Dunno the outliner seems pretty good already, it could definitely be improved, but I don't really see the point in your mockup image, as you can do pretty much the same thing by just adding an extra layer of groups.
Display layers are a whole other story and shouldn't be mixed in to your scene hierarchy like that in my opinion.
For instance I often have groups for different assets, and in those groups a group for the lowpoly, and one for the highpoly of that specific asset, and in addition to that a display layer containing all my lowpoly and one containing all my hipoly, to show/hide either one of the whole scene. Couldn't really do it like that with your suggested setup
also consider that just useing the outliner with groups also lets, you make the hierarchy as deep as you want, and it's pretty easy to just hide and isolate whole groups.
i think the maya outliner kicks the max outliner ass if your counting out of the box tools for both packages.
also consider that just useing the outliner with groups also lets, you make the hierarchy as deep as you want, and it's pretty easy to just hide and isolate whole groups.
i think the maya outliner kicks the max outliner ass if your counting out of the box tools for both packages.
oh i agree Im not comparing to max I just cant understand why there are layers AND an outliner, I can do similar things in both so I dont see why they arent just one thing: Layers with nested groups and objects etc that way you can do all your organising and showing and hiding in one place and always have it docked on screen ready to be used( JUST like photoshop).
Bal I understand there may be some benefit of having a seperate outliner and layers but cant understand what you are describing. it sounds like you could do exactly what you are currently doing in my mockup idea it would just require you turning both lowpoly groups to hide and both highpoly groups to visible when needed, a few extra clicks thats all.
if I could dock the outliner where the layers tab is down the bottom left I think that could be a good compromise for me but then i lose the layer functionality of reference and hide buttons etc
Something that might be interesting is seeing if the Display Render and Anim tabs are accessible through the maya mel and I wonder if you can tack on an outliner tab. Though in all honesty i just work in the Persp/Outliner view and just space back and forth if I need something though mainly if Im doing rigging (which I barely do :P) I just use the up key as bardler mentioned to select the group and just use show all or space back to the outliner and shift h.
Something that might be interesting is seeing if the Display Render and Anim tabs are accessible through the maya mel and I wonder if you can tack on an outliner tab. Though in all honesty i just work in the Persp/Outliner view and just space back and forth if I need something though mainly if Im doing rigging (which I barely do :P) I just use the up key as bardler mentioned to select the group and just use show all or space back to the outliner and shift h.
best you could prolly do, is implemeant a new panel that contains the outliner and layer editor, via pyqt, but ay im the same as you i just use the outliner/viewport view
so you lose a viewport in order to have the outliner on screen? seems a bit counter productive? how do u get that viewport back quickly if u need it eg switch quickly between right side view and outliner?
I just always stay in outliner + viewport mode, if for whatever reasons I want to switch to one of the ortho cameras I hold-space quick drag in the right direction, or I have keyboard shortcuts as well (more like in Max).
Like this :
string $modelPanel = `getPanel -underPointer`;
lookThroughModelPanel front $modelPanel;
Make 4 shortcuts and replace "front" by persp, top, side accordingly.
I just always stay in outliner + viewport mode, if for whatever reasons I want to switch to one of the ortho cameras I hold-space quick drag in the right direction, or I have keyboard shortcuts as well (more like in Max).
Like this :
string $modelPanel = `getPanel -underPointer`;
lookThroughModelPanel front $modelPanel;
Make 4 shortcuts and replace "front" by persp, top, side accordingly.
ya im actually working on a 1 button solution, that works kinda similar to zbrush viewport snapping, just hit the key while in percpective, and it figures out what ortho is closest to the angle you got in percpective, and goes to it.
hey guys is there any simple way to cut a curve into a very very low poly surface? I tried using a projected curve but maya keeps telling me that it "cant perform polysplit" unless I go mad and add tons of geo for it to use - which completely defeats the point!
hey guys is there any simple way to cut a curve into a very very low poly surface? I tried using a projected curve but maya keeps telling me that it "cant perform polysplit" unless I go mad and add tons of geo for it to use - which completely defeats the point!
so you just want to cut, a curve as edges into a low poly surface?
persnally i would just draw the curve on-top, than use the interactive-spilt, tool and snap to the curve amd more or less just use it as a guide for manually cutting, since your wanting to cut into a low polygon surface.
thanks to both of you. I will see what I can do, passerby I came to the same conclusion as you and ended up using curves as guides and then just manually cutting into the lowpoly geo to make the shapes.
The outliners getting a lot of love here, thought I'd share this nugget
If you drag the bottom border of the outliner window, you get a duplicate outliner panel, useful if your working in very deep hierarchies that span beyond the screen height and need to move things around.
The outliners getting a lot of love here, thought I'd share this nugget
If you drag the bottom border of the outliner window, you get a duplicate outliner panel, useful if your working in very deep hierarchies that span beyond the screen height and need to move things around.
hey just thought Id say thanks for all the support so far, I feel real comfy in maya now and pretty speedy too. I still have some confusion when it comes to small things like the unfold tool and layout tool. Is there a someone who can explain what all those settings do and when and where to use them?
I found this video the most helpful so far [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GuF9V6h1Nk"]Unfolding a UV Mesh - Part 2 - YouTube[/ame]
This video helped me a lot with the Maya unwrap tools. http://vimeo.com/16590844
The only thing he says that I don't agree with is the relax tool being useless. The relax tool is meant to fix overlapping issues, and after you relax a little bit do another unfold and it makes it a lot better.
Also plug ins like UV-Delux are really nice to have.
ya nightShades uv editor has dedicated buttons for horizontal and vertical unfold also which really helps speed that up a little.
not sure if people would find it usefull or not but i could write a little code that does both unwraps, and chooses when one to do first based on the amount of area covered. so if your shell was wider than it was tall it would unwrap U first than V.
hey thats a good idea but Im finding the smooth unfold works for me most of the time anyway .
got a new question, I seem to be able to set my undo level to infinite which is great but I cant set up the number of redos and for some reason I can only ever do one or two redos and then it tells me that its not possible to redo?
I also get a lot of crashes with the interactive split tool(cut new edges tool) which is really really annoying!
This video helped me a lot with the Maya unwrap tools. http://vimeo.com/16590844
The only thing he says that I don't agree with is the relax tool being useless. The relax tool is meant to fix overlapping issues, and after you relax a little bit do another unfold and it makes it a lot better.
Also plug ins like UV-Delux are really nice to have.
The absolutely best thing about his method is that you can save out the MEL code for horizontal and vertical unfold and add it to your shelf. By doing this you can unfold multiple shells at the same time, which is a massive time saver and something you can't do using the other unfold tool (where you drag the bar until it stops). You can do it from the popup window but it's an unnecessary extra step.
hey thats a good idea but Im finding the smooth unfold works for me most of the time anyway .
got a new question, I seem to be able to set my undo level to infinite which is great but I cant set up the number of redos and for some reason I can only ever do one or two redos and then it tells me that its not possible to redo?
I also get a lot of crashes with the interactive split tool(cut new edges tool) which is really really annoying!
thanks yeah Im using the old split polygon tool for all cutting of polys these days.
sorry to dig this thread up but I have another question:
an ongoing issue my workmate and I are having with maya is that it doesnt seem to lock you in to an editing mode(eg vert or poly edit mode) once you are editing. So Im snapping verts and click on another mesh that I dont want to edit and suddenly its selected the new object I dont want or when Im selecting polys and switch to side view to select some but theres an object in the way so it wont let me select the polys. This really sucks, can I lock myself into an edit mode on an object so that I cant click on any other objects until Im done?
I know I can isolate an object or hide other objects around it but I dont want to do those things most of the time as those other objects are all part of the same model and inform my design decisions etc.
hmmm that is already unchecked by default...what does that do anyway? also theres an "auto select asset" checkbox that I see is checked...what would that be doing? I might just do some experiments now. thanks
hmmm that is already unchecked by default...what does that do anyway? also theres an "auto select asset" checkbox that I see is checked...what would that be doing? I might just do some experiments now. thanks
was a shot in the dark, with that option off, it should prefer selections of the same mode your in over objects
You could always assign those other parts to a layer and switch the layer to Reference. This would prevent any interaction with the object but still have it visible in the scene.
You could always assign those other parts to a layer and switch the layer to Reference. This would prevent any interaction with the object but still have it visible in the scene.
yeah but this is a constant issue with every model I ever work on so I cant go setting up layers for everything. basically the right click mode select radial menu doesnt work a lot of the time because there are models obscuring the actual model I have already selected. same problem when editing an objects verts etc and other objects keep getting selected by mistake.
I have recently found that right clicking in the gray space around the models allows me to select an edit mode without swapping to a model I dont want. This is ok but not the workflow I was imagining but at least I can select a mode but editing is still a tricky thing with multiple models near eachother.
Occasionally accidental "activation" of other models happens to me but it's stored in undo history so a simple Z stroke to undo keeps my work flow going mostly uninterrupted. If none of the things already suggested help your problem, it might be something you'll just end up having to work around. *shrug*
I personally use isolate/un-isolate a lot. I will isolate an object or group of faces to get the selection I need, then un-isolate, which lets me work with my selection and use reference cues from surrounding objects. I re-bound Isolate Selection to ALT + ` because I use it so often.
The only other thing I can think to suggest is the use of hotkeys for switching between component modes. F8 thru F12 toggles Object, Vertex, Edge, Face, and UVs respectively. I rarely use the radial menu for switching modes because I think it's slow, but it depends on one's own work flow preferences.
F8 thru F12 toggles Object, Vertex, Edge, Face, and UVs respectively. I rarely use the radial menu for switching modes because I think it's slow, but it depends on one's own work flow preferences.
yeah I prefer this way of doing things on a pc but its a pain in the ass on a mac as you have to disable all the default mac features of those buttons I do just work around these problems at the moment and its pretty fast but Im always looking for ways to improve my workflow if possible.
Is there any way to fix it ? Script or something. I can write python script that would store selected components in quick selection sets before SplitPolygonTool invocation, and restore selected components from set after we change context of tool. But maybe there is a better way ?
Ok.
So i write a simple script.
And it's works, but unfortunately only once.
Second time you use it script jumps to the end part and invoke previously selected components.
And i can't understand why ? Can someone please help with it.
# Error: line 1: A scriptJob cannot be killed while it is running.
# Traceback (most recent call last):
# File "C:/Users/<user>/Documents/maya/2015-x64/scripts\XSI_SplitPolygonTool.py", line 84, in myFunction
# my_sel_returne()
# File "C:/Users/<user>/Documents/maya/2015-x64/scripts\XSI_SplitPolygonTool.py", line 99, in my_sel_returne
# jobKilla()
# File "C:/Users/<user>/Documents/maya/2015-x64/scripts\XSI_SplitPolygonTool.py", line 104, in jobKilla
# myscriptJobKill = mc.scriptJob(kill=myscriptJob, force=True)
# RuntimeError: A scriptJob cannot be killed while it is running.
Replies
Dunno the outliner seems pretty good already, it could definitely be improved, but I don't really see the point in your mockup image, as you can do pretty much the same thing by just adding an extra layer of groups.
Display layers are a whole other story and shouldn't be mixed in to your scene hierarchy like that in my opinion.
For instance I often have groups for different assets, and in those groups a group for the lowpoly, and one for the highpoly of that specific asset, and in addition to that a display layer containing all my lowpoly and one containing all my hipoly, to show/hide either one of the whole scene. Couldn't really do it like that with your suggested setup
i think the maya outliner kicks the max outliner ass if your counting out of the box tools for both packages.
oh i agree Im not comparing to max I just cant understand why there are layers AND an outliner, I can do similar things in both so I dont see why they arent just one thing: Layers with nested groups and objects etc that way you can do all your organising and showing and hiding in one place and always have it docked on screen ready to be used( JUST like photoshop).
Bal I understand there may be some benefit of having a seperate outliner and layers but cant understand what you are describing. it sounds like you could do exactly what you are currently doing in my mockup idea it would just require you turning both lowpoly groups to hide and both highpoly groups to visible when needed, a few extra clicks thats all.
if I could dock the outliner where the layers tab is down the bottom left I think that could be a good compromise for me but then i lose the layer functionality of reference and hide buttons etc
best you could prolly do, is implemeant a new panel that contains the outliner and layer editor, via pyqt, but ay im the same as you i just use the outliner/viewport view
Like this :
string $modelPanel = `getPanel -underPointer`;
lookThroughModelPanel front $modelPanel;
Make 4 shortcuts and replace "front" by persp, top, side accordingly.
ya im actually working on a 1 button solution, that works kinda similar to zbrush viewport snapping, just hit the key while in percpective, and it figures out what ortho is closest to the angle you got in percpective, and goes to it.
so you just want to cut, a curve as edges into a low poly surface?
persnally i would just draw the curve on-top, than use the interactive-spilt, tool and snap to the curve amd more or less just use it as a guide for manually cutting, since your wanting to cut into a low polygon surface.
If you drag the bottom border of the outliner window, you get a duplicate outliner panel, useful if your working in very deep hierarchies that span beyond the screen height and need to move things around.
HOLLLLY SHIT. Nice tip
I found this video the most helpful so far [ame="
http://vimeo.com/16590844
The only thing he says that I don't agree with is the relax tool being useless. The relax tool is meant to fix overlapping issues, and after you relax a little bit do another unfold and it makes it a lot better.
Also plug ins like UV-Delux are really nice to have.
not sure if people would find it usefull or not but i could write a little code that does both unwraps, and chooses when one to do first based on the amount of area covered. so if your shell was wider than it was tall it would unwrap U first than V.
got a new question, I seem to be able to set my undo level to infinite which is great but I cant set up the number of redos and for some reason I can only ever do one or two redos and then it tells me that its not possible to redo?
I also get a lot of crashes with the interactive split tool(cut new edges tool) which is really really annoying!
What version are you using?
IST has crashed Maya the most for me
sorry to dig this thread up but I have another question:
an ongoing issue my workmate and I are having with maya is that it doesnt seem to lock you in to an editing mode(eg vert or poly edit mode) once you are editing. So Im snapping verts and click on another mesh that I dont want to edit and suddenly its selected the new object I dont want
I know I can isolate an object or hide other objects around it but I dont want to do those things most of the time as those other objects are all part of the same model and inform my design decisions etc.
was a shot in the dark, with that option off, it should prefer selections of the same mode your in over objects
yeah but this is a constant issue with every model I ever work on so I cant go setting up layers for everything. basically the right click mode select radial menu doesnt work a lot of the time because there are models obscuring the actual model I have already selected. same problem when editing an objects verts etc and other objects keep getting selected by mistake.
I have recently found that right clicking in the gray space around the models allows me to select an edit mode without swapping to a model I dont want. This is ok but not the workflow I was imagining but at least I can select a mode but editing is still a tricky thing with multiple models near eachother.
I personally use isolate/un-isolate a lot. I will isolate an object or group of faces to get the selection I need, then un-isolate, which lets me work with my selection and use reference cues from surrounding objects. I re-bound Isolate Selection to ALT + ` because I use it so often.
The only other thing I can think to suggest is the use of hotkeys for switching between component modes. F8 thru F12 toggles Object, Vertex, Edge, Face, and UVs respectively. I rarely use the radial menu for switching modes because I think it's slow, but it depends on one's own work flow preferences.
yeah I prefer this way of doing things on a pc but its a pain in the ass on a mac as you have to disable all the default mac features of those buttons
http://youtu.be/KWZHEmmiU60
Is there any way to fix it ? Script or something. I can write python script that would store selected components in quick selection sets before SplitPolygonTool invocation, and restore selected components from set after we change context of tool. But maybe there is a better way ?
So i write a simple script.
And it's works, but unfortunately only once.
Second time you use it script jumps to the end part and invoke previously selected components.
And i can't understand why ? Can someone please help with it.
import maya.cmds as mc # this script creates 3 selection sets with preselected components # after that it invoke SplitPolygonTool and start scriptjob with event "ToolChanged" # so when context of SplitPolygonTool changes script delete sets and reselect components def xsi_split_polygon_tool(): global myscriptJob global myObject myObject=mc.ls(hl=True) print '\n \n myObject %s \n \n'%myObject global mySelType mySelected = mc.ls(sl=True, fl=True) print '\n \n mySelected %s \n \n'%mySelected mySelectedVerts= mc.filterExpand(sm = (31)) print '\n \n mySelectedVerts %s \n \n'%mySelectedVerts if mySelectedVerts: mySelType = 'Verts' print 'VERTS !!!' mySelectedEdges= mc.filterExpand(sm = (32)) print '\n \n mySelectedEdges %s \n \n'%mySelectedEdges if mySelectedEdges: mySelType = 'Edges' print 'EDGES !!!' mySelectedFaces= mc.filterExpand(sm = (34)) print '\n \n mySelectedFaces %s \n \n'%mySelectedFaces if mySelectedFaces: mySelType = 'Faces' print 'FACES !!!' mc.select (myObject) mc.hilite (myObject) # mc.selectMode(co = True) mc.selectType(pf = True) myCompFaces=mc.ls(sl=True, fl=True) mc.selectType(pe = True) myCompEdges=mc.ls(sl=True, fl=True) mc.selectType(pv = True) myCompVerts=mc.ls(sl=True, fl=True) print '\n \n myCompVerts %s \n \n'%myCompVerts print '\n \n myCompEdges %s \n \n'%myCompEdges print '\n \n myCompFaces %s \n \n'%myCompFaces mc.sets(myCompVerts, n='MySetsVerts') mc.sets(myCompEdges, n='MySetsEdges') mc.sets(myCompFaces, n='MySetsFaces') myCurrentContext = mc.currentCtx() print '\n \n myCurrentContext: %s \n \n'%myCurrentContext mc.setToolTo('polySplitContext') mySettedContext = mc.currentCtx() print '\n \n mySettedContext: %s \n \n'%mySettedContext myscriptJob = mc.scriptJob(event=["ToolChanged", myFunction]) print '\n \n myscriptJob: %s \n \n'%myscriptJob def myFunction(): print '\n \n MY FUNCTION STARTED \n \n' myCompVertsReselect=(mc.sets('MySetsVerts', q=True)) myCompEdgesReselect=(mc.sets('MySetsEdges', q=True)) myCompFacesReselect=(mc.sets('MySetsFaces', q=True)) mc.delete ('MySetsVerts', 'MySetsEdges', 'MySetsFaces') print '\n \n myCompVertsReselect: %s \n \n'%myCompVertsReselect print '\n \n myCompEdgesReselect: %s \n \n'%myCompEdgesReselect print '\n \n myCompFacesReselect: %s \n \n'%myCompFacesReselect global myObject mc.select (myObject) mc.hilite (myObject, r=True) mc.selectType(pf = True) mc.select(myCompFacesReselect) mc.selectType(pe = True) mc.select(myCompEdgesReselect) mc.selectType(pv = True) mc.select(myCompVertsReselect) print '\n \n myscriptJob: %s \n \n'%myscriptJob my_sel_returne() def my_sel_returne(): global mySelType global myObject if mySelType == 'Faces': mc.hilite (myObject, r=True) mc.selectType(pf = True) elif mySelType == 'Edges': mc.hilite (myObject, r=True) mc.selectType(pe = True) else: mc.hilite (myObject, r=True) mc.selectType(pv = True) jobKilla() def jobKilla(): print "KILL DA JOB" myscriptJobKill = mc.scriptJob(kill=myscriptJob, force=True)The problem is in killing job.
# Error: line 1: A scriptJob cannot be killed while it is running.
# Traceback (most recent call last):
# File "C:/Users/<user>/Documents/maya/2015-x64/scripts\XSI_SplitPolygonTool.py", line 84, in myFunction
# my_sel_returne()
# File "C:/Users/<user>/Documents/maya/2015-x64/scripts\XSI_SplitPolygonTool.py", line 99, in my_sel_returne
# jobKilla()
# File "C:/Users/<user>/Documents/maya/2015-x64/scripts\XSI_SplitPolygonTool.py", line 104, in jobKilla
# myscriptJobKill = mc.scriptJob(kill=myscriptJob, force=True)
# RuntimeError: A scriptJob cannot be killed while it is running.