   4. Open OpenMayaUI.py from the same directory. It should be empty. Add the following code and save.
      

      from _OpenMayaUI_py2 import *

2. In Visual Studio, with your Python project already open, go to the Python Environments window (View/Python Environments).
3. Add a Maya Python environment - Click on the "+ Custom" section
   
4. Enter something meaningful in the Description field, like Maya 2016. Enter your mayapy.exe path into "Interpreter path", it will be similar to the path below. If you're using Maya 2016, you are using 64 bit Python architecture. Enter your "Architecture".  Select Apply.
   
   Note: My Visual Studio crashes if I hit Auto Detect. This is not a requirement for IntelleSense to work. 
   
5. In Solutions Explorer, right click Python Environments. Click Add/Remove Python Environments from the context menu.
   
6. Click your new Maya environment and click OK
   
7. Activate the new Python environment. This will now be the environment for your project.
   
   
   
8. In Solution Explorer, "Add Folder to Search Path..."
   In the dialog, surf to the completion\py folder in your devkit, e.g. C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2016\devkit\other\pymel\extras\completion\py, and select Select Folder.
   
9. Wait a few seconds and you should now have code completion for maya.cmds, pymel.core, maya.mel, maya.OpenMaya (and other API 1.0 classes), and maya.api.OpenMaya (and other API 2.0 classes). VS will complain that it needs to complete its DB. Don't believe its lies.
   
   
   

If there are issues with this, let me know. Not saying I'll have a solution (hopefully I will) - I just want to be aware of any shortcomings.

Cheers,

Paul W

[Anonymous]

Great Thanks!

After some usage I have found out that some return types VS does not recognizes. Its not a big issue but its a bit uncomfortable for instance `mEdgeIter = om.MItMeshEdge(mDagPath, mObj)` VS doesnt shows me the functions for the object mEdgeIter.

[robotProdigy]

Yeah, I see what you're talking about. I fudged around with VS to see what I could find out. Not much unfortunately.

I think this is a downside of dynamically typed languages. Python IDE's can have hard time "guessing" what you're type is, even if the type is pretty obvious to us. In PyCharm you can "type hint". For example:

And just like that, PyCharm is able to pick up the type. I tried this in VS, but it doesn't work unfortunately. If this drives you nuts, maybe google type hinting for VS. Or experience the wonders of PyCharm. I just saw Visual Studio 15 preview is now available as well - maybe VS upped their type detection game.

Fortunately, since the release of PyCharm 2016 a few days ago, it's nailing types spot on. 

[Anonymous]

Na I will stick to VS never had such problems with the IntelliSense. Maya Api is a strange exception 😜 I hope someday they will fix it, so that its working like with the old api.

[klawchi]

Is there any way to do this with Visual Studio Code? on OSX?

[Anonymous]

Any update on this for Maya 2019 and VS2017, I have set things up as described but am not getting the maya.OpenMaya or pymel to display Intellisense info.  Built in modules seem to work but the others show Unable to resolve 'maya.OpenMaya'. IntelliSense may be missing for this module.  C:\Users\<User>\devkitBase\devkit\other\pymel\extras\completion\py is set under the solution Search Paths.

Any help would be appreciated.  We are tying to just use one editor for cross platform development.

The files it says are supposed to be empty seem to have the completion info in them. C:\Users\<User>\devkitBase\devkit\other\pymel\extras\completion\py\maya\OpenMaya.py