Python Viewer State and Hotkeys

Forums Technical Discussion Python Viewer State and Hotkeys

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Control_Vertex: Member; 162 posts; Joined: May 2015; Offline

Dec. 8, 2020 11:21 p.m.

Greetings everybody

I am wondering if it is possible to disable hotkeys while in a custom python viewer state. Here is my problem, I am trying to use the “t”, “r” and “e” onKeyEvent in my object level python viewer state, but the viewport hotkeys seem to catch them first and it switches to the translation, rotation or scaling tools. I tried with the onKeyTransitEvent and it does catch the “key down” event and I then return True to consume the key transition, but the viewport still switches to the corresponding transformation tool.

Would there be a way to use those keys or do hotkeys have priority over viewer states key events?

Thanks in advance for you help


mabelzile: Staff; 447 posts; Joined: Feb. 2018; Offline

Dec. 9, 2020 8:48 a.m.

Unfortunately, some hotkeys like the ones you mention cannot be overridden by python states. The hotkey architecture is currently being reworked to fix these kinds of problems.


Control_Vertex: Member; 162 posts; Joined: May 2015; Offline

Dec. 9, 2020 9:10 a.m.

All right, thanks for the answer mabelzile!


Akelian: Member; 34 posts; Joined: July 2015; Offline

Aug. 20, 2022 6:16 p.m.

mabelzile
Unfortunately, some hotkeys like the ones you mention cannot be overridden by python states. The hotkey architecture is currently being reworked to fix these kinds of problems.

Hi @mabelzile,

Is it still the case?

Thanks


mabelzile: Staff; 447 posts; Joined: Feb. 2018; Offline

Aug. 21, 2022 9:34 a.m.

Akelian
mabelzile
Unfortunately, some hotkeys like the ones you mention cannot be overridden by python states. The hotkey architecture is currently being reworked to fix these kinds of problems.

Hi @mabelzile,

Is it still the case?

Thanks

Yes it still the case.


wyhinton1: Member; 95 posts; Joined: Feb. 2020; Offline

Oct. 18, 2022 9:35 p.m.

mabelzile
Unfortunately, some hotkeys like the ones you mention cannot be overridden by python states. The hotkey architecture is currently being reworked to fix these kinds of problems.

Is this still the case


artchapter: Member; 5 posts; Joined: Oct. 2021; Offline

Jan. 17, 2023 6:10 a.m.

is this still the case


wyhinton1: Member; 95 posts; Joined: Feb. 2020; Offline

Jan. 18, 2023 4:11 p.m.

artchapter
s this still the case

I'm pretty sure this is still the case :/


playBlaster: Member; 18 posts; Joined: Nov. 2018; Offline

Jan. 27, 2023 2:46 p.m.

this is now possible. in your createViewerStateTemplate do the following:

state_typename = kwargs["type"].definition().sections()["DefaultState"].contents()

menu = hou.ViewerStateMenu(state_typename + "_menu", state_label)
del_key = su.hotkey(state_typename, "delete_point", "Del", "delete selected points")
menu.addActionItem("delete_point", "delete selected points", hotkey=del_key)
template.bindMenu(menu)

this will override the delete key ("Del") when in your viewer state. "delete_point" is the key code and corresponds to the key code in "menu.addActionItem". when the user hits the delete key, the user will call what would normally be called when selecting the item from the right mouse button menu. "delete selected points" is the description, and and can be anything you would like. the important part is to use the correct key string, "Del" for delete, "UpArrow" for up arrow, "ENTER" for enter, etc...

su.hotkey is part of a library that is already imported in your viewer sate. it handles a lot of what you could be doing manually as shown in the docs: https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/hom/state_menus.html#hotkeys [www.sidefx.com]

hope that helps


Control_Vertex: Member; 162 posts; Joined: May 2015; Offline

Jan. 29, 2023 7:32 p.m.

Thank you so much for your answer @playBalster!

I will test this as soon as I can


yonatanbary: Member; 4 posts; Joined: Aug. 2022; Offline

Dec. 16, 2023 10:46 a.m.

cval
Thank you so much for your answer @playBalster!

I will test this as soon as I can

Hey @cval, were you able to make it work?
From my testing I can’t override these specific shortcuts.

My solution is to remove these shortcuts using the hotkeys python module and then onExit to assign them back, but it’s not good practice I suppose.


kodra: Member; 373 posts; Joined: June 2023; Offline

Dec. 16, 2023 11:29 a.m.

Is there an easy way to know which hotkeys are "free to use" by a Python state?

Edited by kodra - Dec. 16, 2023 11:29:21


yonatanbary: Member; 4 posts; Joined: Aug. 2022; Offline

Dec. 17, 2023 3:37 p.m.

kodra
Is there an easy way to know which hotkeys are "free to use" by a Python state?

I did a little run through all the characters and the ones who seem to be "locked" are:

d (Display options)
e (Scale tool)
j (Modify Channels)
r (Rotate Tool)
s (Volatile Select Mode)
t (Move Tool)
w (Wireframe)
And also these special characters ` \ ?

I wish we could override these in python states!


tamte: Member; 9130 posts; Joined: July 2007; Online

Dec. 17, 2023 4:37 p.m.

yonatanbary
kodra
Is there an easy way to know which hotkeys are "free to use" by a Python state?
I did a little run through all the characters and the ones who seem to be "locked" are:
d (Display options)
e (Scale tool)
j (Modify Channels)
r (Rotate Tool)
s (Volatile Select Mode)
t (Move Tool)
w (Wireframe)
And also these special characters ` \ ?
I wish we could override these in python states!

Are you talking about H20?

while I don't have much experience with Pyhon States limitations I'd find it odd if these were still an issue especially since Car Rig Python State in H20 uses hotkeys like WASD for movement and they seem to work

Edited by tamte - Dec. 17, 2023 16:38:25

Attachments:
carrig_state_shortcuts.gif (10.4 KB)

Tomas Slancik
CG Supervisor
Framestore, NY


kodra: Member; 373 posts; Joined: June 2023; Offline

Dec. 17, 2023 6:44 p.m.

I tried to set move tool's hotkey to G (like in Blender). That breaks almost all the built-in Python states, since they all use G.

Ideally it shouldn't break Python states, unless the specific state has transform handle (so move tool makes sense).

I still don't know when Python state's hotkeys take precedence over Houdini's tho.

Edited by kodra - Dec. 17, 2023 22:21:02

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