Split a face into perfect thirds? Maya 2012

bpears

How do you do this, without having input in channel box? I know you can cut the face three spots to do so, like in the link below, but maya doesnt seem to let you cut a straight line from a point - very stupid if there really isnt a way... to cut a straight line... in a professional modeling program...


Even if I could just snap to straight points like you can holding "J" on rotate, it would work, but I you can't even do THAT!

http://faculty.purchase.edu/jeanine.meyer/origami/orithir.htm

bpears

It can be done so intuitively in sketchup, I don't understand why an advanced program like maya can't have SOMETHING to snap a line straight.

BTW! I'm talking about off grid, So I can't just snap to grid.

m4dcow

What tools have you tried?
If you split a face into 3rds that often, you could use the insert edge loop tool, and just have it set to multiple edges, and edge loops to 2.

Or you could use the split polygon tool, where you constrain to edges and have snap magnets set at 2, and have to tolerance pretty high.

I mean these 2 solutions require you to go into the tool settings, but if you do this very often, you just need to do this once and It will do it the next time you use the tool.

I also didn't really understand what tool you were having issues with, or what the link you posted was showed.

Hopefully this helps, if not maybe try posting a photo of what you are trying to do.

bpears

I tried interactive split, regular polygon split (which could use but I would have to eyeball it, it seems), and cut faces, which I find terrible. Think link I put, I was referring to the 2nd pic down. I was trying to manually cut a 1/3 margin, so that I could split the face into thirds accurately, because you can do it by splitting any face as shown. Problem is, on the final line, I can't just make it go straight from point of intersection, to edge of face, because the interactive split snaps, and the other split is inaccurate. Can The tool you suggested be accurate? I will give it a try. Thank you.

bpears

Ah! YES! snaps right where it needs to be, thank you.

54Strat

Use Edit Mesh > Add Divisions, set the 'Add divisions' radio button to 'Linearly', and change the U or V values to 3 in the linear controls. It'll be one or the other you'll need.

Select your face and go. Easy, 2 seconds setup.

m4dcow

54Strat wrote: »

Use Edit Mesh > Add Divisions, set the 'Add divisions' radio button to 'Linearly', and change the U or V values to 3 in the linear controls. It'll be one or the other you'll need.

Select your face and go. Easy, 2 seconds setup.

It works but at least with interactivve split and insert edge loop is is predictable and not based on the uvs.

54Strat

True, you've got a 50/50 chance of getting a hit. So a tool option change and it's fixed....until the next dodgy one.

But then again, interactive split requires edge targeted placement and two tool options changes, and the insert edge loop will run away and do every face in the loop unless the selected edge is one of two in the loop.

It's all about context really, and there are a few ways to skin this cat, or is that horses for courses, or both. (or something)

Bartalon

I use a custom script to insert all my edge loops. This may be handy for you. It also works on multiple edge selections at once and can add more than Maya's limit of 10 loops (I've added up to 2500 just to test haha).

$select = `ls -sl`;  string $prompt = `promptDialog
     -title "Insert Multiple Edges"
     -message "Number of edges:"
     -button "OK" -button "Cancel"
     -defaultButton "OK" -cancelButton "Cancel"
     -dismissString "Cancel"`;
  if ($prompt == "OK") {
     int $div = `promptDialog -query -text`;
     $expanded = `filterExpand -sm 32 -expand true $select`;
     int $count = `size $expanded`;
     for ($i=0; $i<$count; ++$i)
     {
         select $expanded[$i];
         polySelectSp -ring;
         polySplitRing -ch on -splitType 2 -divisions $div -useEqualMultiplier 1 -smoothingAngle 30 -fixQuads 1 -n $expanded[$i];
     }
 }
 select $select;

Just make it a shelf button.

Illusions

Bartalon wrote: »

I use a custom script to insert all my edge loops. This may be handy for you. It also works on multiple edge selections at once and can add more than Maya's limit of 10 loops (I've added up to 2500 just to test haha).

After adding an edge, in the attribute editor for the polySplitRing node that was made for your split, you can adjust the number of edges created. The slider only goes up to 25, but you can manually input much larger numbers.

Bartalon

Oh yeah, I forgot about that haha. I hate having to use the attribute editor/channel box unless I really have to. It's generally faster for me to make something that works without having to root around the construction history.