Maya python - align pivot to selected edge

Darius1989 · 2020-03-15 13:07:41 UTC

Hey

I’d like to align pivot to a specific edge on an object. I know I can click “insert+edge click on edge” but I need to script it to apply to hundreds of objects to align to specific edge on each of them.

How can I do this?

I got as far as getting edge + its 2 vertexes, I was thinking the next step would be to get the 2 vertexes world position, or maybe 3 if I use 2 edges… and then align tool to x/y/z/rotate/scale/translate using these 2-3 coords. But I have a feeling I’m overcomplicating it…

Can any1 help out?

TIA

barre-njck · 2020-03-19 01:03:46 UTC

Hey!
If i understood you in correct way, you need a script wich is setting your object pivot in the center of selected edge, right?
If so, here is a quick script for you (python)

barre-njck · 2020-03-19 01:19:17 UTC

github.com

BarreNick/Barre/blob/master/alignPivotToselectedEdge

import maya.cmds as mc

# get avarage position of specified vertices
def avgPosition(vertices):
    result = [0,0,0]
    for v in vertices:
        # geting world position of curent vertex
        pos_tmp = mc.pointPosition(v)
        # adding position x y z of curent vertex to result
        result[0] += pos_tmp[0]
        result[1] += pos_tmp[1]
        result[2] += pos_tmp[2]
    
    # geting amount of all vertices
    vtxCount = len(vertices)
    # geting avarage of x y z values
    result[0] /= vtxCount
    result[1] /= vtxCount
    result[2] /= vtxCount

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Darius1989 · 2020-03-19 16:47:24 UTC

Hey Nick

Thanks for looking in to it !

I was messing with it early today, got as far you have posted. But I’m stuck at getting orientation :- )

Say I have a plane, and I select left + bottom edge. I was hoping that I can use the bottom left vertex as my “pivot” position, and then use top vertex+right vertex as my orientation but I’m stuck at getting orientation match… Esentially using top vertex as one axis + right vertex as another axis. To ensure that pivot is aligned to edge. Not just positioned…

The post you made looks about what I did so far, but it does not cover orientation :- )

Thank you again for help ! :- )

I found this post lattely… but havent had time yet to try it > https://www.reddit.com/r/Maya/comments/4lx5cg/align_pivot_to_normal_in_code/

Regards
Dariusz

barre-njck · 2020-03-19 20:51:44 UTC

So you also need to get the orientation.

I tryed first function from your link - it works well. In my case i just edited first line to make it work:
from pymel.cmds import * I changed to from pymel.core import *

Next you need to call this function with name of component. For ex:
orientManipToFace(‘pCube1.e[0]’)

as the result your object pivot will get orientation of setted component. But Maya does’t store object pivot rotation, only it’s position. So you can use bake pivot tool.