New Tool In The Works

I'm really excited about this one. I wrote it in PyMel and this was my first go at using Python in a true object-oriented fashion. Prior to this script I've been writing all my tools using maya.cmds so it feels good to finally jump away from a procedural approach and work in more of a "pythonic" format. For now I'm just posting an image of the interface for my new script but once I have a few days to check for bugs, I'll provide a link to download this thing.

 

Right now the most interesting thing I'll say about the tool itself, is it allows you to create an "EZ Selection" (which is a specified list of verts, edges, or faces saved to memory). What makes this little tool so powerful is it allows you essentially do away with selection sets (or the like) and you can literally deselect any number of components, do some other work, and still come back to your "EZ Selection" any point during your session.

I got the idea for this script while working on a rig (painting weights, vert by vert) and after creating dozens of selection sets I decided there had to be a more efficient way to work. Though it doesn't seem like it, what I discovered is, once you start adding a bunch of selection sets to your scene, Maya can start slowing down pretty significantly. Especially when you have to deal with thousands of verts and are working tediously to get your weights painted just right, a tool like this can come in handy rather quickly. It not only saves time—it keeps your scene light and saves your brain from getting fried.