Problem with pivot point

[Anonymous]

I want to animate the rotation of a screw but the pivot point is off...I've tried to center it and to use "D" to move the axis but it's never precise. How can I do...the video attached can help to understand my problem

[Anonymous]

If you hold the D key and then the V key, you can snap the pivot point to vertices. You could snap the pivot to the vertex at the point of the screw.

[Anonymous]

Sorry, didn't watch the video before I replied. Are you using the rotate tool in object mode or world mode? If you zero out the rotation of the screw does it lay straight along an axis or is it askew? The first step would be to align the object to an axis then freeze transformation on the object's rotation.

A down and dirty method to get the screw to be straight along an axis would be to:

1) create 2 locators

2) snap locator "A" to the vertex at the tip of the screw (hold the "V" key while moving the locator. Screw should have vertices visible)

3) snap locator "B" to the center vertex on the head of the screw

4) select locator "B" then shift select locator "A" and do an "aim constraint"

5) Go to your outliner and delete the constraint under locator "A"

6) parent the screw to locator "A"

7) zero out the rotation on locator "A"

8) unparent the screw and "Freeze transformations" on the screw's rotation value

9) then you can snap the pivot point to the vertex on the point of the screw

10) delete the locators

There are other ways, but this works.

[Anonymous]

ins't there a simpler way? to many steps, I can't even create a locator for some reason

[Anonymous]

I know it sounds like a lot of steps, but it really only takes a few seconds. The problem (best I can tell from your video) is that the objects rotational values are zero'd out at a weird angle. Maya doesn't know that its a screw and that it should rotate in a specific way, it just sees a collection of points. You need to reset its rotational values.

When you say you can't create a locator, do you mean the software isn't working properly, or you don't know how? Also, did you double check that your rotate tool is set to local and not world? If you zero out the rotational values in the channel box does the screw lay flat or is it at a weird angle?

[Anonymous]

it's still with weird angle, I tried to set to zero all values but the weird angle persists

[mspeer]

Hi!

You may need to place the object at center and align it manual or by using a helper in combination with any align or snapping tool, then use Freeze Transformations.

[Anonymous]

You really should just try the steps I laid out for you. It really isn't that many steps and it will solve your problem. If there's any step that isn't clear just let me know and I'll walk you through it.

[Anonymous]

I have had the exact same issue. Manually moving pivots, centering pivots etc didn't work for me. I had to delete my user settings (I actually deleted the entire maya folder C:\users\documents to fix it) and that resolved the issue for me. Something just seemed to get screwed up and nobody really knew how to fix it, but that solved the issue and it hasn't repeated since.