Softimage SDK Programmer's Guide > Customizing Softimage using the SDK > Custom Shaders > Shader Families >

# Detecting Shader Families

## To find what shader families are defined on an existing shader definition

- Use ShaderDef.ShaderFamilies or ShaderDef::GetShaderFamilies to retrieve a safearray of strings:

      for sFamily in oShaderDef.ShaderFamilies :
      	Application.LogMessage(sFamily)
      	# ...

## To find out the primary family defined on an existing shader definition

- Use ShaderDef.PrimaryShaderFamily or ShaderDef::GetPrimaryShaderFamily to return the shader family ID as a string:

      Application.LogMessage(oShaderDef.PrimaryShaderFamily)

## To find out whether the specified family is defined as one of the shader families for an existing shader definition

- Use ShaderDef.IsShaderFamily or ShaderDef::IsShaderFamily with one of the native Softimage shader families or a custom shader family you defined:

      if (oShaderDef.IsShaderFamily("mrLight")) :
      	# do something with light shaders
      else :
      	# do something with non-light shaders

## To assign registered shader families to a custom shader definitions

- Use ShaderDef.AddShaderFamily or ShaderDef::AddShaderFamily, passing the shader family name for each shader family you want to add; however, the second parameter determines whether that family will be primary or not. So if you don't pass a value for that parameter, the last family added will be considered the primary family:

      # Adds the lens shader family only
      oShaderDef.AddShaderFamily(siShaderFamilyLens)

      # Adds the data blob and texture families with texture as primary (because it's
      # the most versatile shader family--it has the fewest connection restrictions of anything)
      oShaderDef.AddShaderFamily(siShaderFamilyTexture, True)
      oShaderDef.AddShaderFamily(siShaderFamilyData, False)

      # Same thing but without specifying second parameter
      oShaderDef.AddShaderFamily(siShaderFamilyData)
      oShaderDef.AddShaderFamily(siShaderFamilyTexture)

Note

To register a custom shader family in Softimage, see Creating Custom Shader Families. To use one of the native Softimage shader families, consult Native Softimage Shader Families for a list of supported families.