Maya / PyQt: A variation of https://gist.github.com/justinfx/1381489 where we embed the Render View, instead

mayaQtEmbedRenderView.py

from PyQt4 import QtCore, QtGui
 
import maya.cmds as cmds
import maya.OpenMayaUI as mui
 
import sip
 
global app
 
 
class MyDialog(QtGui.QDialog):
 
    def __init__(self, parent, **kwargs):
        super(MyDialog, self).__init__(parent, **kwargs)
        
        self.setObjectName("MyWindow")
        self.resize(800, 600)
        self.setWindowTitle("PyQt ModelPanel Test")
 
        self.verticalLayout = QtGui.QVBoxLayout(self)
        self.verticalLayout.setContentsMargins(0,0,0,0)
        
        # need to set a name so it can be referenced by maya node path
        self.verticalLayout.setObjectName("mainLayout")
        
        # First use SIP to unwrap the layout into a pointer
        # Then get the full path to the UI in maya as a string
        layout = mui.MQtUtil.fullName(long(sip.unwrapinstance(self.verticalLayout)))
        cmds.setParent(layout)
 
        paneLayout = cmds.paneLayout()
        self.modelPanelName = cmds.modelPanel("customRenderViewPanel", label="Custom Render View")
        
        # Get the actual Qt objects from the Maya fullpaths
        ptr = mui.MQtUtil.findControl(paneLayout)
        self.paneLayout = sip.wrapinstance(long(ptr), QtCore.QObject)
        
        ptr = mui.MQtUtil.findControl(self.modelPanelName)
        self.modelPanel = sip.wrapinstance(long(ptr), QtCore.QObject)
 
        # add our QObject reference to the modelPanel to our layout
        self.verticalLayout.addWidget(self.paneLayout)
 
    def showEvent(self, event):
        super(MyDialog, self).showEvent(event)
        
        # Set the panel to the Render View when the window is shown
        self.modelPanel.repaint()
        cmds.scriptedPanel("renderView", edit=True, rp=self.modelPanelName)
                    
 
def show():
    global app
    
    app = QtGui.QApplication.instance()
 
    # get a pointer to the maya main window
    ptr = mui.MQtUtil.mainWindow()
    # use sip to wrap the pointer into a QObject
    win = sip.wrapinstance(long(ptr), QtCore.QObject)
    
    d = MyDialog(win)
    d.show()
 
    return d
    
try:
    d.deleteLater()
except:
    pass    
d = show()

renderViewCbkHooks.py

"""
Example of hooking into the add/remove callbacks of the Render View panel.

Since the scriptedPanelType() apparently only deals in MEL, we have to 
write MEL wrappers for our python callback functions. 

This could potentially be used to change our custom display when we lose 
the Render View to another panel view, or another view gives up its view 
of the Render View panel.
"""

import maya.cmds as cmds
import maya.mel as mm

def addRenderWindowPanel(panelName):
    print "addRenderWindowPanel!", panelName
    mm.eval('addRenderWindowPanel "%s"' % panelName)

def removeRenderWindowPanel(panelName):
    print "removeRenderWindowPanel!", panelName
    mm.eval('removeRenderWindowPanel "%s"' % panelName)


mm.eval('''proc addRenderWindowPanelCust(string $panelName) 
           { 
               python("addRenderWindowPanel('" + $panelName + "')"); 
           }
        ''')

mm.eval('''proc removeRenderWindowPanelCust(string $panelName) 
           { 
               python("removeRenderWindowPanel('" + $panelName + "')"); 
           }
        ''')

cmds.scriptedPanelType("renderWindowPanel", e=True, acb='addRenderWindowPanelCust')
cmds.scriptedPanelType("renderWindowPanel", e=True, rcb='removeRenderWindowPanelCust')