Export empty groups (transforms) or a joint that is not used for deformation

[BigRoy]

Issue

I seem to be unable to export a null object, like a group/locator/joint - I'd like to export an additional animated transform in the hierarchy.

Is there a way to do this?

[ziriax]

You can try to explicitly select these objects. Then they should be included in the export. If not, this is a bug I guess.

[BigRoy]

I can't seem to get them to be exported, they also don't show in the dumpMaya output at all.

It might be related to this code only processing Meshes and Cameras nor does it get processed as ExportableNode since it doesn't trigger this mixed pivot point warning on a Transform that I explicitly gave two different pivots. That warning does show as soon as I parent a mesh underneath and export the mesh instead.

Where should I be looking in the code to enable exporting selected nodes explicitly?

[ziriax]

Indeed, it seems to be missing code to also export separate nodes that are not part of skeleton...

It should be easy to add these I guess, just an extra loop over locator nodes.

[BigRoy]

It should be easy to add these I guess, just an extra loop over locator nodes.

That's what I was hoping. :) It's hard to pinpoint where it's logical the relevant code gets added. Since even already in this Arguments class it's filtered to shapes or cameras for which a locator or empty null group is neither.

Should almost have a args.otherDagNodes or alike. You might be more familiar with the code base, what seems like the most logical approach?

[ziriax]

I think in that code it is just missing an extra if block that checks MFn::kLocator...

It has been a long time since I worked on the plugin ;-)

It does make sense to add a flag to remain backwards compatible.

Do want to give it a shot yourself?

I am about to leave on vacation for 3 weeks unfortunately...