Problem with the Maya Extrude Tool

WiredminiMike

I would like to extrude inwards to create a inset on a model. However when I do so the extrude does not carry the border edge of the face that is being extruded inwards.

Is there a technique to fix this, or a another tool in Maya to prevent or fix this from happening.

Also is it a bad habit to extrude inwards? (Figured it wouldn't make sense to extrude inwards considering extrude means to pull out.)

Here is an example of the problem:


Much appreciated for any help!

throttlekitty

It's expected to behave like that, Maya doesn't know what you plan on doing with it. Typically I run an edge loop first along the side, so I have the geometry for knocking out that side face. After the extrude, snap the face down to the loop: Move tool, hold d and v to adjust pivot -and- snap to border vertex and release. Then hold v while dragging to snap the face into place, delete the two excess side faces and weld.

WiredminiMike

Thats quite a bit to follow but thank you for the help.

Rayvhen

My recommendation is to essentially extrude twice. The first extrusion you will just scale the face down in all directions. Then I would extrude that new face, straight back using the move tool in the axis you are wanting to make your indentation. If I knew how to post images on this site (sry I'm new) I would show you what i mean.

rzthrun

throttlekitty wrote: »

It's expected to behave like that, Maya doesn't know what you plan on doing with it. Typically I run an edge loop first along the side, so I have the geometry for knocking out that side face..

that's my workflow also. One could also use the Cut Faces tool to create the vertices for post-extrude merging, but the Insert Edge Loop tool is usually going to better since its less likely to create ngons.

Rayvhen wrote: »

If I knew how to post images on this site (sry I'm new) I would show you what i mean.

Re: Rayvhen:
Off Topic: yea, had the same experience. new too. Seems that images have to be hosted from another server - like imgur or etc - and referenced via hyperlink.
Unless there something I don't know ??

throttlekitty

WiredminiMike wrote: »

Thats quite a bit to follow but thank you for the help.

It reads a little complicated, but it's a pretty simple process.

Seehr

WiredminiMike what everyone is trying to explain you is that you could add some more edges (as the ones selected in the image, to avoid this problem:

throttlekitty

I'm not!

I'm assuming that he doesn't want that border on the side, that face should be knocked out.

Seehr

Yeah now that i read everything again, i agree with you. Then it is also an easy to solve problem. If you need a script for perfect extrudes i can give you one i wrote myself which allows you to perform a prefect straight extrude, and also choose perfect angles. Or avoid this kind of culling. Cheers and sorry for bad interpretation of the problem.

WiredminiMike

Yeah that's actually what I wanted throttlekitty. No worries Seehr, the more knowledge I can get the better!

Any scripts you guys would recommend would be awesome too. Maya is awesome, but a lot of the scripts have so many practical applications that Maya just doesn't seem to have.

Thanks again guys for all the help!