How to rotate the scale and move pivot?

[svenip]

double click the move tool in the tool box and set to local. this should help

[stunndman]

"double click the move tool in the tool box and set to local. this should help" - does that rotate my move and scale pivots? i can't see how

i know i can move local - but how can i rotate the local system so that it's axis are not in parallel with the global system

[Galo]

yes it's possible. go into component mode and click the question mark button. then you can select and rotate the local rotation.

And hit insert to move your pivot

[wrend]

thats just a rot axis offset. for local axis: recast your pnts aroudn the origin w a freeze transformatn (like what happens on init. creatn), or just rot _all_ your pnts around in local space (reatains local axis orientatn). going to want to hope the pnts dont carry any sensative locale info. if they do, then maybe just grp a pre-oriented transform for extra scaling/trans frames. or maybe just use a lattice, roting Infl. and Base objects simultaneously to orient as desired b4 transforming. g.luck

[stunndman]

Originally posted by Galo
yes it's possible. go into component mode and click the question mark button. then you can select and rotate the local rotation.

And hit insert to move your pivot

i know i can rotate the local rotation axis - but that doesn't affect the rotation of my translate pivot - and yeah i can move the translate pivot with insert - but can't rotate it - that's the point

i'm stuck - i'll post an image to show what i really want

wrend: i can't quite follow you - maybe i should note that i need this for modeling and not for animation

thx for helping out

[wrend]

modelling-animation, pretty similar. depending on what your animating, i suspect you'll probably want to use the additional transforms approach....create null transfroms by grouping Wrld to itself (empty selectn), rotate this transform node to desired orient, snap/place it to your object and parent your object's current transform under it... now you have two transformation frames to work w... does this work for you?

[Galo]

ahhh, damn i had the same problem cause i rotated my model and then after a while i needed to scale something and it went all wrong cause my pivot was not straight......

lemme look it up 4 ya

[Galo]

hmmm what i did was just freeze my transformation that way he resets your pivot whithout resetting your model

[-wT-]

Maybe you could try the tool named.... uhm... damn, well anyways the one with all the transformation tools in one, scale rotation and transformation in one, like the one you get when you extrude stuff, but just for translating stuff. Maybe if you try to manipulate the pivot with this tool, the pivot has the same transformation tools? :)


Yay! Yet again one of the worst reply's I've ever made, I bet half of you didn't understand a word of that :scream:

[stunndman]

here's a sequence that depicts my problem

http://195.34.140.197/shared/seq1.jpg
image 1 - a plane
http://195.34.140.197/shared/seq2.jpg
image 2 - a plane rotatet -45 degress on the z axis
http://195.34.140.197/shared/seq3.jpg
image 3 - the same plane with freezed transformations

now what i have is image 3 and i want to go to image 2 (or any other arbitrary rotation of the move pivot)

you can see that the move pivot is rotated in image 2 but not anymore in image 3

[Ibanezhead]

I think I understand. I am a Max user and I am thinking of going with Maya. Currently, I am using PLE, and was loving it, until tonight. I CAN'T ROTATE THE PIVOT!!!!!!!!!!! In Max you can select a pivot and rotate it any direction you want without rotating the mesh. So let's say I have an eyeball mesh and I want the Pupil to be aligned with the X axis. Then in Max I would just select my pivot and rotate it to match the Mesh. Or I could rotate my mesh so the pupil aligns with the pivot. Either way. How do you do this in Maya? I have searched and searched, and see nothing... This should be simple...

Vic

[Ibanezhead]

I did a search on the forum and found my answer...


Vic

[stunndman]

Originally posted by Ibanezhead
I did a search on the forum and found my answer...


Vic

share it

[Ibanezhead]

Edit Polygons -> Move Component ->
Select the (?) icon, which should be black now. It is called: Select By Component Type (Misc) ->
Then select your pivot and rotate it...

Hope this helps...

Vic

[stunndman]

no,
this will only rotate the rotate pivot - but not the move and scale pivot

try to solve the plane puzzle posted above

[boomji]

hey dude,
i sympathise cause i use max too.i have a solution...get used to it...ahahhahahah
no seriously, it's a pain in the wrong place but in the end i just end up eye balling where i want my cv's.
trusty ol max thank god i havent abandoned it ;)
b

[Ibanezhead]

Sorry, I think I misunderstood your issue. But this was the solution I was needing...

I haven't quite figured out why Maya is supposed to be better than MAX yet. The more I learn other packages, the more I love MAX...

Vic

[MDC]

Just create a locator. Rotate and position it however you want the local axis to be, parent the locator to the object, and you have a pivot you can use for whatever purpose you want. You can hide the locator so you don't need to look at it cluttering up your scene, and when you need to use it select the surface it's parented to, press the up arrow key to select the hidden locator, and do your transform.

Also, the empty group method above works fine.

[Neil]

I'll have to try it tonight, but in the meantime i was wondering... when i made locators to move IKs (wrists and ankles), they snap right on top of the IK, i like it when they are off of the skin a bit... how do you do that?

[MDC]

Maybe you had point snapping on. You should be able to place a locator anywhere in the world and parent it to the IK handle, without it snapping on top of the joint. If you are having trouble seeing the IK handles through your skin, you can set a custom size for them in the display menu.

[stunndman]

Originally posted by MDC
Just create a locator. Rotate and position it however you want the local axis to be, parent the locator to the object, and you have a pivot you can use for whatever purpose you want. You can hide the locator so you don't need to look at it cluttering up your scene, and when you need to use it select the surface it's parented to, press the up arrow key to select the hidden locator, and do your transform.

Also, the empty group method above works fine.

thanks, i'll give it a try tomorrow

maybe we can work out some script to fix this, let's name it, usability bug

[Neil]

Where would i turn off point snapping?

[Sibben]

Originally posted by Ibanezhead
I haven't quite figured out why Maya is supposed to be better than MAX yet.
Vic

Don't worry, you will... ;)

Each program has it's own approach to things, and also it's limitations. Learning an app is in my opinion much about learning the workarounds and then incorporating them into your workflow.

The transformation tools in Maya are generally straight forward and fast to work with but some things are awfully messy, especially scaling.

[Ibanezhead]

Don't get me wrong, I am loving Maya. But it isn't perfect...

Vic

[steveblake]

I'm wondering if this might help?

Pivot Toolbox V1.3
http://dirk-bialluch.mayaring.com/mel/html/ptb.shtml

"...Set Local Axis , Fit Local Axis , Fit Object...scale and rotate pivot..."

[stunndman]

Originally posted by steveblake
I'm wondering if this might help?

Pivot Toolbox V1.3
http://dirk-bialluch.mayaring.com/mel/html/ptb.shtml

"...Set Local Axis , Fit Local Axis , Fit Object...scale and rotate pivot..."

pivottoolbox is a great package - i'm using it extensively - but it doesn't solve the problem either

i'm looking into scripting a solution - but this will take some time - as the transform node ain't the easiest to understand (for me)

thanks for the help though

[Sibben]

Originally posted by Neil
Where would i turn off point snapping?

On the status bar. Make sure they are not depressed - that's all.

You can actually toggle them via the keyboard too. By pressing for instance v for point snap and then shift and then relasing v before shift. Takes too much practice and precision to be useful though. :hmm:

[lildragon]

Anyone figure this out? not having my local axis working with me is driving me up the wall :argh:

salud

[wrend]

heya,
perhaps if you explain which bit of my posts (on first page of this thread) you dont get, i might be able to explain it better for ya! :)

[lildragon]

Originally posted by wrend
heya,
perhaps if you explain which bit of my posts (on first page of this thread) you dont get, i might be able to explain it better for ya! :)

Yup take a looksee here http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=28532&highlight=resetting+local+axis

mighty annoying, especially when you want to scale along an axis

salud

[lildragon]

Ok found a workaround its dumb but it works (well for me) as in the above link I had a prob with the axis going all screwy when the object is rotated, so what I bascially did was create a primitive, parent the object with the messed up axis to that primitive, and then use the primitive to control the tranformations. It cured my mirroring prob so I'm happy. :)

salud

[boomji]

hey dude...
when'd u catch the bug :hmm:
i thaught u were hard core max :buttrock: .
any way more the merrier i sayyy ;) .
sooo when's u modelling bruce eh !!! :deal: .i'd do bob or abdul then we'd pitch them in a kumite :scream: .
glad youre on.
b

[lildragon]

Hehehe yeah man made the switch a month ago now :) I've seeeeeeeen the light :p read here http://www.kar.eyecandystudios.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11 ;)

salud

[Sibben]

Welcome to the light, lildragon. :)

In time you will realize that the modelling tools in Maya are top-notch too. They are just a little bit different...

[lkomarci]

Edit Polygons -> Move Component ->
Select the (?) icon, which should be black now. It is called: Select By Component Type (Misc) ->
Then select your pivot and rotate it...

Hope this helps...

Vic

yep, the guy is right. it's actually so simple but hard to find. first i've selected the vertices i wanted to line up with the scale tool. then like the Ibanezhead wrote, i went to Edit Polygons > Move Component [box]. and then i just hit the apply button. after that you just gotta press the little blue circle connected with your scale tool and it'll line up just nice.

thanx a million billion Ibanezhead :D

[Emil3d]

In Maya you CAN directly rotate the pivot for the Move and Rotate manipulator.


In component selection mode click the ? icon on the Status bar.
Rotate the pivot of your object.
In the Tool Options check “Along Rotation Axis” for the Move Manipulator and “Local” for the Rotate manipulator.
Most of this was already suggested in this thread but a lot of people including the original poster fail to make it work because they missed to go through step 3.

In Maya you CAN NOT directly rotate the pivot for the Scale Manipulator.
This can be achieved with this solution, which will transfer the axis orientation from one object to another


Create a new object and rotate it the way you want the pivot of your original object to be rotated
Make the original object a child of the new object.
Freeze transformation on the original object
Unparent the original object
Delete the new object
I hope this clarifies how to rotate the pivots of the manipulators in Maya.
If you need to rotate the scale axis a lot in your workflow you may consider this script (http://www.stannogen.org/Scripts/mel/nPointAlign/index.htm) which also does a lot more.

[ThePredator42]

Hi you all,

when I rotate the local rotation axis to where I want it and then switch my rotation tool to local mode, everything works fine.. dto. when I go for the empty-group approach...

BUT all those solutions let me run into the same problem: according to the channel box, my object is rotated -> rx, ry, rz are not 0. I need to be able to get back to the original position though, so I want those to be zero before I rotate the object with it´s new nice rotation axis.
Now the logical thing would be to freeze transform, right? Now that resets my rotation axis again!!!

Am I doing something wrong? Or is it just not possible to ft my empty group?

Thanks!

[Matt_Forcum]

In Maya you CAN directly rotate the pivot for the Move and Rotate manipulator.



In component selection mode click the ? icon on the Status bar.
Rotate the pivot of your object.
In the Tool Options check “Along Rotation Axis” for the Move Manipulator and “Local” for the Rotate manipulator.
Most of this was already suggested in this thread but a lot of people including the original poster fail to make it work because they missed to go through step 3.

In Maya you CAN NOT directly rotate the pivot for the Scale Manipulator.
This can be achieved with this solution, which will transfer the axis orientation from one object to another


Create a new object and rotate it the way you want the pivot of your original object to be rotated
Make the original object a child of the new object.
Freeze transformation on the original object
Unparent the original object
Delete the new object
I hope this clarifies how to rotate the pivots of the manipulators in Maya.
If you need to rotate the scale axis a lot in your workflow you may consider this script (http://www.stannogen.org/Scripts/mel/nPointAlign/index.htm) which also does a lot more.


This method fixes the rotating the axis problem nicely guys. Thanks for the help!

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