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https://github.com/dbr/tabtabtab-nuke

A replacement for Nuke's "tab" node creator
https://github.com/dbr/tabtabtab-nuke

nuke python ui vfx

Last synced: about 2 months ago
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A replacement for Nuke's "tab" node creator

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README 

        
"tabtabtab", an alternative "tab node creator thingy" for [The

Foundry's Nuke](http://www.thefoundry.co.uk/products/nuke)



It does substring matching (so "blr" matches "blur"), and weights your

most used nodes first (so if I make the useful "Add [math]" node

often, it appears higher in the list than "Add 3:2 pulldown")



# Installation



Put tabtabtab on PYTHONPATH or NUKE_PATH somewhere (maybe in `~/.nuke/`)



    mkdir -p ~/.nuke

    cd ~/.nuke

    curl -O https://raw.github.com/dbr/tabtabtab-nuke/master/tabtabtab.py



Then to your `~/.nuke/menu.py` add:



    def ttt():

        import tabtabtab

        m_graph = nuke.menu("Node Graph")

        m_graph.addCommand("Tabtabtab", tabtabtab.main, "Tab")



    try:

        ttt()

    except Exception:

        import traceback

        traceback.print_exc()



The original menu will still be available via "Ctrl+Tab". You can

change the last "Tab" argument to another shortcut if you wish.



## Notes



This requires Nuke 6.3v5 or higher (for the integrated PySide module)



For older versions of 6.3, you must have

[a custom PyQt installation][pyqtinstall]. For 6.2, see

[Dylan Palmboom's tabtabtabLegacy fork][legacy], which may also work

in even more ancient version.



[pyqtinstall]: http://docs.thefoundry.co.uk/nuke/63/pythondevguide/custom_panels.html#extending-nuke-with-pyqt

[legacy]: http://www.nukepedia.com/gizmos/python-scripts/ui/tabtabtablegacy/



Relevant Foundry bug-id's:



* [Fixed in Nuke 6.3v8] Bug #23576, "Segmentation Fault on Nuke exit after using a custom

PySide window" (causes a mostly harmless "Segmentation fault" message

on exiting Nuke)



* Feature #11662 to get this functionality integrated into Nuke



In order to support Nuke 9, you need to use a different snippet in

your `menu.py`, adding the tabtabtab call to the `Node Graph` instead

of the Edit menu (see the updated installation instructions). The

same snippet works in older verisons of Nuke.



## More elabourate description



With the default "tab thing", you press tab, start typing a node name

(like "Blu") and you get a list of nodes that start with "Blu" (like

"Blur"):



![Nuke's builtin tab thing](imgs/nuke_tab.png)



"tabtabtab" works very similarly, but does substring matching:



![tabtabtab](imgs/tabtabtab.png)



In this example, "tra" finds "Transform" as you'd hope, but also other

nodes, such as "Trilinear"... This is appearing because the letters

"tra" can be found in order, "TRilineAr".



While this seems like it might cause lots of useless results, you

quickly memorise shortcuts like "trear" which matches "TRilinEAR" and

very little else. More usefully, "trage" will uniquely match "TRAnsformGEo"

in an easy to type way, "rdg" matches "ReaDGeo"



The first letter must match, so "geo" will match "GeoSelect", but not

"ReadGeo". However "rgeo" will match "ReadGeo"



## Weighting



Each time you create a node, it's "weight" is increase - the higher

the weight, the higher the node appears in the list.



This means if you create lots of "Add [math]" nodes, it will be

weighted highly, so all you might need to type is tab then "a", and it

will be at the top of the list.



The nodes weight is shown by the block to the right of the node - the

more green, the higher the weighting



## Matching menu location



If you start typing a shortcut, it will only match the part before the

"[Filter/SubMenu]" (e.g "blf" will not match "Blur [Filter]")



However if you type either "[" or two spaces, you can match against

the menu location (the part in "[...]")



For example, "ax" matches "AddMix [Merge]" and "Axis [3D]". If you

type "ax[3" or "ax 3" (ax-space-space-3) it will only match "Axis

[3D]"



## Change log



* `v1.0`

  * Basically working



* `v1.1`

  * Node weights are saved



* `v1.2`

  * Window appears under cursor



* `v1.3`

  * Created node remains selected between tab's, meaning "tabtab"

    creates the previously node

  * Clicking a node in the list creates it

  * Window doesn't go offscreen if cursor is near edge



* `v1.4`



  * Blocks Nuke UI when active. This greatly improves usability when

    the weights are slow to load (e.g in heavy Nuke script, or slow

    home-dir access), as it prevents key-presses intended for

    tabtabtab from being handled by Nuke (possibly creating

    new/modifying nodes etc)

  * Up/down arrow keys cycle correctly

  * Indicator blocks now actually indicate node weights, instead of

    always being green. The blocks are also now narrower, which looks

    nicer

  * Prevent vertical scrollbar (reduced number of shown items to 15)

  * Node weights are loaded on every invokation, preventing

    overwriting of values with multiple Nuke instances



* `v1.5`



  * Fixes crash-on-exit for Nuke 6.3v8 (as Nuke bug #23576 is closed)

  * Window now closes properly



* `v1.6`



  * Code to add to `menu.py` more robust, so tabtabtab errors will

    never prevent Nuke from starting



  * Search string starting with space will disable the non-consecutive

    searching, so `[tab][space]scen` will create a `Scene` instead of

    a highly weight `ScanlineRender`



  * Exposes menu items in `nuke.menu("Nuke")` along with the nodes.

    Meaning items in the "File" menu etc are exposed, for example

    `[tab]exit` will be the same as "File > Exit"



* `v1.7`



  * `ToolSets/Delete` submenu is excluded from tabtabtab.

    [Github issue #6](https://github.com/dbr/tabtabtab-nuke/issues/6)



  * Document that `Ctrl+Tab` opens the original tab menu



  * Fixed bug which caused the node list to stop updating



    [Github issue #10](https://github.com/dbr/tabtabtab-nuke/issues/10)



  * Fixed bug where "last used node" might have matched a different

    node (contrived example: the restored `Blur [Filter]` search text

    might have matched the more highly weighted `Blur2 [Filter]`)



* `v1.8`



  * Installation instructions updated to support Nuke 9



  * Weights file no longer overwritten if it fails to load for some

    reason.

    [Github issue #13](https://github.com/dbr/tabtabtab-nuke/issues/13)

    

  * Support PySide2