Two Really annoying maya things I never found answer for

alexk

I'm using Maya 8.5, when I'm in perspective viewport and I want to rotate my view around my selected object/component, instead of using what I have selected as the rotation pivot, it uses some other far out pivot point, making it impossible to quickly spin my object 180 when I'm close and such.

And also on that note, when I try to zoom back in after being rotated out, I find my zoom sometimes focuses on something totally different than my selected object and makes my zooming speed very jerky.

Any help is greatly appreciated before I smash my computer screen

Mark Dygert

I've also hit the same problem in Maya and in 3dsMax. I know how to fix it in 3dsMax but the fix doesn't seem to work in Maya.

In 3dsMax I hit Z which zooms the viewport to the extents of the object selected. Then rotate/zoom work. It kind of resets it. But in Maya I've only found a way to zoom extents to EVERYTHING even the hidden objects, which is next to useless to fix this problem.

I hope there is a easy solution starring me right in the face and I just don't know it =/

RobStites

Hitting F will focus on the object you have selected and should reset your view rotation, zoom, etc to it.

arshlevon

select your object then hit "F" key.. rotate away

doh beat me to it!!!

Mark Dygert

F, focus... BRILLIANT!

Thanks guys.

pior

Hey Alex,
Maya gives you a few options to mess with under
View>Camera Tools>Tumble Tool optionbox.

However no matter how you fiddle with the tickboxes it won't give yuo the 'smart' tumble focus that recent programs have. You will have to download the JossScripts Pack from highend3d to get a real automatic tumble. It' better than a focus in the sense that you don't have to hit a key, and the cam doesn't jump either - instead it will adjusts it's rotation pivot according to what's selected. (object or component)

If you have a coder at hand you might want to have this script enhanced a little and isolated from the pack - but it will provide a good start. Can't work without personally.

monster

In Max change Arc Rotate to Arc Rotate Selected and you won't have to hit z all the time to refocus the camera.

alexk

well I grabbed the Joss pack and I can't tell if it's working, the menu is there and I've turned the automatic tumblepivot On but it still manages to tumble away from what I have selected. Guess I'll stick with the "F" key =/

pior

Hi!
Iirc I used it this way :
-made a shelf button out of the automatic tumble menu item
-clicked it once after starting a new scene or loading one
-then when I had components selected, cam would tumble around them. I dont remember what the script did or did not for objects themselves tho.

Hope this helps! I find it much better than F focusing, since the camera doesn't jump.

Good luck (can't believe it's not a default maya option! Having the viewport rotate away from what is being worked on is the most frustrating thing ever in CG!)

francomanko

I'm getting the same issue with the viewport rotating around some far off pivot point. This occurs every so often when i load a scene in. Using "f" to focus doesn't work, the solution is to either create a new persp camera or import the scene to replace the screwed cameras in scene.

It would be nice to know what the problem is though.

Funky Bunnies

I just wrote a quick version today that works by making the pivot of the tumble the CENTER of whatever selection you've made.

Hopefully that's a decent behaviour, but let me know if there's something different you want.

You can grab it here

[edit]
ah I don't know why I try to do any work when I'm hugely distracted. I made some changes so you don't have to run it at the beginning every time. Just run this code and it'll be added to your userSetup.mel and all shall be good. I also added some hotkeys.

{
//This simply edits your usersetup.mel file to enable FBlocalTumble every session
string $fileName = (`internalVar -userScriptDir` + "userSetup.mel");
int $userSetupId = `fopen $fileName "a"`;
fprint $userSetupId ("\nFBlocalTumble(); \n");
fclose $userSetupId;
}

doob

I've been using Maya since version 1 (toots my own horn) and just belately upgraded to 8.5 and experienced this issue.

Just to restate the problem in my own words: After framing the Maya persp camera around a selected object (by hitting "F" on the keyboard) the camera tumbles around a center of interest that seems offset from the object. After a full rotation, the selected and framed object is no longer in view or centered on the screen.

This is from the Maya 8.5 documentation and solved the problem:

"If you make an error when adjusting your camera view of the scene, you can reset the camera to its default home setting.
To reset the camera view for a particular orthographic or perspective view:
From the panel menu, select View > Default Home. "

This may be a preference, or a quick-key new to Maya 8.5 (I'm using sp1)or a reaction to a preference that was brought in from Maya 7.0 or 8.0. I'm not sure, but seem to have solved the problem.

Hope this helps!
Dru Abrams
www.persistentvisions.com

bugo

to show everything on the scene hit "a"

Vailias

I run into this occasionally if you hold ctrl and alt to marquis/box zoom then hit f to focus again the rotation point will be properly centered again.
(up and left is zoom out, down and right is zoom in)

I'm not sure exactly why this is but I think it has something to do with the camera object having a scale, as when I've looked in other views the camera object thing changes size when band zooming but not when using the scroll wheel or both mouse buttons, as these actually move the camera closer to the focus point.

Microneezia

Im not sure if this will help, its for 3ds max, and im not sure of the proper termanology for stuff, so bear with me.

The arc rotate should be yellow in bottom right corner of viewport tools, on bottom row. I guess Monster mentions this below...

Also if in the sub-object and want to rotate around a single vert, you select the vert you want to rotate around and do the above, then you must also make sure that up at the top you select the proper pivot point dropdown icon. You should be on the individual pivot point one. "Two objects, two pivots icon" If you are on the group pivot point icon i dont think you will rotate around the single vert you have selected. I read in a tutorial once randomly that this makes a difference on the arc rotate view, which wasnt originally intuitive for me.

I hope im not stating the obvious and this helps someone. It bothered me for a while...

ajv3d

Holy crap, thank you for posting this... I just ran into this issue and the CRTL ALT MARQUIS worked perfectly.

Vailias wrote: »

I run into this occasionally if you hold ctrl and alt to marquis/box zoom then hit f to focus again the rotation point will be properly centered again.
(up and left is zoom out, down and right is zoom in)

I'm not sure exactly why this is but I think it has something to do with the camera object having a scale, as when I've looked in other views the camera object thing changes size when band zooming but not when using the scroll wheel or both mouse buttons, as these actually move the camera closer to the focus point.

greuh

in your viewport menu bar: view / look at selection
problem solved :P

akrelle

Just came across this issue while using 2011, yeah old I know. Issue was solved by doob's solution of hitting Default View found in:

Viewport Window (persp in my case)> View> Default View

Worked for me so I'm happy. Thanks doob!!!

EagleTopGaming

Also if "F" or home does not solve it select your camera and go under "pivots" in the attribute editor. This will be listed under the actual camera and not the CameraShape. Make sure there are no negative signs in-front of the local pivots. For some reason I would get them and the only way I used to fix it was by making another camera. 

nish123

Press and hold 'D' to set the pivot. Guess this might help!!