pymel.core.animation.geometryConstraint

geometryConstraint(*args, **kwargs)

Constrain an object’s position based on the shape of the target surface(s) at the closest point(s) to the object. A geometryConstraint takes as input one or more surface shapes (the targets) and a DAG transform node (the object). The geometryConstraint position constrained object such object lies on the surface of the target with the greatest weight value. If two targets have the same weight value then the one with the lowest index is chosen.

Maya Bug Fix:
  • when queried, angle offsets would be returned in radians, not current angle unit
Modifications:
  • added new syntax for querying the weight of a target object, by passing the constraint first:

    aimConstraint( 'pCube1_aimConstraint1', q=1, weight ='pSphere1' )
    aimConstraint( 'pCube1_aimConstraint1', q=1, weight =['pSphere1', 'pCylinder1'] )
    aimConstraint( 'pCube1_aimConstraint1', q=1, weight =[] )
    

Flags:

Long Name / Short Name Argument Types Properties
layer / l unicode ../../../_images/create.gif ../../../_images/edit.gif
  Specify the name of the animation layer where the constraint should be added.
name / n unicode ../../../_images/create.gif ../../../_images/query.gif ../../../_images/edit.gif
  Sets the name of the constraint node to the specified name. Default name is constrainedObjectName_constraintType
remove / rm bool ../../../_images/edit.gif
  removes the listed target(s) from the constraint.
targetList / tl bool ../../../_images/query.gif
  Return the list of target objects.
weight / w float ../../../_images/create.gif ../../../_images/query.gif ../../../_images/edit.gif
  Sets the weight value for the specified target(s). If not given at creation time, the default value of 1.0 is used.
weightAliasList / wal bool ../../../_images/query.gif
  Returns the names of the attributes that control the weight of the target objects. Aliases are returned in the same order as the targets are returned by the targetList flag Flag can have multiple arguments, passed either as a tuple or a list.

Derived from mel command maya.cmds.geometryConstraint

Example:

import pymel.core as pm

# Constrain cube1 to surf1 at the closest point to  cube1.
pm.geometryConstraint( 'surf1', 'cube1' )

# Will prefer surf1 though the weights are equal
pm.geometryConstraint( 'surf1', 'surf2', 'cube2', w=.1 )

# Now constraints cube2 to lie on surf2 as it's weight is greater
pm.geometryConstraint( 'surf2', 'cube2', e=True, w=10. )

# Removes surf2 from cube2's geometryConstraint.
pm.geometryConstraint( 'surf2', 'cube2', e=True, rm=True )

# Adds surf3 to cube2's geometryConstraint with the default weight.
pm.geometryConstraint( 'surf3', 'cube2' )