Unlock normals from Max to Maya

[tiagofball]

Hi huys, so my problem is this, I'm trying to import an object in maya from 3ds max, when I do, my smoothing groups look correct, my all the edges are hard, even though my shading looks correctly just as I set my smoothing groups. The problem is that I can't edit my normals in maya, and when I try unlocking the normals all the edges become hard and I lose my smoothing groups. My question is, is there any way that i can import an object in maya from 3ds max, keep my smoothing groups and be able to edit the normals? thanks

[tiagofball · Accepted solution]

After a few tries, and digging through the import options in maya, what I found out is this, when importing geometry in Maya from Max, all the normals are locked, so the shading will look correct, but all the edges seem to be hard, even though they are not. If I change the presets in the fbx importer there's an unlock normals option, when ticking this box the imported geometry will keep the smoothing groups, and I can edit the normals, whilst if I do not tick this option, and manually unlock the normals in this object I'll lose the smoothing groups.

[hamsterHamster]

Basically, what you need is to create a selectionSet of hard edges, unlock normals, then apply Soft Edges to all, and then select the selectionSet and apply Hard Edges.

Here's a script and instructions of use.

https://www.playcreative.io/blog/automatic-hard-edge-script-in-maya

If this doesn't work as desired, you can resort to the method discussed at the end - selection constraints.