unimenu

UniMenu (Universal Menu)

A pure python module to add python commands to the menu.

Supports Unreal Engine, Blender, Marmoset
and any app that uses QT: Maya, Krita, Substance Painter, 3ds Max, FreeCAD, CryEngine ...

For more info read the wiki

If you use Blender, you can try the unimenu_addon

how to use

load from config (YAML & JSON)

items:
  - label: my menu
    items:
      - label: my item
        command: print("Hello World")

import unimenu
config_path = "path/to/config.yaml"
unimenu.setup(config_path)

load from a dict

import unimenu
data = {"items": [{"label": "test","command": 'print("hello world")'}]}
unimenu.setup(data)

with code

import unimenu
menu = unimenu.Node(label="my menu")  # create a menu
item = unimenu.Node(label="hi", command='print("hi")')  # create a menu item
menu.items.append(item)  # add the item to the menu
menu.setup()  # setup the menu in the app, parented by default to the main menu bar

from a folder of scripts (or a Python module)

To auto construct a menu from a folder, with a menu entry for every tool in a folder:

1. ensure the folder is importable (in the sys.path)
2. create a menthod in all submodules with the same name, e.g. def show()

import unimenu
unimenu.module_setup('name_of_folder', function_name='show', menu_name="My tools")

When to use

some software e.g. Unity & Maya already have good ways to make custom menus. If you only use 1 software and find it easy to make a menu, you don't need unimenu.

The power of this module comes from standardising menu creation across multiple software. Great for studio-pipelines with several programs. Unimenu makes menu creation less complex, e.g. in Blender.

Notes

• support loading multiple configs. Great for a single studio config and several project configs. Or a team config.
• support creating another config to a previously created menu, or submenu!

Supports

unimenu was tested in the following versions, and might work in other versions.

• Unreal 5.0.2
• Blender 3.2, 2.93, 2.8 (minimum)
• Maya 2023, 2022 (minimum)
• Substance Painter 8.2.0
• Max 2024
• Marmoset 3.08
• Nuke 13 (minimum)
• Hiero 13 (minimum)
• Katana 5 (minimum)
• Mari 6.0 (minimum)

python 3.7+ due to f-strings and pathlib

Development

main platform is windows, would be interested to hear from mac & linux users.

feel free to create a PR to help out.

to add support for your favorite software, add a python module named after the software with a setup_menu function where possible stick to the windows menu design guidelines

• add editable install instructions

samples

You can install the unimenu samples with

pip install git+https://github.com/hannesdelbeke/unimenu@main#subdirectory=dev

then you can run them with e.g.

import unimenu_samples.any_dcc_test