Maya 2017 sculpt tools on live surface?

dkorch

Hi Folks, any idea if its possible to get the sculpting tools to interact with a live surface, it currently looks like they dont? Seems that quaddraw is the only way to slide along surface with a grab like brush.  In past maya versions I used Dtools, but not sure if rich will be updating that tool for 2017.

oglu

if you like to slide on itself use the grab brush and turn on constrain to surface...

dkorch

Thanks Oglu.  Unfortunately for me, I'm looking to slide, smooth, snap to other surfaces.  

oglu

and whats wrong with quad draw.?

dkorch

In it self, nothing. However going back and forth between the two tools is not ideal. Additionally there are some inherit dangers in using quad draw, as its fairly easy to accidentally add an edge. Within our studios scan pipeline, there are a fair number of artist who help in remeshing a large number scans, so minimizing this risk is useful. 

throttlekitty

Have you tried "tweak mode" in the standard move tool? This mode lets you select and move a vert/face/edge in a single click. Coupled with soft selection and either a Live object or Surface Slide toggled on, you'll get similar results without going into quad draw. These can be turned on in the move tool options, or the W+LMB marking menu.

dkorch

Thanks for the suggestion Throttle Kitty. However I'm trying to keep a more sculptural based tool set for this particular workflow. While that technique would work, it has limitations in terms of smoothing onto a live surface.

Quad draw does more or less exactly what we need, but I was just hoping that someone knew of a way to get live mode to interact with the sculpting tools, as that is the most ideal workflow.  As mentioned, we used Dtools for years, but I was hoping maya had maybe integrated Rich's tool-set at this point.

Maybe 2018 , Cheers.