flipping invisible poly edges?

[avinashlobo]

I'm not sure what you mean by 'invisible' quad edge.

Do you mean the edge that's created by automatically tesselating a quad, that's hidden by default in Maya? If so, I believe the correct term is spinning the edge, but I'm not sure why you need to spin these anyway. Whichever way it's facing, it does not affect the rendered output.

Update: Checked up a little more. Turns out you can spin an edge on a quad in Maya. Not the 'invisible' ones though. However, it's (incorrectly) called Flip, which is rather counter-intuitive. Flipping should mean to rotate it 180° resulting in no change to the geometry. Ah well..find it in Edit Polygons -> Flip Triangle Edge.

[robinb]

You can't basically. Maya triangulates its polys more dynamically than Max. They flip direction as you move verts around. Try it. They might even flip direction when deforming with skinning, I'm not sure about that. But basically they wouldn't stay put if you had manual control over them so you don't.

If you definitely want the triangulation to go a specific way, then you'll need to split that poly and put an edge where you want it to go.

And for those that wonder why it's important, it is for games work where it'll export the triangles rather than the polys.

[rob-beddall]

hey!!

thanks guys. suppose i better start getting used to new ways of doing things :)
and yes, sorry, i forgot to mention it was for low poly games work.

cheers!!

[avinashlobo]

Cool. You may want to try this workflow out -

- Open the Script Editor
- Paste these lines into the bottom window -

Triangulate;
ConvertSelectionToContainedEdges;

- Select both those lines.
- Middle click and drag the selection to the Shelf. It will create a button.

Now everytime you select a quad & hit that button, it will split the quad into 2 triangles & automatically select the newly created edge.

To further streamline your work if the triangulation is in the wrong direction, open up the Edit Polygons menu & SHIFT+click on the 'Flip Triangle Edge' command. Shift-clicking will place it on the Shelf as a button.

Hit that button & your edge (already selected) will flip.

Now you have two buttons next to each other which should makes things easier than making dozens of splits.

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