rotation from pointOnSurface ?

[NaughtyNathan]

as long as PointOnSurface can return the surface normal at the given point (I'm guessing it does) you can do this. You just need a function to convert a single normal vector into a x,y,z rotation. Such a calculation is not trivial, but should be quite easy to find on the net.. however you're luck is in as I've already written such a proc! ;)

give it an object (transform) name and a vector and it will rotate the object so it's Y axis points along the vector (it's position doesn't change)

e.g:

rotateObjectToVector pCube1 <<-0.57735,0.57735,0.57735>>;


global proc rotateObjectToVector(string $object,vector $V)
{
float $m[16] = `getAttr ($object+".worldMatrix")`; // the original matrix
float $xLen = `mag <<$m[00],$m[01],$m[02]>>`;
float $yLen = `mag <<$m[04],$m[05],$m[06]>>`;
float $zLen = `mag <<$m[08],$m[09],$m[10]>>`;
vector $A = unit(cross($V,<<rand(1),rand(1),rand(1)>>)); // dummy cross 1
vector $B = unit(cross($V,$A)); // dummy cross 2
vector $X = ($A * $xLen);
vector $Y = ($V * $yLen);
vector $Z = ($B * $zLen);
xform -matrix
($X.x) ($X.y) ($X.z) 0
($Y.x) ($Y.y) ($Y.z) 0
($Z.x) ($Z.y) ($Z.z) 0
$m[12] $m[13] $m[14] 1
$object;
}

bear in mind that you cannot assume any kind of "sensible" rotation from a single vector, so while your object will be correctly pointed in the normal direction it may be at any arbitrary Y rotation!

hope this helps!

:nathaN

[CrustedInk]

oh damn. nathan, you are my hero :) the second solution you posted for my problem. great, it works fine. some little tweaks and the script is more or less perfect... ^^ i mean.. it works. i'll post it here, when it's done

[trancor]

Maybe I got here a little too late; but there is a command called rot, you put in a vector in space, you put in an axis vector, and then a radian (either that or an angle) for how much you want the object to rotate. And it rotates. You can find the face normal with polyInfo -faceNormals

But what ever, you seem like you got an answer

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