pymel.core.system¶

Functions and classes relating to files, references, and system calls.

In particular, the system module contains the functionality of maya.cmds.file. The file command should not be imported into the default namespace because it conflicts with python’s builtin file class. Since the file command has so many flags, we decided to kill two birds with one stone: by breaking the file command down into multiple functions – one for each primary flag – the resulting functions are more readable and allow the file command’s functionality to be used directly within the pymel namespace.

for example, instead of this:

>>> res = cmds.file( 'test.ma', exportAll=1, preserveReferences=1, type='mayaAscii', force=1 ) 

you can do this:

>>> expFile = exportAll( 'test.ma', preserveReferences=1, force=1)

some of the new commands were changed slightly from their flag name to avoid name clashes and to add to readability:

>>> importFile( expFile )  # flag was called import, but that's a python keyword
>>> ref = createReference( expFile )
>>> ref 
FileReference(u'...test.ma', refnode=u'testRN')

Notice that the ‘type’ flag is set automatically for you when your path includes a ‘.mb’ or ‘.ma’ extension.

Paths returned by these commands are either a Path or a FileReference, so you can use object-oriented path methods with the results:

>>> expFile.exists()
True
>>> expFile.remove() 
Path('...test.ma')

Functions

Classes