Maya's equivalent of Blender's "Layer"?

goekbenjamin

First of all: Yes i want to make the switch from Maya to Blende :-O

In Blender there is a functionality called "Layers".

If you have 2 Meshes called "mesh_a", "mesh_b" and "mesh_c" and you only want to work with "mesh_c", without every now and then hide the oder two meshes you could:

put "mesh_a" and "mesh_b" into "Layer 1"
and "mesh_c" into "Layer 2"

So if you activate "Layer 2" you only see what is inside this certain layer ( so it is obvious "mesh_c").

Is there something maya has to offer?
I googled it put i guess "Layer" is somehow the false word for it maybe?!

Thanks in advance

Ushiro

Hey @goekbenjamin
You can use the display layer which is basically blender Layer system.
You select "mesh_a" and "mesh_b" Go to Layer -> Create Layer from selected
Do the Same thing with "mesh_c"
So you have 2 layer and you can turn on and Off with one click the visibility( Show/Hide) of the object inside the layer.

For more info:
https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/maya/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2016/ENU/Maya/files/GUID-8415A1A6-7798-43F5-9D64-783BD0642071-htm.html

and:
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DV6iJ165qa4">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DV6iJ165qa4</a><br>
Hope all of this helps you

goekbenjamin

Ushiro oh wow i was totaly blind!
Thank you so much Ushiro!

jRocket

If you just want to isolate one object, you can also toggle "isolate selected" to do so.

Alex_J

Channel box/layer editor. It's right in the name!

Other methods, some already mentioned :

• ctrl+1 to isolate selected. 
• tap "H' to hide and unhide. ctrl+shift+h to unhide whatever was last hidden.

Those two methods are what I usually use working on a mesh composed of multiple parts. I only bother with display layers in a big scene with many separate meshes. No sense moving across the screen to hide/unhide things if not necessary.

Linko

I just add that Blender will remove the layer system in the 2.8 for a collection system, basically an object could belong to several collections and sub-collections: https://code.blender.org/2017/09/view-layers-and-collections/

oglu

some studios does use the new rendersetup for a collection based scene management in maya.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIlkTkBwi44

goekbenjamin

BIGTIMEMASTER said:

...I only bother with display layers in a big scene with many separate meshes. No sense moving across the screen to hide/unhide things if not necessary.

Cool, i didn't know about the isolating stuff, thanks for that!
i choose the "layer" approach when retopo'ing.
Layer "high" (contains highpoly)
Layer "retopo" (contains one mesh from high to retopologize, the new "lowpoly mesh" goes to Layer "low")
Layer "low" (contains lowpoly)
so i have an overview what i retopologized already, how do you prepare your scene for retopology?

@oglu
this seem pretty useful too, thanks alot!

Alex_J

For retopo I don't do any organization really. Just import the hi and lo, and start working. If I had a bunch of separate objects, I just put them into groups in the outliner, then you can select those groups and hit "h" to toggle hide them. 

Just always keep browsing whatever tutorials or breakdown videos you can find, and also always go back and thumb through the documentation. You'll keep picking up new ways to do stuff this way, and the more options you know, the better you can tailor your workflow to your liking. 

For instance, by now I've got all the hotkeys customized in maya so that I rarely have to move my hand at all, and the UI is totally clean. Just a viewport, nothing else. Most of the items I need can be accessed with just the mouse. Very nice to work this way -- but it takes awhile before you really know all the tools and know which ones you like to use for different situations. 

goekbenjamin

BIGTIMEMASTER said:

For retopo I don't do any organization really. Just import the hi and lo, and start working. If I had a bunch of separate objects, I just put them into groups in the outliner, then you can select those groups and hit "h" to toggle hide them. 

Just always keep browsing whatever tutorials or breakdown videos you can find, and also always go back and thumb through the documentation. You'll keep picking up new ways to do stuff this way, and the more options you know, the better you can tailor your workflow to your liking. 

For instance, by now I've got all the hotkeys customized in maya so that I rarely have to move my hand at all, and the UI is totally clean. Just a viewport, nothing else. Most of the items I need can be accessed with just the mouse. Very nice to work this way -- but it takes awhile before you really know all the tools and know which ones you like to use for different situations. 

"grouping objects" is much more comfortable than working with layers, thanks for that info!