Maya 6.0: newbie questions

Big Rocket

Hello all,

1) Fillet
I know there is a fillet command in Maya for NURBS, but does a fillet command even exist for polygon modeling? I thought 3DS MAX had it for polygons and NURBS.

2) Spline cages
I haven't been able to find a basic tutorial on how to build surfaces based on spline cages, including Maya's help files. What is the proper name for this Maya command / procedure, so I can search for it in Google? Any helpful links? Honestly, I would be happy just to build a cube or cylinder with spline cages, just to see how the procedure works in Maya.

Thanks,
BR

jdevin

As far as I know there isn't really anything like fillet in the polygon toolset. You might look around to see if there is a plugin for that type of action. Try highend3d.com.

To build a nurbs surface you use the cv curve tool, draw out the curve, edit it as you see fit, then use the commands in the surfaces menu (revolve, loft, extrude, etc) to create the actual nurbs surface. If you leave the history on the surface you can use the curves to adjust the surface on the fly.

Big Rocket

Thanks for the info above.

I tried the lofting, but ran into trouble. Here is a picture that shows what happened. Any insights into what I did wrong?

Thanks,
BR

pyromania

[ QUOTE ]
Thanks for the info above.

I tried the lofting, but ran into trouble. Here is a picture that shows what happened. Any insights into what I did wrong?

Thanks,
BR

[/ QUOTE ]

Nothing is wrong you just need another tool. When you want to make a surface based on multiple curves you should use the Brail tool. In your case you want the Brail 3+ tool, you would select B1, B2 and B3 as your profile curves, then select A1 and A2 as rail curves.

jdevin

when using the brail tool remember to make sure that the curves actually touch. If you hold "c" and select the last cv of a curve you can snap it to other curves.
And the front is unsmoot cause maya has multiple display levels for nurbs surfaces. hit 1-3 and it will get progressivly smoother. There isn't any more geometry added, its just a maya display option. It should render smooth no matter what display level its on.

Daz

If I remember correctly, there were a couple of detailed nurbs car modeling tuts on cgtalk. That might help you. I muss profess to being a bit of a spaz when it comes to nurbs. They have their uses, but its all a bit too technical for my liking.

Jeff Parrott

I second Daz's motion. I don't really use NURBS at all. I love using curves though, just output as polys. Best of luck with the crazy buggers though.

Big Rocket

Thank you everyone for the help. I finally got the birail 3+ to work, and you can see it here, 2nd picture. I had to go through lots of webpages to figure out how to make the curves touch, but that's behind me now (not so newbie anymore, I hope).

2 more questions:
<ul type="square">
[*]In the 2nd picture, is there any way to get rid of the ugly seam down the middle of the surface without changing the geometry of the profile or rail curves?
[*]Also, it seems somewhat constraining to be limited to just 2 rail curves. Is there anyway to construct a single surface with 3 profile curves and 3 rail curves, without having to stitch multiple surfaces together?
[/list]

Thanks,
BR