Attribute Editor Templates

Often when we create a node, we want to customize the attribute editor display of the node to be more user friendly. We do this through attribute editor templates. Attribute editor templates are MEL files describing the attribute editor interface for your node. By default, Maya will automatically arrange the attributes of a node in the attribute editor. Attribute editor templates allow us to customize this display.

To create an attribute editor template, create a MEL file called AE{nodeName}Template.mel with an AE{nodeName}Template function inside and place the file in your MAYA_SCRIPT_PATH. The AE{nodeName}Template function contains editorTemplate commands that instruct the attribute editor how to alter the default layout for the attributes in the node.

Below is a sample attribute editor template for an imaginary node with 4 attributes, one of which is a ramp attribute.

global proc AEsampleNodeTemplate( string $nodeName )
{
    editorTemplate -beginScrollLayout;

    editorTemplate -beginLayout "Sample Node Attributes" -collapse 0;
        editorTemplate -addControl "magnitude";
        editorTemplate -addControl "offset";
        editorTemplate -addControl "distance";

        AEaddRampControl ($nodeName + ".rampAttribute");

    editorTemplate -endLayout;

    AEdependNodeTemplate $nodeName;

    editorTemplate -addExtraControls;
    editorTemplate -endScrollLayout;
}