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Synopsis

cylinder [-axis linear linear linear] [-caching boolean] [-constructionHistory boolean] [-degree int] [-endSweep angle] [-heightRatio float] [-name string] [-nodeState int] [-object boolean] [-pivot linear linear linear] [-polygon int] [-radius linear] [-sections int] [-spans int] [-startSweep angle] [-tolerance linear] [-useTolerance boolean]

cylinder is undoable, queryable, and editable.

The cylinder command creates a new cylinder and/or a dependency node that creates one, and returns their names.

Return value

string[]Object name and node name

In query mode, return type is based on queried flag.

Related

cone, nurbsCube, nurbsPlane, sphere, torus

Flags

axis, caching, constructionHistory, degree, endSweep, heightRatio, name, nodeState, object, pivot, polygon, radius, sections, spans, startSweep, tolerance, useTolerance
Long name (short name) Argument types Properties
-axis(-ax) linear linear linear createqueryedit
The primitive's axis
-caching(-cch) boolean createqueryedit
Toggle caching for all attributes so that no recomputation is needed
-degree(-d) int createqueryedit
The degree of the resulting surface: 1 - linear, 3 - cubic
Default: 3
-endSweep(-esw) angle createqueryedit
The angle at which to end the surface of revolution. Default is 2Pi radians, or 360 degrees.
Default: 6.2831853
-heightRatio(-hr) float createqueryedit
Ratio of "height" to "width"
Default: 2.0
-nodeState(-nds) int createqueryedit

Maya dependency nodes have 6 possible states. The Normal (0), HasNoEffect (1), and Blocking (2) states can be used to alter how the graph is evaluated.

The Waiting-Normal (3), Waiting-HasNoEffect (4), Waiting-Blocking (5) are for internal use only. They temporarily shut off parts of the graph during interaction (e.g., manipulation). The understanding is that once the operation is done, the state will be reset appropriately, e.g. Waiting-Blocking will reset back to Blocking.

The Normal and Blocking cases apply to all nodes, while HasNoEffect is node specific; many nodes do not support this option. Plug-ins store state in the MPxNode::state attribute. Anyone can set it or check this attribute. Additional details about each of these 3 states follow.

State Description
Normal The normal node state. This is the default.
HasNoEffect

The HasNoEffect option (a.k.a. pass-through), is used in cases where there is an operation on an input producing an output of the same data type. Nearly all deformers support this state, as do a few other nodes. As stated earlier, it is not supported by all nodes.

It’s typical to implement support for the HasNoEffect state in the node’s compute method and to perform appropriate operations. Plug-ins can also support HasNoEffect.

The usual implementation of this state is to copy the input directly to the matching output without applying the algorithm in the node. For deformers, applying this state leaves the input geometry undeformed on the output.

Blocking

This is implemented in the depend node base class and applies to all nodes. Blocking is applied during the evaluation phase to connections. An evaluation request to a blocked connection will return as failures, causing the destination plug to retain its current value. Dirty propagation is indirectly affected by this state since blocked connections are never cleaned.

When a node is set to Blocking the behavior is supposed to be the same as if all outgoing connections were broken. As long as nobody requests evaluation of the blocked node directly it won’t evaluate after that. Note that a blocked node will still respond to getAttr requests but a getAttr on a downstream node will not reevaluate the blocked node.

Setting the root transform of a hierarchy to Blocking won’t automatically influence child transforms in the hierarchy. To do this, you’d need to explicitly set all child nodes to the Blocking state.

For example, to set all child transforms to Blocking, you could use the following script.


import maya.cmds as cmds
def blockTree(root):
nodesToBlock = []
for node in {child:1 for child in cmds.listRelatives( root, path=True, allDescendents=True )}.keys():
nodesToBlock += cmds.listConnections(node, source=True, destination=True )
for node in {source:1 for source in nodesToBlock}.keys():
cmds.setAttr( '%s.nodeState' % node, 2 )

Applying this script would continue to draw objects but things would not be animated.


Default: kdnNormal
-pivot(-p) linear linear linear createqueryedit
The primitive's pivot point
-radius(-r) linear createqueryedit
The radius of the object
Default: 1.0
-sections(-s) int createqueryedit
The number of sections determines the resolution of the surface in the sweep direction. Used only if useTolerance is false.
Default: 8
-spans(-nsp) int createqueryedit
The number of spans determines the resolution of the surface in the opposite direction.
Default: 1
-startSweep(-ssw) angle createqueryedit
The angle at which to start the surface of revolution
Default: 0
-tolerance(-tol) linear createqueryedit
The tolerance with which to build the surface. Used only if useTolerance is true
Default: 0.01
-useTolerance(-ut) boolean createqueryedit
Use the specified tolerance to determine resolution. Otherwise number of sections will be used.
Default: false
Common flags
-constructionHistory(-ch) boolean create
Turn the construction history on or off.
-name(-n) string create
Sets the name of the newly-created node. If it contains namespace path, the new node will be created under the specified namespace; if the namespace does not exist, it will be created.
-object(-o) boolean create
Create the result, or just the dependency node.
-polygon(-po) int create
The value of this argument controls the type of the object created by this operation
  • 0: nurbs surface
  • 1: polygon (use nurbsToPolygonsPref to set the parameters for the conversion)
  • 2: subdivision surface (use nurbsToSubdivPref to set the parameters for the conversion)
  • 3: Bezier surface
  • 4: subdivision surface solid (use nurbsToSubdivPref to set the parameters for the conversion)

Flag can appear in Create mode of command Flag can appear in Edit mode of command
Flag can appear in Query mode of command Flag can be used more than once in a command.

MEL examples

cylinder;
cylinder -history true -radius 10 -hr 3;
cylinder -r 5 -axis 1 1 1 -pivot 0 0 1 -ssw 0deg -esw 90deg;
cylinder -ut true -tol 0.01;

//Query the radius of the selected cylinder
float $r = `cylinder -q -r`;