School of Engineering and Computer Science Te Kura Mātai Pūkaha, Pūrorohiko

PyDev is a Python IDE for Eclipse, which may be used for Python, Jython and IronPython development. This is particularly useful for Maya/Python development. This setup was tested on Windows 7 and 8.1, using Maya 2013 and 2014.

Getting Started

PyDev

To obtain PyDev in Eclipse:
  • Help > Install New Software
  • Add...
  • Inside Location, add: http://pydev.org/updates, leave Name blank.
  • Once you've added the location, select it in the field "Work with:", then tick PyDev, hit next and follow the prompts to install.

You should be able to switch between perspectives (e.g Java, PyDev, etc.). Go to Window > Open Perspective > Other... and select PyDev.

Maya Plugin

To obtain the Maya plugin for PyDev/Maya integration, go here.

Extract to any folder and install in Eclipse:
  • Help > Install New Software
  • Add...
  • Local... and navigate to the directory you extracted the Maya plugin to.

Eclipse Configuration

  • Window > Preferences
    • PyDev > Interpreters > Python Interpreter
      On the right, click on “New” and navigate to the directory with mayapy.exe. e.g:
      “C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2013\bin\mayapy.exe”
    • Include all folders
    • For autocomplete, go to the Predefined tab, hit "New..." and navigate to the directory with the .pypredef files. e.g:
      “C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2013\devkit\other\pymel\extras\completion\pypredef ”. Hit apply.

Maya Configuration

Maya needs to open a commandPort to receive the code from Eclipse. You can either manually open the port with a Shelf button, or automatically open the port by configuring the userSetup.py. 

import maya.cmds as cmds
if cmds.commandPort(':7720', q=True) !=1:
     cmds.commandPort(n=':7720', eo = False, nr = True)

You're done now. The basic idea with this set up is to first run the commandPort code in Maya, then highlight your PyDev code in Eclipse, and hit ctrl+enter to execute your code.

Resources

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