Maya precisision movement

Thefirston

Hi guys i'm currently doing a job for a company and they require exact measurements in some parts of the models so that it works with their program.

I'm talking at least 0.01 unit - 0.001 unit movements

Right now it seams that maya's most precise movement is around .5 units

Is there a way to move a little more precisely. Is there some attribute or setting that I can change to get what I need. I tried to use the discrete setting, but i'm guessing I'm using it improperly because the vertices don't move when i turn it on.

can anyone help me?

limesimme

You could always up-scale your model so that 0.01 movement is actually .5 @ the scale you got now
EDIT: And then scale em' back ofcourse!

throttlekitty

Slow down your mouse?

fade1

you can change the precision setting in the channel box to display more digits. if you type your movements in the channelBox or component editor you should be able to move any number you'd like.
i'm not sure about direct viewport movements, but have you tried to setup your grid? and don't forget to adjust the clipping planes of your cameras.
the trick with a grup node above everything and scale it up before doing you're tweaks is another solution.

Grimm_Wrecking

Melscript, but barring learning that.

If you use the default grid Maya's is centimeters by default. Change it in prefrences to millimeter, then change the grid to Gridlines 10 -> Sub-D 10. That will make every grid 1mm (.1cm) and each major sub-cross line 10mm (1cm).
or Gridlines 10 -> Sub-D 100. That'd make every grid line .01cm (.1mm) and the major grid 10mm still. Then just snap verts/edges to grid.

.1 cm = 1mm
.001cm = .01mm

If your animating that's a big no-no, but for precision modeling its a great way to get precision vert movements.
The .338 Luapa Mag bullet I modeled for Workshop for is accurate to ~.0001 mm, and thats precise enough for precision machining. Thats how I did it *except the text stamp depth*. When I make the low and go to rig/animate for UDK I'll convert to default and reset my grid to be accurate to UDK.

Be aware though, the grid itself can bog down your computer at that point though. Just remember to reset your grid to engine normal and the preferences back to cm and everything should be hunky dory. Though you might want to test it on something un-important before hand.