Maya - Vertex ring?

gestoryscht

Hi guys,
and a new "im used to use blender - is this possible in maya, too?" question.

In my modelling workflow its a common practice to start with an edge ring (no faces) and extrude it to a cylinder. Very handy, because you can copy an edge ring from another mesh and use it to have a perfect base for further modelling. One example - you model glasses and you want to have the thingy over the nose with the exact same radius like the other wires.

I tried to copy the edge ring and it doenst work. After the second attempt to copy a cylindric part and delete the other vertices doenst work either and the "delete by force" (ctrl+del) function create weird geometry. Is there a way?

Best regards,
gestoryscht

throttlekitty

Can you show a picture? I'm having a hard time trying to imagine what you mean by copying an edge ring. I know Blender allows floating edges and verts, is that what you're after? (Maya doesn't do this, and the few times it does, it's Very Bad™) The closest we can come to that in Maya is Duplicate Face.

gestoryscht

Yes, of course.



1. Create the mesh
2. Copy the inner edge ring and translate it to the right
3. Rotate the ring
4. Extrude the ring to get the exact radius

But I think you answered my question with your post above. It isnt possible

throttlekitty

1. Create the mesh
2. Get ring selection of faces (click first face, double click adjacent face)
3. Duplicate Face (option dialog allows extracting to new mesh if needed)
4. Rotate and move

gestoryscht

Yes, this would work - but imagine the other side of the tube is slightly shifted and you want a exact copy of the width without distortion. This method would not work. It is possible to adjust the other side, but a more efficent and faster way is the "edge ring method". This is a simple shape but with a more complex one this would be a tedious work.

throttlekitty

You could still extrude from either open set of edges to correct for a fluted cylinder, but I see what you're saying.

huffer

There's a script that creates perfect circles from edge selections: vimeo.com/65246315 Maybe you can use that to fix distorted edge loops when you need to.

Bartalon

It sounds like you want to use curves.  You can convert any edge selection to a curve (Modify > Convert > Polygon Edges to Curve with a Degree setting of 1), then you can duplicate that curve and loft it as a polygon surface.

gestoryscht

Usally I dont like curves, because in Blender they are a bit ... meh.
But this sounds actually pretty good and easy. Well, it isnt the best solution for everything, because I dont just use this method for tubes, but thanks for this great time @Bartalon

@huffer this kind of stuff needs a custom script? nice to know. thank you!