Tentacle

A Qt marking-menu launcher for DCC apps — less a fixed menu than a framework you extend: pair a UI panel with a same-named slot module and its widgets wire themselves, or point Tentacle at a slot library of your own.

Built on uitk.MarkingMenu, it ships ~60 Maya tool panels spanning the full pipeline (modeling, UV, materials, rigging, animation, rendering, …), a Blender integration whose slot library is still in progress, and a thin 3ds Max wrapper.

Demo

Install

"C:/Program Files/Autodesk/Maya2025/bin/mayapy.exe" -m pip install tentacletk

Or use the bundled mayapy package manager — pick your Maya version, press 1, type tentacletk.

Requires Python 3.9+ and Qt via qtpy (PySide2 or PySide6). The upstream toolkit packages pythontk, uitk, and mayatk are pulled in automatically.

Launch

In Maya's userSetup.py:

from maya.utils import executeDeferred

def start_tentacle():
    from tentacle import TclMaya
    TclMaya(key_show="Z")

executeDeferred(start_tentacle)

key_show accepts bare keys ("Z", "Space") or Qt names ("Key_Z"); if omitted it defaults to F12.

Bindings

Defined in tcl_maya.py; chords are parsed by uitk.MarkingMenu (see uitk/docs/MARKING_MENU.md). The table below assumes key_show="Z" from the example — substitute your chosen key.

Chord	Opens
`Z`	`hud#startmenu`
`Z + LMB`	`cameras#startmenu`
`Z + MMB`	`editors#startmenu`
`Z + RMB`	`main#startmenu`
`Z + LMB + RMB`	`maya#startmenu`

Ctrl+Shift+R repeats the last command (configurable in Preferences).

The bare-key landing menu (hud#startmenu) is a live HUD: scene status, current selection and component info, and rule-based warning icons — each warning check is individually toggleable.

How it works

flowchart LR
    A[TclMaya] --> B[uitk.MarkingMenu]
    B --> C[uitk.Switchboard]
    C --> D[ui/*.ui]
    C --> E[slots/maya/*.py]

uitk.Switchboard pairs each .ui file with a slot module of the same basename, then connects each widget's objectName to a method of the same name on the slot class:

ui/materials.ui          ──pairs with──►   slots/maya/materials.py
  └─ widget objectName "b005"  ──calls──►    def b005(self): ...
  └─ widget objectName "b005"  ──setup──►    def b005_init(self, widget): ...  (optional)

That's the whole convention. Widget object names are arbitrary; whatever name a widget has, a method of that name on the slot class will fire when it's interacted with.

Submenu routing: a widget's accessibleName (e.g. "cameras#lower") names the submenu UI to open when the gesture lands on it.

Customization

TclMaya(
    key_show="F11",
    slot_source="my_studio/slots",   # use your own slot library
    log_level="DEBUG",
    bindings={                        # replace defaults entirely
        "Key_F11":               "main#startmenu",
        "Key_F11|RightButton":   "cameras#startmenu",
    },
)

User preferences (theme, repeat-last shortcut, etc.) live in the in-app Preferences panel.

Project layout

tentacle/
├── tcl_maya.py            TclMaya entry point + default bindings
├── tcl_max.py             TclMax  (wrapper, no slot library yet)
├── tcl_blender.py         TclBlender entry point — Qt host + keymap bridge + launcher + add-on
├── slots/
│   ├── _slots.py          Slots base — repeat-last-command shortcut
│   ├── maya/              ~60 SlotsMaya subclasses
│   └── blender/           SlotsBlender subclasses (Phase 3+)
└── ui/                    .ui definitions; maya_menus/ + blender_menus/ hold DCC submenus

Platform support

DCC	Status
Maya 2025+	Full — entry point, slot library, all menus wired.
Blender	Entry point + keymap activation live (`TclBlender`); slot port in progress.
3ds Max	Wrapper only (`TclMax`).

Development

git clone https://github.com/m3trik/tentacle
pip install -e ./tentacle
cd tentacle && python -m pytest test/

CI runs test_package.py, test_slot_integrity.py, test_ui_integrity.py, and module-specific suites — see .github/workflows/tests.yml.

API_REGISTRY.md — every public class/method, with file:line links.
CHANGELOG.md — notable changes.
CLAUDE.md — contributor conventions.
uitk/docs/MARKING_MENU.md — chord syntax, gesture mechanics.

License

LGPL v3.

Release files for tentacletk 0.13.29

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Built distribution (wheel)

Table of built distributions (wheels) for tentacletk 0.13.29
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tentacletk-0.13.29-py3-none-any.whl 508.5 kB Jul 29, 2026	Python 3	none	any	Details

Release files / tentacletk-0.13.29-py3-none-any.whl

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