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Precision Movement in Maya

count23count23361 Posts: 781Member
edited July 2011 in Technical Questions and Answers #1
Ok, I'm working on a project right now that's somewhat archetectual, which requires precision to get details right like door widths and whatnot. Is there a way to angle the grid in maya relative to a face or an object's pivot?

So say right now, something is at a weird angle, say, 33degrees, I cant use the grid for precisioning here and I need to to be as accurate as possible when it comes to positioning, Is there a way to move the grid so that one of it's axes lines up with the face or object so that i can use grid snapping on this angled piece?
Post edited by count23 on
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  • MelakMelak332 Posts: 0Member
    #2
    In 3DS you can change the gizmo/coordinate system (not the gird) to local/parent/view/whatever you like, which would allow you to move your angled face "up" aligned to the face by numbers (i.e. exactly/precise).

    I'm sure Maya has something similar
  • IRMLIRML253 Posts: 1,993Member
    #3
    I think what you're after is called a 'construction plane'
  • Dansolo1Dansolo10 Posts: 0Member
    #4
    You can change the axis of the tools (move/rotate). Double click them to bring up the attributes and can choose Object /World/local etc.

    Or why not group your object, rotate the group so the side you are working on is level with the grid, then when your done reset the group rotation to 0 and your model will be back to its original place.
  • count23count23361 Posts: 781Member
    #5
    Dan. I'd actually thought of that, but I was always convinced it would be more trouble then it's worth moving it all back in the end, hehe. But I'm still working on a lightwave-style build method, LW would never preserve object rotations like that, you'd always have to calculate the offset both times.

    Anyway, I kinda solved the problem anyway. I used a template piece against the angled prop at the height i wanted, cut into the surface with add divisions and split poly then snapped to point on the template piece. since they were both in teh same coordinates, it didn't distort the big piece I was cutting. Then it was just a move along edge to get it into the right spot.

    Thanks for the help.

    @IRML cheers for that, I'll take a look into it.
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  • count23count23361 Posts: 781Member
    #6
    Here's a new question for you. How do i get the "global" rotation value of two seperate objects? I have one object that was transformation frozen in a specific angle (I dont know what it was), I need to rotate and align another object to the same angle. I wanted to use the global rotation (Normals Average of one of the faces of the frozen object to get a baseline reference). How would i get this information from a frozen object?

    Failing that, the approach I've been currently trying (which is leaving seams) is to move the pivot to one corner of the object, snapping it to the freezed one, rotating it that way. Is there a way to "snap" a rotated object to another point as i'm turning it? So I can rotate the new object over the freezed one and have it snap in place when the distant points line up?

    (God I hope I explained that properly)
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  • Dansolo1Dansolo10 Posts: 0Member
    #7
    Hi,

    Yea I understand what you are explaining....once again CreativeCrash to the rescue
    http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/downloads/scripts-plugins/utility-external/misc/c/measure-angle

    Here's a script that will measure the angle upto 5 deicmal points 9.87654

    Measure_tool.jpg

    Hope that helps, let me know if you what help using it.
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