MScriptUtil is the cumbersome class we must use when using the Maya API with Python. Since the Maya API is designed as a C++ library, it has many pointers and references that are passed into and returned from various functions. Since Python has no pointers or references to simple types, we must use MScriptUtil when we encounter these in the Maya API.

The documentation contains useful information about general usage of MScriptUtil, so I will not reproduce it here.  What I will show are various code samples that demonstrate how to use MScriptUtil in various situations since at the time of this writing, the code examples for MScriptUtil are quite limited.  Luckily, I don’t need to use MScriptUtil often, but when I do encounter it, I will put a snippet on this page to build up a useful reference.

Pass by Reference

int

itPoly = OpenMaya.MItMeshPolygon(pathShape)
util = OpenMaya.MScriptUtil()
util.createFromInt(0)
pInt = util.asIntPtr()
itPoly.setIndex(faceId, pInt)

utilWidth = OpenMaya.MScriptUtil()
utilWidth.createFromInt(0)
ptrWidth = utilWidth.asUintPtr()
utilHeight = OpenMaya.MScriptUtil()
utilHeight.createFromInt(0)
ptrHeight = utilHeight.asUintPtr()
mimage.getDepthMapSize(ptrWidth, ptrHeight)
width = OpenMaya.MScriptUtil.getUint(ptrWidth)
height = OpenMaya.MScriptUtil.getUint(ptrHeight)

float2

util = OpenMaya.MScriptUtil()
util.createFromList([0.0, 0.0], 2)
uvPoint = util.asFloat2Ptr()
itPoly.getUVAtPoint(closestPoint, uvPoint, OpenMaya.MSpace.kWorld)
u = OpenMaya.MScriptUtil.getFloat2ArrayItem(uvPoint, 0, 0)
v = OpenMaya.MScriptUtil.getFloat2ArrayItem(uvPoint, 0, 1)

Accessing Arrays

#Doesn't work!
matrix[3][1] = 2.2

# Do this instead
OpenMaya.MScriptUtil.setDoubleArray(matrix[3], 1, 2.2)

ptrDepthMap = mimage.depthMap()
OpenMaya.MScriptUtil.getFloatArrayItem(ptrDepthMap, index)