Creates a hierarchy of with configurable depth, and random number of objects in Maya

maya_makeRandomHierarchy_v01.py

'''
makeRandomHierarchy
by Patrick Woo
v001_01
20170809

Creates a hierarchy of with configurable depth, and random number of objects in Maya
'''

from pymel.core import *
def makeRandomHierarchy(name='randomHierarchy_grp', levels=5, objsPerLevel=(1,5)):
    '''
    Maya script
    creates a hierarchy of objects in Maya
    levels - <int> specify the depth of the groups level
    objsPerLevel - <tuple> (min, max) specifies how many objects should be in each level
    '''
    from random import randint
    import string
    from functools import partial
    
    def makeRandomStr(length=(1, 10)):
        '''
        crates a random string
        length - <tuple> <min, max> minimum number and maximum number of letters to generate
        '''
        return ''.join([letters[randint(length[0], length[1]-1)] for x in range(randint(length[0], length[1]))] )

    letters = string.ascii_letters
    lettersLen = len(letters)
    topGrpNode = group(name=name, empty=True)
    randomPrims = (polyCube, polySphere,polyCylinder,polyPlane)
    grpsCount = 1
    objsCount = 0
    levelGrpList = []
    for whichLevel in range(levels):
        randName = makeRandomStr(length=(3, 8))
        thisGrp = group(empty=True, name='level_{}_{}'.format(whichLevel, randName))
        grpsCount += 1
        if whichLevel == 0:
            thisGrp.setParent(topGrpNode)
        else:
            thisGrp.setParent(levelGrpList[whichLevel-1])
        levelGrpList.append(thisGrp.longName())
        for objId in range(0, randint(objsPerLevel[0],objsPerLevel[1])):
            randObjName = 'lvl{}_obj{}_{}'.format(whichLevel, objId, makeRandomStr(length=(3, 8)))
            # print 'randObjName is', randObjName
            thisObj = partial(randomPrims[randint(0,len(randomPrims)-1)], constructionHistory=False).__call__()
            thisObj = PyNode(thisObj[0])
            thisObj.rename(randObjName)
            thisObj.setParent(thisGrp)
            objsCount += 1
    print 'completed. created {} groups & {} objects'.format(grpsCount, objsCount)
    print 'top group node is', PyNode(topGrpNode).longName()
    return PyNode(topGrpNode).longName()

makeRandomHierarchy()