Attach, Detach, and Coordinates...

[dmcgrath]

Lots of questions to answer here.

1)Can anyone explain to me the proper way to detach, and attach faces in Maya, in relation to how it is done in MAX? It seems weird to me in Maya at this time. I am confused about extracting and then seperating, and such. In Max you just detach. It seems in Maya, I am getting a bunch of seperated polies and then I have to re-combine those to make the new detached object. Am I doing something wrong? I just want to detach some faces and make it a new object, in one step.

Your main problem with detaching faces lies in not having the polygons options "Keep Faces Together" checked before you extract. You only have to check it once. It will stay that way until you un check it. And then, delete the history, use that command all the time. Maya needs to add extra nodes to keep things straight, and if you look in the outliner, you'll see what I mean.
-----------------------------------------
2)Also I notice that I sometimes can't delete edges or verts. Even when using the "delete verts" command. It just wont let me. What's up with that?

You cant delete some edges and verts, often when it is on an edge of an object. Once again, it could be a history issue, delete the history often.
When you select a line(edge) or a vert dont just push the delete key. You need to use the correct delete command in the polys menu. There is usually some corresponding math that Maya needs to delete as well.
-------------------------------------
3)
And finally, I am confused about Coordinates in Maya. Where are the world coordinates? It seems that everything is displayed as local coordinates and if you reset the transform on something it takes it to zero, rightfully so, but I can't find where the world coordinates are kept. Let's say I need to know exactly where a vert's world coordinates are. Where would I find this? Or if I move a box 2 meters up, reset the transform, and then need to see where in the "world" that box is located at.

I dont think that Maya does relocate the vert X,Y,Z coords for you to see. What it does is tells you where it is in relation the CP of the object. Once you reset or Freeze transforms, it makes it's local space 0,0,0 and therefore unusable for what you need it to do.

My question to you is why would you need this info in the first place? Ive been uning Maya for quite some time now and have never needed the specific info you are wondering about. Its just the way I work, and everyone is different. But if you could tell me why, maybe I can give you an idea for a work around.

[Ibanezhead]

I use Max at work, and these are some things I do when modeling in Max, and I just wanted to know how to transfer that working method over into Maya.

Lets say you have a missle on an airplane that is 3m over on X. Instead of mirroring it, I just copy it, and negate it's X value in the World Coordinates to get a duplicate on the other side.

What if I want to know my center line of verts is exactly at 0? In Max I would select them, scale them on X to tighten them up, and then type in 0 in Max's world Coordinates. Or what if I wanted them all at the same line at 5.34m exactly for some reason?

When UVmaping a model in Max, I often will attach and detach polies and objects to be able to view them together laid out in the UV Unwrap window. I am not familiar with this yet in Maya, so I don't know if I need to do this.

Thanks,

Vic

[dmcgrath]

Okay when you want to dupe somethign over into -X region the work takes a little more work than Max, but its pretty easy.

Take the missle, freeze transformations, and then move the pivot to the 0,0,0 world axis. (the insert key). Then you can just duplicate the missle and look into the channel box and type -1 into the scale X box. I

f you want to "snap" verts to a certian place you can. Say you select around 10 verts. If you hold down the X key and grab an axis handle, they will all snap to a grid line. If you grab the center of the axis handle, they will all snap to the same grid point, stacking one on top of the other. You can also point snap with the V key.

The UV unwrapping doesnt require tehm to be detached form each other. But Im not so good at this. Look at the top of this forum and there are some tuts. on polymapping and texturing.
There is alot of helpful information there.

[wrend]

3.
to do it in your fashion: MMB drag the world space pivot locatn value (found on your transform node, in AEd.), up the transform box at the top (not sure of the UI element name...perhaps quick selectn box ... it has a few functions .. found next to render buttons, on the ...status line)..set it to abs, being absolute wrld coords. negate. use periods to retain values for axes you dont want to change. transform values are in parent space, there really should be an option to display/edit it in world (in AEd. and CBox), easy enuf to make your own window, but still. if you havent been freezing, you should be able to do this by your normal MO, just know who your parents are ...or duplicate to world.

you've got access to read and write to poly vert wrld coords in the component editor. not for CVs tho, your better off dumping a locator at desired and snapping to. not very CADish now is it?

this is all command lineable, obviously.

[Ibanezhead]

Thanks for all the help...

[CGTalk Moderation]

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.