Load Pickers

There are several ways to load picker files into MG-Picker Studio.

  1. By default, all in-scene picker nodes will be loaded automatically a Maya scene is opened.

💡 The autoload option could be set through LMB by clicking on the top right moreFeaturesBtn button and selecting Preferences...

  1. Select any part of your character, ALT+LMB double clicking on the free space of the tab area, or the empty space of the picker area if no picker has been loaded, to search & load all the pickers related to the current selection, judging from its namespace.

💡 The equal feature is available from the findAndLoadBtn button.

💡 The searching priority & paths could be set through the MG-Picker Studio preference dialog.

  1. The majority of open features are in the openIcon button and its LMB clicking menu.

  2. LMB double-clicking on the free space of the tab area, or the empty space of the picker area if no picker has been loaded, to bring up a file dialog, which you could pick and load an external picker file.

  3. SHIFT+LMB double clicking on the free space of tab area, or the empty space of the picker area if no picker been loaded, to load all in-scene picker nodes if they are not loaded.

💡 The equal feature could be found through the openIcon button / Load All In-Scene Picker Nodes.

  1. Drag a .mgpkr file into the viewport area to open that picker file.

Warning

After the picker is loaded, you may still need to set up the namespace of the picker to make it works.

In animator mode, check out the namespace filed in the top row of the tool, and see if it matches the namespace your reference. Read here to know more.

3 Essential Picker Search Paths

  1. Inside Maya scene.

The picker could be stored in nodes, which are of Maya’s build-in type subdivSurfaceVarGroup, and usually has a node name ending with suffix _MGPIKR; The image used by an in-scene picker node will be stored in the Maya scene directory/ pickerimages folder.

  1. Maya scene directory/pickers subfolder

You could publish your picker data and images within Maya scene directory/pickers/PickerName folder and will be auto-searched.

  1. Maya user applicaton directory / MG_PickerData / Picker Project

In Windows, its My Document/maya/MG_PickerData/. Picker data stored within the current project name will be auto-searched.

💡 Any number of any path could be added to searching paths.