topic Re: curve on live object in Maya Forum

curve on live object

american-airlines — Thu, 18 Feb 2021 13:35:35 GMT

I try to snap a curve on the surface by switching the surface to live mode, but the curve does not always fit exactly on the surface, in some places there are dips and the curve goes beyond the surface, I understand why this is happening, due to the lack of points, if I do a rebuild, then the curve remains the same shape a I need it to lie exactly on the surface.How can i fix it ? below screen what did i get and second what i want to get

Re: curve on live object

daunish — Thu, 18 Feb 2021 16:30:15 GMT

Snap to surface relies on two things. 1 - curve resolution (you nailed it). 2 - Mesh resolution. It does not take into account smoothed mesh preview. If you are using a low poly mesh, I recommend smoothing it to 1-2 divisions and trying again. You can even select the cv's of your curve and move them back and forth a little to get it to recalculate the snap.

Hope this helps, let me know

Re: curve on live object

american-airlines — Thu, 18 Feb 2021 17:27:05 GMT

Hi,I need these curves to create plates on the surface of my model, if I move them, they will move from place where i need him ,especially if i move the curve, its behavior becomes chaotic and its deformation,but yes indeed if you move it completely snapped to the surface.My model is already smooth

Re: curve on live object

daunish — Thu, 18 Feb 2021 17:41:24 GMT

Another option you can use is quad draw. You select your surface, make it a live surface again, then use quad draw to lay down points at the edges of your plates, convert them to geo and extrude.

Your curves will glitch out if they are too high a resolution and arent finding a good snapping point. It's a give and a take, getting the new geo to perfectly match the underlying surface. But even if you move them a small amount then move them back to the same place, the recalculation will happen and the margin of error will be undetectable to the eye.

Since you are doing this essentially on a single axis, another tool you can try is shrink wrap. You would create your panel geo then shrink wrap it to the underlying surface.

At the end of the day getting it "perfect" may not be needed, get it close and move it into place yourself. If you have 100's of these panels, it would be a pain. But with that level of complexity, visual imperfections would be hard to notice.

Re: curve on live object

american-airlines — Thu, 18 Feb 2021 19:21:13 GMT

Yes, I know about the quad drow tool, I use it periodically, but if i draw quad to get plates, it can work on one plate, if I make each strip for the slabs by hand, they turn out to be uneven, since it is not possible to make lines perfectly with my hands, so using curves seems to me the most successful choice for but it is very disappointing that the curve does not take into account the surface during the rebuild. The only way out I see is create a surface from curves, then translate them into polygons and then use the quad drow tool to pull them up to the surface.

Re: curve on live object

daunish — Thu, 18 Feb 2021 19:44:45 GMT

I'm not quite sure what you mean when you say the quad draw tool won't work for you because it will only give you one plate the rest would be uneven. But it will work if you use the surface created by the curves.

You can draw your plates using the quad draw directly on the boat and skip the curves altogether.

You could even create the curves in your ortho view so that they match the plates, then shrink-wrap them to the "hull" geometry (this would be super easy and match exactly).

I feel like you have many different options available. None of which will produce any visual unevenness. Perhaps you want to upload your hull and reference image. Maybe I'm just not seeing what you are? Or perhaps post to the modeling forums. Maybe they would have a better idea of what you are referring to.

Either way, sorry I couldn't help with this. The snap to surface tool is really great and very powerful, but it like all tools is not without its limits.

Re: curve on live object

american-airlines — Thu, 18 Feb 2021 19:55:02 GMT

thanks for the help any way, maybe I just don't have enough experience to properly use your advice correctly.I think I will still try to use different ways to make them.Have nice day

Re: curve on live object

american-airlines — Thu, 18 Feb 2021 20:58:27 GMT

I applied the shrink to the curve and the warp to the curve and everything worked, thanks your advice solved my problem.