Need Help... Having trouble Getting subprocess to work in Maya Script editor

Coding
#1

Hi, I am not a python newbie, but I am by no means an expert or a tech artist. I would say I am more on the power user side. So I work mostly as an 3D Artist who can write his own tools. I have been banging my head on a problem for about too days now and I think I just need some help.

I am trying to execute and external Python script from the Maya script editor in its own command prompt using subprocess

Code exectued in Maya script Editor

import subprocess
import os
subprocess.Popen([‘C:\Python27\python.exe’,‘C:\Scripts\a.py’],shell=True)

The script executes and I hear a beep but the a.py file does not execute. This is the basic code that is happening in the a.py file

Simple creation of a txt file

import os.path
save_path = ‘C:/Scripts/’
name_of_file = raw_input(“What is the name of the file: “)
completeName = os.path.join(save_path, name_of_file+”.txt”)
file1 = open(completeName, “w”)
toFile = raw_input(“Write what you want into the field”)
file1.write(toFile)
file1.close()

So the confusing thing is it runs in PyCharm IDE but not in Maya. I must be making a simple mistake that is usually the case. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

#2

Maya does weird things with stdout and stdin, which could be messing with the raw_input calls in your script.

#3

Any ideas on what I could try next?

#4

Does this need to be run as a subprocess?

#5

I am not sure there is another way to launch a Python script in its own cmd prompt, I need the script process to run outside of maya on its own.

#6

\a is an escape character for “play the beep”

flip your path seperators to unix style
subprocess.Popen([‘C:/Python27/python.exe’,‘C:/Scripts/a.py’],shell=True)

or use raw string input
subprocess.Popen([ r‘C:\Python27\python.exe’,r‘C:\Scripts\a.py’],shell=True)

#7

I have tried that before, it doesn’t work. the a.py script never runs.

#8

Things to try:

Is the python executable added to your PATH environment variable? - How to Run a Python Script via a File or the Shell

you could also try:

python r"path-to-file.py"

# or

execfile(r"path-to-file")

Finally from this thread How to use subprocess.Popen() with maya ? they suggest using call instead:

subprocess.call([r"path", r"path"], shell=True)
#9

Try it without the shell=True, by default Maya hides the console window when that flag is present, so its very possible you’ve been spawning the process, but couldn’t actually see it to interact with it.
subprocess.Popen([ r‘C:\Python27\python.exe’,r‘C:\Scripts\a.py’])

In general you only need shell=True if you’re trying to run shell commands, which on windows would be things like echo, dir etc…

#10

Nope that doesn’t work either…

#11

Does nothing pop up at all?
Try running it with -i, this should leave the python interpreter running once you’re done.

subprocess.Popen([r'C:\Python27\python.exe', '-i', r'C:\Scripts\a.py'])

This works locally for me, keeping in mind that input in python3 is raw_input from python2.

subprocess.Popen(['py', '-i', '-c', "print('type something:');print('hmm?? {0}'.format(input()))"])

But it pops open a terminal window, asks me to type a thing, and then prints it back out to the shell, and because I’ve got -i in there, the python interpreter keeps running.

#12

That did it! Thanks Bob : )

When I tried your new line I got the same error

subprocess.Popen([r’C:\Python27\python.exe’, ‘-i’, r’C:\Scripts\a.py’])

It did the same thing all the other options I have tried did. It would execute and beep and I would get nothing. But you mentioned using Python 3 so I tried that. This time the window stayed up and I could see what was going on.

So I had the syntax correct this whole time, and I am sure all the other examples people have posted are correct as well. The actual problem was two fold I ended up having a Permissions issue with the C:\Scripts folder itself and then the a.py file had a double a.py.py but I didn’t know it because I had no output window. Painful lesson… Thanks again everybody
Cheers :slight_smile:

#13

Awesome.
Glad you got it worked out!