Chapter 4. C++ API
Introduction
MEL clearly provides a very powerful and effective means for both automating and simplifying tasks in Maya. It may be that MEL provides all the programmable functionality you'll ever need. If however you need further access and control, you can use the C++ API. Through this API you can create your own custom Dependency Graph nodes. These can be integrated directly into Maya and work seamlessly with all other nodes. This allows you to directly implant your own functionality into the very core of Maya.
Another nonnegligible advantage of the C++ API is that the plugins you develop will often run much faster than the equivalent MEL scripts. Since the plugins are compiled and linked, the result is fully optimized for the ...
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