Curve Snapping to Polygon model - Maya

fatihG_

Hey guys, I made a helix/spring curve to make some wraps around a handle.

Right now I'm snapping all the points of the curve to the polygon model by hand, is there a way to do this automatically with Maya?

Thanks,

Fatih

haikai

I just found out today that you can project a copy of your curve onto a poly surface, but it might be a Maya 2012 thing.

If you can't do that, maybe it would be faster to make your poly surface Live and then draw a new helix curve on it?

fatihG_

Hey thanks, since I couldn't find a way to do it automatically that's exactly what I did.

I don't have Maya 2012 so I wouldn't know.

It seems the only way to do this is with Nurbs surfaces.
So you could convert your poly surface to a subd and that to nurbs.

I guess its time to update? =P

user38

Maybe you can coax into place using one of the deformation modifiers in the animation pallet? I could see how it would be a PIA snapping by hand.

You might also want to make your helix by hand on a the "live" poly surface.

You could also try to create a curve along the live surface in the shape of a helix then just extrude a tube or plane edge along the curve.

Maybe extract a curve out of the helix snap the curve along the surface and again build off of that curve.

you might get better suggestions if people could see what it is you're trying to do.

I'm sure someone better at than me at maya will come along with better suggestions too.

fatihG_

Hey thanks user38.

I ended up snapping a new curve onto a live surface.
Since I was planning on sculpting the model I had a base mesh with equally ditributed polies/verts so it was pretty easy to snap the new curve on the verteces.

I was planning on lofting the curve anyway.
This is what I made: