Maya: Make Planar tool?

RyRyB

I'm currently making the switch from Max to Maya.

Is there a Maya-equivalent of Max's Make Planar tool? Basically something that will align poly/edge/vert to a single axis?

Thanks!

This is for Maya 8...

MoP

Not by default. You will probably have to check out highend3d.com and search for a planar script. I'm pretty sure one exists, but I don't have the details.

tacit math

pior had a thread asking for something similar from memory. might be worthwhile running a search for it. other than that. this aint a proper ' make planar ' kinda thing but so far as :

Basically something that will align poly/edge/vert to a single axis?

http://orderindebris.exorsus.net/misc/jkbFlattenVerts_2.1.rar

RyRyB

Thanks folks! Will search around.

Kawe

I don't know how the max tool works. But isn't that the same thing as scaling something to 0% on one axis? I guess it averages things out but if that isn't a problem then I don't see why you can't use that.

Funky Bunnies

yeah, for planar along X,Y,Z you can simply scale while holding J to snap to 0%

for arbitrary planes like in Max, though it's a bit more difficult. I always meant to have a go, but I imagine there's a script for it somewhere already

Kawe

Funky Bunnies wrote: »

yeah, for planar along X,Y,Z you can simply scale while holding J to snap to 0%

for arbitrary planes like in Max, though it's a bit more difficult. I always meant to have a go, but I imagine there's a script for it somewhere already

I think there's a tool that let's you change the axis based on different things... Local Tool maybe? I haven't used Maya in a while so I wouldn't really know. heh.

pior

Yeah but that's always the same old thing : you don't want to have to go and mess with some temporary axis setting when all you want is to flatten faces...

Obviously it's good enough if you only have a couple faces to flatten. But if you use flatten as a modeling tool (jumping all around the model to select and flatten faces in need of straightening), you really want to select, hit a button to flatten to average, jump to the next face(s), hit the button again ... This needs to be fast.

Since Maya cannot do that I personally end up eyeballing such things, correcting planes at vertex level - it slows down things alot...

dnorth

I wrote this little script that averages verts on whichever axis you specifiy - I use this one quite a bit. Of course, it doesn't average on anything except the world X ,Y, or Z (or all 3) - so maybe not exactly what you're looking for - but it might help.

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Average_Verts.mel
// FUNCTION: Averages vert position on X, Y, Z, or all axes
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

//build the window
if (`window -ex AvgVert`) deleteUI AvgVert;
window -w 400 -h 100 -title "Average Verts" AvgVert;
//define the layout of the buttons
columnLayout;
radioCollection AllRadioButtons;
radioButton -label "x" -changeCommand "changeRadio" -select RadioButton1;
radioButton -label "y" -changeCommand "changeRadio" RadioButton2;
radioButton -label "z" -changeCommand "changeRadio" RadioButton3;
radioButton -label "ALL" -changeCommand "changeRadio" RadioButton4;
//button to do average
button -w 150 -label "Average!" -c "DoAverage";
showWindow AvgVert;
global string $selectedAxis = "x";
global proc changeRadio()
{
// If we are here, the radio buttons have changed state.
// We need to find out which button is selected.
string $selectedButton = `radioCollection -query -select AllRadioButtons`;
global string $selectedAxis;

if ($selectedButton == "RadioButton1")
{
$selectedAxis = "x";
print "x selected";
}
else if ($selectedButton == "RadioButton2")
{
$selectedAxis = "y";
print "y selected";
}
else if ($selectedButton == "RadioButton3")
{
$selectedAxis = "z";
print "z selected";
}
else
{
$selectedAxis = "all";
print "all selected";
}
}
global proc DoAverage () {
global string $selectedAxis;
string $selVtx[] = `filterExpand -sm 31 -ex 1 -fp 1`;
if (size($selVtx)<2) error "Not enough vertices selected.";
float $bB[6] = `polyEvaluate -bc`;
float $averX = ($bB[1]+$bB[0])/2;
float $averY = ($bB[3]+$bB[2])/2;
float $averZ = ($bB[5]+$bB[4])/2;
if ($selectedAxis == "x")
{
move -a -x $averX;
}
else if ($selectedAxis == "y")
{
move -a -y $averY;
}
else if ($selectedAxis == "z")
{
move -a -z $averZ;
}
else
{
move -a -x $averX;
move -a -y $averY;
move -a -z $averZ;
}

}

Funky Bunnies

I just had a shot at making a make planar in maya.



I ended up using some pretty lame hacks, but it should work. I'm surprised that I can't find a tool anywhere to do this better. The biggest problem with mine is it flushes your construction history when using the average plane. In the future I'd like to do the math and also make a slider that determines where the plane will be (interpolate between min/max along the plane/axis)

anyway, grab it here if you want

(edit: updated links to the updates i made to the script a while back just in case anyone still wants it)

Ged

just wanted to say thanks funky bunnies, Im gonna have a go at using that script I really dont like eyeballing or doing wierd snapping on important stuff like this.

Brygelsmack

Nice script. But isn't it faster to just hold J while scaling?

Ged

scaling while holding j doesnt do anything at all for me, whats supposed to happen?

Brygelsmack

Basically just makes it planar depending on the axis you scale in. It's the same as turning on discrete scaling (and rotating for that matter) in the settings of these tools. Except when you turn it off, you can use J to activate it without having to go into the settings. Obviously works the other way around as well. It just speeds up your workflow. I suck at explaining, so:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T06DGdLMijg&quot;]Maya Snapping holding J - YouTube[/ame]

Cathodeus

What the J key is standing for ?

Brygelsmack

While holding J you're turning on or off discrete scaling/rotating... Like I said above.

Funky Bunnies

yeah actually i think all of this is possible without a script now

aside from holding J or whatever hotkey you set to 'Discrete Scale' to snap to 0 while you're scaling, you should now have 'Normals Average' as an option in the 'Tool Settings' panel - along with several other options to effectively planarize it however you want

just in case anyone's using an older maya, or they still want to use that script i updated the link in my above post

poopipe

maya 2009 has an average position button in the mesh menu that basically does the same thing . only works in world axes

tristamus

I've been using Maya for 8 years, and now learn that J turns discrete scaling on / off immediately. Lol...love it.

[HP]

yeah, discreet tool ftw. Gets a bit annoying because it's one of those functions who keeps turning itself on and off pretty randomly, but with that being said I cant imagine my life with maya without it anymore.

ENODMI

Discreet is nice, but I prefer to have Funky Bunnies script open all the time... it's just a bit faster for me

Ged

Brygelsmack wrote: »

Basically just makes it planar depending on the axis you scale in. It's the same as turning on discrete scaling (and rotating for that matter) in the settings of these tools. Except when you turn it off, you can use J to activate it without having to go into the settings. Obviously works the other way around as well. It just speeds up your workflow. I suck at explaining, so:

Maya Snapping holding J - YouTube

wierd my maya doesnt seem to do that at all when I hold J no idea whats wrong. Ive been using funky bunnies script instead cause at least I can tell its working.