Maya - Solid Bevel

Phoenix995

Hi,

is there a way to select hard edges and bevel them without the rounded edge?


what i want is, that the "preview" in the picture above is my result

thank you in advance

passerby

try the "Offset Edge Loop Tool"

Phoenix995

thank you very much

Phoenix995

hmm it does not really do what i want... it only works on edge loops and it always selects an whole edge loop to do that...

what i am talking about is a normal bevel operation with 2 segments, but with the middle edge staying the same ^^

Phoenix995

like that

a3D

No, it's not in Maya. Use Insert Edge Loop (or multi-cut context-based loop feature).

Phoenix995

there once was a script out there which had a solid chamfer option!
but now it is not ^^
maybe anybody has a similar script or knows some script like that...

it was called http://sourceforge.net/projects/bpt/?source=dlp

here is the description: http://old.byronimo.de/docs/BPT/1.0/html/BPT_bevel.htm

Phoenix995

no idea?

Mogul

now we can extrude edge like max and solid chamfer with this https://github.com/Byron/bsuite.
it works with maya 2015. can someone with experience C++ maya plugin compile it so it works with maya 2016? i think he share the source code too.

maksoon

please version for maya 2016

claydough

might get you 99.n percent there:



though it looks correct each individual edge is still rounded by .n degrees.

( upping the roundness value past 100 gives no more apparent advantage )

Stromberg90

claydough: Smart trick that, will come in handy

Fansub

+1 Claydough.


Just set the default roundness value to 100 and use the Auto fit toggle to switch between the Solid and chamfer bevel profiles.

Keep in mind that you can't have more than two segments using this technique for Solid Bevel.If you go over 2 segments you will have some bloby corners.

dive

I want this so bad... the roundness value trick messes up your faces a tiny bit.. not perfect. so annoying that max and modo have this but maya can't do it. it would save so much time if you have to do highly detailed hard surface like bulagorv style mechs or detailed airplane rotars/landing gear.

Ingwarr

Fansub said:

Just set the default roundness value to 100 and use the Auto fit toggle to switch between the Solid and chamfer bevel profiles.

No good ... 

m4dcow

Funnily enough, a few hours after I saw this post, I got an email notification that this very thing is under review on the maya feedback site
http://mayafeedback.autodesk.com/forums/160518-small-annoying-things-to-fix-in-maya-forum/suggestions/3881095-bevel-tool-should-be-able-to-create-a-perfectly-fl

Maybe it makes it into the next version? Either way, go sign up and vote for it, and other annoying maya stuff too.

Phoenix995

Very cool!
Hopefully it will be in the next version of Maya

dive

its kind of annoying both modo and max have this, byron's doesn't work for 2016! ughh

m4dcow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8i8DbB2s0Yw#t=64
Can't be certain on a flat face, but that miter "patch" option at about 1:05 sure does look promising

Phoenix995

hm maya lt 16
is it out jet?

m4dcow

Phoenix995 said:

hm maya lt 16
is it out jet?

It says download today, but I read that Extension 3 won't be out until mid April.

Phoenix995

Any news on that?

Treidge

We have to wait until April, 18.

Phoenix995

Ah ok

Treidge

So, no Maya 2017 for now. Instead, we get Extension 2. What's new list already available in Maya docs: http://help.autodesk.com/view/MAYAUL/2016/ENU/?guid=GUID-9EB2C812-0755-422A-B472-FB4BD6ACC4E2

If I'm not mistaken the "solid bevel" is present:
 

m4dcow

Treidge said:

So, no Maya 2017 for now. Instead, we get Extension 2. What's new list already available in Maya docs: http://help.autodesk.com/view/MAYAUL/2016/ENU/?guid=GUID-9EB2C812-0755-422A-B472-FB4BD6ACC4E2

If I'm not mistaken the "solid bevel" is present:
 

Yup, was just about to post that here. Modeling-wise the curve warp looks cool too, and they have some interesting UV stuff also.

GlowingPotato

Treidge said:

So, no Maya 2017 for now. Instead, we get Extension 2. What's new list already available in Maya docs: http://help.autodesk.com/view/MAYAUL/2016/ENU/?guid=GUID-9EB2C812-0755-422A-B472-FB4BD6ACC4E2

If I'm not mistaken the "solid bevel" is present:
 

But That is only with maya extension

Phoenix995

looks nice

m4dcow

I downloaded the Maya LT 2016 Ext 3 trial to check this out.
While the feature is there, it creates odd geometry on non right angled shapes though.

Phoenix995

omg... 

Treidge

Good news, everyone! I've happened to get attention of Maya product manager to this issues while this feature is still hot and there's a chance that it will be considered for further improvements. While we can't know for sure how this will turn out, it is encouraging nonetheless.

Klaudio2U

Did you tried something like changing Miter Along - Edge and Force Parallel turn on? 

Treidge

Yes, this makes little difference. Force parallel isn't working to full extent, some edges still come skewed.

m4dcow

Treidge said:

Good news, everyone! I've happened to get attention of Maya product manager to this issues while this feature is still hot and there's a chance that it will be considered for further improvements. While we can't know for sure how this will turn out, it is encouraging nonetheless.

Good news indeed, hopefully those issue get fixed.

maksoon

Maybe someone can compile the plugin Byron Suite  for version 2016? The author himself does not want to deal with this, but said it was not so difficult for the programmer. It will be possible to use the solid chamfer with the correct Bevel the edges.

CreativeSheep

They improved some smaller things that people consider important in Maya.  
Treidge - Talking to product Managers means nothing; I've talked to some of Autodesk tool developers but they don't have the freedom to fix and release a patch within a week.  They have rules to follow, and as much as I too would like those rules broken, it isn't going to happen. You can only hope next extension for 2016 they add it.

m4dcow

CreativeSheep said:

They improved some smaller things that people consider important in Maya.  
Treidge - Talking to product Managers means nothing; I've talked to some of Autodesk tool developers but they don't have the freedom to fix and release a patch within a week.  They have rules to follow, and as much as I too would like those rules broken, it isn't going to happen. You can only hope next extension for 2016 they add it.

Since not being able to keep the edge parallel with chamfering off is a bug of sorts, it is something that could be fixed in a service pack rather than an extension.

Treidge

I've never expected a fix for this in a week or so in the first place. As you said, most likely it will not happen until the next release. However, I can't agree that voicing our concerns means nothing. True, developers themselves aren't free in their decisions on how to schedule their tasks and priorities, but if no one even speaks of the issues - then possibility that something will change for good sooner than later is a matter of chance, and given the complexity of Maya this chance is slim.

We can clearly see how Maya was improved in latest versions in modeling and UV editing, so at least the team responsible for this development is taking their work seriously. Taking into account how decisions are made in entities like Autodesk, what we can and actually should be doing is to speak to the devs and spotlight the issues we see, suggest the ideas for further development and provide feedback at the right time and in the right places. The developers then will be able to take our voices to their managment and say "See? This is what people want. We need to put a man to work on this now". Without users like us showing what they really want to be done the devs will be unable to back their ideas before the higher-ups, so they would be unable to work on features we want even if the devs themselves actually want to do something about it.

Long story short: we can't take a direct control of this hippopotamus, but we can tickle it in the right place to make a move we want here and there.

kodde

M4DCOW> Did you try changing the "Miter Along" setting? I got it working better with it set to "Edge".

Falkrum

kodde said:

M4DCOW> Did you try changing the "Miter Along" setting? I got it working better with it set to "Edge".

Right, works pretty clean 

m4dcow

Close but no cigar, I'm ecstatic about the improvement, but it still has it's quirks. Miter along edge works pretty well, but there are still some funky areas, with a smaller bevel like I would actually use in practice this would be hard to tell but they are different widths in certain places, and as established earlier in the post force parallel doesn't work with chamfer off.

Treidge

Actually, I think that Force Parallel should be On. The full stack of settings is: Chamfer = OFF, Force Parallel = ON, Miter Along = Edge. However, as it was already confirmed, even like this some edges will be skewed a bit. I hope that devs will find a solution to fix this, but I'm suspecting it will not be as simple as "we will add a line here and fix a typo there".

m4dcow

So I just posted a bug/request on the Maya feedback site, basically when you use offset bevels, the width you actually get doesn't behave like it used to. Vote for it so maybe it gets fixed
http://mayafeedback.autodesk.com/forums/160518-small-annoying-things-to-fix-in-maya-forum/suggestions/13650486-2016-ext2-bevel-using-offset-world-units-doesn-t

Treidge

*sigh* Voted for it with my collegue. Seems like this was introduced by the newer bevel algorithm of Maya 2016, as it is reproduced in Maya 2016 without Extension 2. The old algorithm, forced with the following command, behaves correctly:

polyBevel -com 1 -fraction 0.5 -offsetAsFraction 1 -autoFit 1 -segments 1 -worldSpace 1 -uvAssignment 0 -smoothingAngle 30 -fillNgons 1 -mergeVertices 1 -mergeVertexTolerance 0.0001 -miteringAngle 180 -angleTolerance 180 -ch 1

CreativeSheep

Where does ByronsPolyTools fit into this issue with Maya, other then it has a better bevel algorithm, from what I understand ?