Maya is killing me

Avanthera

Hey guys, been off of the forums for a while to try and figure what was going on with all of my models. It all began when I was creating the props from the Big sandwich art test, you can see some of the errors here: http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?t=69375&page=2

It seems that maya is exporting my models with hard edges on uv seams and other random spots. it looks fine in maya, until it gets into xnormal, max, or marmoset
the main problem is that I cant change the edge hardness until I export it as an obj and import back in. I then can change one group of edges before it wont allow me to change it anymore, and I have to re-import.

also, I have had problems with face normals, essentially the same thing, but a face will look ok in maya, not in any other program,
export, import, and now the problem is visible in maya and im now able to fix it.
What is this? I dont even.:poly127:
oh, and maya 2008, latest versions of xnormal an marm

bugo

are you exporting with smooth on obj settings? Before exporting, u might did some mistake inside Maya, try unlocking all normals and redoing it and export again deleting all freeze transformations and history.

pior

something i noticed rencently while passing models over from maya to max using FBX : there is a FBX export option about preserving hard edges - you want to turn it OFF. Yeah go figure! But it works.

ajr2764

Where in Atlanta do you live, havent come across anybody else on here from Atlanta.

Avanthera

its not the export, its like i cant change the model inside of maya until i export/import, then it will allow me to make one change with smoothing groups, then it will lock it up again.
i tried deleting history, doing mass changes, one edge at a time, but I always have to do the whole export/import thing to get any changes done, I think I'll reinstall Maya

And ajr2764,
hey! north atlanta, near brookhaven station, rich section in a cheap apt

CheeseOnToast

As mentioned above, have you tried normals>unlock?

ajr2764

Well shrew thats nice to know some other people in the state around here, I stay in Buckhead go to school at the Art Institute.

Avanthera

wow, so that worked, it set all of my normals to hard, and allowed me to change them, thanks!

pior

Oh yeah unlock often works. Normal locking never proves useful, I wonder why they even keep it?
You can also add an extra safety and perform a normals>set to face. Everything will be raw and hard edged, ready for edits.

Good luck!

ivars

Could it be that you are using "avarage normals" instead of soften?
I see this alot and it tends to lock your normals.

System

Why are you using .obj? XNormal comes with native (.sbm) plugins for max and maya which are the most accurate in interpreting your model. I've never had a problem with .sbm but have had many problems with .obj.

Avanthera

ivars:
no, Ive been using soften, didnt know there was a difference between the two though.
Ive never seen this locked normals thing before, doing research now:)

gcmp:
well, Ive always used .obj
and Ive been taking the model in between marmoset, xnormal, and maya.
but the problem is not with the objs, they work perfectly. its just inside of maya, ive been having problems.
what is better with .sbm? why is it better than obj?

pior

tangents, and a more consistent implementation between different importers and exporters.