Write your own tools
API & SDK
Programming with weSkel: current capabilities and the upcoming SDK.
weSkel can be used through its Maya interfaces and from Python to create tools and adapt a rigging pipeline.
API and SDK: what is the difference?
Section titled “API and SDK: what is the difference?”| Element | What you use |
|---|---|
| Tools | Ready-to-use interfaces: Module Manager, Pushers, Chroma… |
| API | Python classes, properties and functions for working with Maya nodes and calling tools. |
| SDK | The API together with documentation, examples and type information for your editor. |
An API can remain usable when its implementation is compiled. Documented names, parameters, results and behavior let you write code against it.
Choose your path
Section titled “Choose your path”| You want to… | Start with… |
|---|---|
| Create and connect your first nodes with weSkel | First script |
| Understand wrappers, plugs and properties | Wrappers & specs |
| Open a window from your shelf | The launch commands in Chroma or Module Manager |
| Call Switch FK/IK from a picker | The Switch FK/IK guide |
| Install weSkel | Getting started |
What exists and what is being prepared
Section titled “What exists and what is being prepared”| Capability | Status |
|---|---|
| Use wrappers and read their specs | Existing; the examples target a current authorized installation. |
| Call documented tool commands | Existing; see each tool guide for its prerequisites. |
| Obtain the SDK in the User package | Planned; no separate SDK download is announced here. |
| Complete API completion in your editor | In preparation. |
| Create your own wrappers from compiled classes | This extension workflow must be validated before its guide is published. |
| Rely on a stable API across distributed versions | The supported scope and compatibility rules still need to be formalized. |
Examples show current import paths. Keep your scripts in your own tools folder: editing installed weSkel files would make their replacement during updates difficult to manage.
User package and internal development
Section titled “User package and internal development”The User package is intended for artists, including riggers who write their own scripts. Using the API does not, by itself, require contributing to weSkel development.
The Dev package concerns internal development with authorized source access. This guide documents product usage and does not provide access to that environment.
Delivering a rig or a script
Section titled “Delivering a rig or a script”| What you deliver | Dependency to consider |
|---|---|
| A rig built from native Maya nodes | Evaluating it does not require the weSkel SDK. |
| A script that imports weSkel | weSkel must be installed in the environment that runs the script. |
| A picker that calls Switch FK/IK | The weSkel command it calls must be available; a future Animation package is not an available distribution yet. |
Technical documentation does not establish redistribution rights or license terms. These will accompany the relevant distribution.