Edge Loops from Border Edges

[greech82]

In the screenshot below, I am trying to generate edge loops from the border edges of the two squares on the left.

I could not get the edge loop tool to work for this, so as an alternative I tried using extrude on the selected edges with no thickness and an offset.

This seems to produce the edges I want in the squares on the right, but this does not allow interactive placement and must also mess up the normals somehow because off the black shading we can see in the squares on the right.

How do I generate a loop from the border edges like these without having to draw four edge loops and hope for the same spacing on all sides?

[stuzzz]

hi,

just select the border edges, extrude it, then scale the newly created edges.

VIDEO

[mspeer]

Hi!

@greech82 

This is not possible, cause this is not one loop,

these are 4 loops, so you need 4 steps to insert edges.

If you are using an extrude, you need to extrude outwards as shown by @stuzzz ,

simply use a positive value for Offset

[stuzzz]

@mspeer, the offset is a good one. I'm a bit old school while modeling.

[greech82]

@mspeer @stuzzz  That's fine, so I understand I have to adapt my thinking - but given that my end goal is now to insert four edge loops on the interior of the shape, at equal distance from the edges, and to do this in a fast way during modeling - how would I do that considering I would not be able to negative offset? Would I just manually adjust an edge loop from one edge, and copy it? And if so how would I measure numerically the distance from the edge and also copy that action around the entire perimeter of faces? Is this something more for the multi-cut tool? Detail on the end goal of this would be great! thank you guys for your help.

[mspeer]

Hi!

I don't unterstand why you can't model a smaller plane and then extrude outwards, but anyway both of the following tools allow snapping and should work fine (don't copy anything this will not work):

- Multi-Cut Tool

- Insert Edge Loop Tool

[greech82 · Accepted solution]

It seems like for less loops (only 4), it may be much faster to just manually insert them.

If I do multi-cut, how do I make it repeat the edge measure equally from all 4 sides, and enact it quickly?

Here's an example of where I couldn't -

Let's say I already have a face with a set internal geometry - and I decide I want to add a ring of equal spaces around the border of that one particular side of the object due to the way it's smoothing. 

I don't want to have to muti-tool click cut around every face to build that perimeter.

Or you can imagine for instance wanting to put a new row of faces around the edge of a plane in one action and without changing the size of the plane. 

Here is one workaround I found:

Copy/extract the face/entire object side, extrude outward at border as suggested, but then resize that whole extrude face to the original face size, cut the old face out, and merge the new face back in its place. This effectively does the new loop of faces from all sides evenly. It just takes a little more work and probably only makes sense for a lot of faces at once.

[mspeer]

Hi!

Please check the Maya online help for further information like settings and hotkeys for the tools in mentioned.

https://help.autodesk.com/view/MAYAUL/2020/ENU/

[greech82]

Okay thank you for your help. For now I marked the workaround because I think this is the best available way, it works, it's clean, it just takes a second to perform, but may ultimately be more accurate and faster on a large shape than multicutting all surfaces

[mspeer]

Hi!

The options provided by @stuzzz  and myself take less than 2 seconds to perform ,regardless of the amount of faces and they are precise. But if whatever you do works for you, it's fine.

[greech82]

@mspeer @stuzzz 

Would you simply select all relevant faces and then apply a set distance edge loop from the edge to all?

I couldn't get that to work, so specific instructions would be great, that's why I was asking.

Thank you for following up. I actually agree I would rather not have to resize and replace, it seems awkward.

[mspeer]

Hi!

Again.

These are 4 loops, so you need 4 steps to insert edges.

You also don't need to select any faces, select the object click 4 times and it's done.

Is there anything in the Maya online help that you don't understand about these tools or have you not been able to find the right part?

For example like "Insert an edge loop with the Multi-Cut Tool":

https://help.autodesk.com/view/MAYAUL/2020/ENU/?guid=GUID-145A01AC-1FCD-4229-B40C-F0C2B443EFF9

There should also be plenty of tutorials out there how to insert edge loops in Maya.

[greech82]

Right so part of the problem is that in many cases it will be a lot more than four edges. And it should be adjustable without redoing and reselecting all each time. But I get you, and I think this is the extent of the help on this topic. I'm going to leave solution as is because I think it will be most helpful to users for a large surface, the point being to not have to manually select all and redo all if the cut was wrong.

I think that is an acceptable work-around for a function that apparently doesn't have much normal use in Maya, and as you pointed out, could be avoided by better planned geometry in the first place, like a lot of problems in modeling. Thank you for your time and help considering this!