Assigning a key to a certain task in the scene

[zbounik]

Hi,

How can I assign a keyboard key (or mouse) to do a certain task, or to make a change during the animation?

Best,
Zahra

[BehnamBinesh]

Hi, You can write a keyboard event in handle event function for any component and get pressed key and finally do your task in animation loop Best, Behnam Binesh Technical Manager SiMedix, Tehran,Iran [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/behnam-binesh-b128196b)

[zbounik]

Hi Behnam Binesh,

Thank you for your comment. Can this just be done by modifying the c++ code of the component? Can't I do this in the XML or python script of the scene?

Best,
Zahra

[Camille-K]

Hi Zahra,

You can surely assign a task to a key using Python scripting, you just have to define a function called onKeypressedEvent in a Python controller, and handle the key you are interested in with a simple condition such as if event['key']=='A'
You can find an example in the SofaPython3 plugin, in SofaPython3\examples\liver-scriptcontroller.py.

Also, you can assign tasks to specific keys (such as arrow keys) by using the correspondences defined in SofaPython3\constants\Key.py, which you can import in your Python controller with import Sofa.constants.Key

Best,

Camille

[zbounik]

Hi Camille,

Thank you for your thorough explanation. I try this and give feedback on it.

Best,
Zahra

[zbounik]

Hi,
Is there any equivalent of "onKeypressedEvent" in XML?

[hugtalbot]

hi @zbounik
no, you can not write dynamic scripts with XML.
To have a similar behavior in XML, you would then need to write and then add in the scene a C++ controller doing what you are looking for in the handleEvent function.
Reason why python is way more powerful!

[zbounik]

Hi @hugtalbot
Thank you for your explanation. Python is very empowering but for some projects, I should provide an XML file. I will consider that approach.

[hugtalbot]

you're welcome @zbounik
thanks for your help @BehnamBinesh 👍