code works in script editor, but not when run from command line

Question

I'm trying to pipe an expression result into a maya text object for use as a heads up display. My script works from the script editor, but not when called from the command line or from my display expression. How can I change this to make it work from the command line?

import maya.cmds as cmds

# convert a string to hex values, separated by a space

typeNode = cmds.ls( selection=True )
type3d = cmds.listConnections(t='type')
typeValue = cmds.getAttr( 'tower_CON.Spin' )

valueList=list(str('{:3.2f}'.format(typeValue)))

hexVersion=""

for x in valueList:
    hexValue=x.encode("hex")
    hexVersion=hexVersion + hexValue + " " 

cmds.setAttr(str(type3d[0]) + ".textInput", hexVersion.rstrip(), type="string")

Answer 1

From the error in you're comments, it looks like you're trying to run the module as a function.

You probably need to save this in the file:

import maya.cmds as cmds

def text_to_hud():
    # convert a string to hex values, separated by a space

    typeNode = cmds.ls( selection=True )
    type3d = cmds.listConnections(t='type')
    typeValue = cmds.getAttr( 'tower_CON.Spin' )

    valueList=list(str('{:3.2f}'.format(typeValue)))

    hexVersion=""

    for x in valueList:
        hexValue=x.encode("hex")
        hexVersion=hexVersion + hexValue + " " 

    cmds.setAttr(str(type3d[0]) + ".textInput", hexVersion.rstrip(), type="string")

and then in the command line you'd want

import textToolHUD as th; th.text_to_hud()

You could also keep the file as is and just do

import textToolHUD

which would run once, but it's bad practice to rely on code that runs on import.