Maya's interactive tool

elte

Hey guys, so I spent my weekend to modify this little script I found over highend3d call interactive tool. The script was originally created by iconoklast.

Basically what it does is makes (currently) extrude, merge, and bevel become more interactive. This means, you don't need to find the attributes in the channel box, click on it and drag, or even mess with manipulators, more like modo's tool workflow, and this has greatly save time and boost efficiency.

For more information please refer to readme.txt included in zip. DOWNLOAD
*I'll change the link to h3d as soon as it gets approved.



There are still some bugs in readme, can anybody with better programming skill help to make this script better?

Cheers.

renderhjs

so it behaves like max?
what about the history - will it blow up because of the sliding?

BeatKitano

Nice, thanks a little bit of context interaction is always appreciated coming from silo

What I miss though is target weld with visual feedback (a line that join the two vertices) I can't find that anywhere.

elte

I don't really know how bevel/chamfer in max work but as far as I remember there's a window comes out when you activate the little box and you can change by sliding or input the value?

The script is still using maya's native node, therefore the history will be maintained and basically the sliding has been clamped, as far as I've tested it's working and no issue yet so far, except those listed in the readme :P

Well basically there's nothing new here, it's just a workflow that I think is more efficient than sliding the value out of channel box which is maya's default.

elte

@beatkitano I don't know which version of maya you are using, but maya has 'target weld' in 2008. I believe it's under edit mesh menu

BeatKitano

I have 2008 and i don't see it

elte

@beat maybe it's in 2009, sorry for wrong info.

http://download.autodesk.com/us/maya/2009help/index.html?url=Combining_separating_and_splitting_Merge_vertices_edges_or_faces_into_one_vertex.htm,topicNumber=d0e207086

BeatKitano

The problem is I can't see normal maps in hq mode in 2009. Thanks anyway, I guess i'm stuck with my snap to point > merge.

MoP

It's not very difficult to write a Target Weld mode like Max's. I wrote one a month or so ago for Maya 2008, only took about 2-3 hours to get something tested and working with no bugs.

Nice to see people doing better interactivity with Maya's tools, it's definitely one of the things I miss from Max and other packages.

Elte: In Max pretty much everything is click + drag (extrude, bevel, inset, etc), but they also have options boxes which can control every setting. Most people just don't use the option boxes much AFAIK since it's slower and most of the time you don't need a "custom" bevel or extrude, you just want to click and drag till it's good.

jocose

This is great thanks for sharing.

Frump

Very cool. Going to test it out now.

BeatKitano: I believe what you are looking for is the "merge verts tool" under edit mesh in maya2009. Click one vert and a line appears at your cursor that snaps to the other vert you want to merge. I don't use it a whole lot, because I have hotbox stuff for merging. Easier to just select and merge than select a tool and select.

praxedes

lol- on my shelf merge verts is renamed target weld :P

thanks for this nifty tool!

~P~

elte

@Frump, yeah I agree with you, maybe maya users like us are used to action based workflow rather than max's tool based workflow.

Thanks guys

Bodizzz

Modified script a little bit to make it work with newer versions of Maya.

Tested in 2017, 2018 versions.

mel commands:

interactive Bevel;
interactive Extrude;
interactive Merge;

kelvin_P

@Bodizzz Hi there, I've found another version, but seems like is not working in maya2018.

Can you take some times to have a look please?

https://www.highend3d.com/maya/script/interactivetool-for-maya

Unleashed

kelvin_P said:

@Bodizzz Hi there, I've found another version, but seems like is not working in maya2018.

Can you take some times to have a look please?

https://www.highend3d.com/maya/script/interactivetool-for-maya

Because HighEnd3d seems to be dead, and theres no other traces of this script anywhere took a bit of time to investigate(also google cache is dead too).

I think python changed how classes are imported, so add a "." to any from file import class. So modify __init__.py and interactive_tools.py

from .interactive_tools import Bevel, ChamferVertex, Extrude
from .pb_utilities import BaseDragger, polyChamferVtx


Also install pymel if it hasnt been done so - https://help.autodesk.com/view/MAYAUL/2024/ENU/?guid=GUID-2AA5EFCE-53B1-46A0-8E43-4CD0B2C72FB4