maya 2008 cut tool is infuriating

PixelMasher

hey guys,

So my recent project I am on is using maya 2008 and I am finding whatever they did to the cut tool (split polygon) has turned it into a frustrating sack of shit.

if you turn off edge snapping so you can say cut geometry based on a texture over 50% of the time when you go to end the cut, it just disappears. sometimes if you do the exact same cut in reverse...it magically works. other times i have to cut in a bunch of other edges to support the cut then clean them out later, which is a pain in the ass.

this is opposed to maya 7 where you can seemingly make any craaaaazy cut you want and it works 99% of the time, ive cut in brick outlines, board ends,concrete damage etc and it all worked beautifuly.

now with this new version it really is making me want to hulk smash my keyboard, especially with a tight deadline. Some factors I can think maybe are effecting it are: non planar faces, maybe its just getting confused and freaking out I dunno, but sometimes it wont work even on just a plane.

someone suggested its not liking the way its creating the vert order or something hence the reverse cut sometimes working.

worst case scenario I can edit the .MA to make it openable in maya 7, and do most of my cutting in there but ideally it would be nice to just have it work in 2008, I really dont understand why that tool seemingly took a nose dive into a shit pile.

cheers dudes and thanks in advance for any advice.

ivars

Hey, I've experienced the exact same thing. With the new features in the cut-tool it has become seriously unstable. It's mainly when you cut across edges (which you couldn't do in 7) and especially if your splitting across both the back and front of faces in the same cut.

kodde

I almost always click every edge you want it to intersect. You can let Maya try to sort (based on camera) how all edges should intersect, but it doesn't always solve it well.

I've worked with maya 6.0 -> 2009 and I haven't ever noticed what you are explaining.

Dennispls

The reaon why this is happening is probably because there are some unwelded vertices somewhere.
Also if there is a face nearby that has 5 vertices and is not properly triangulated, this happens as well.
Also if you try to make some free cuts in a single polygon because you need to carve out some details, try to stick to 2 edges.
If you start and end on the same edge your line will also dissappear.

PixelMasher

yea the starting and ending on the same edge has always made it not work so i know its not that, as well as the unwelded verts....it will screw up on a newly created plane sometimes. I guess my main gripe isjust that it worked perfectly in previous versions and without doing anyhthing different in my workflow it screws up. RAWR!!!!!!!

anyone know of any plugins or tools for maya that have a different cut tool?

malcolm

It sucks shit now I agree I can't stand the fact if you cut around an object you can no longer change the position of the last vert with the middle mouse button.

glib

Seeing someone demo the cut tool in max was the single reason that convinced me to spend the time switching. The funny thing is max users complain about their cut tool too! Sure it's not perfect, but they have no idea how much worse it could be.

malcolm

I found the cut tool in max 2008 to be even worse than the maya one.