Make Connected Edges Parallel by Moving In-between Vertice

[Artist157]

I want to Raise/Lower a Vertice along the World Y-Axis such that the Edges that are Linked/Connected to it become parallel with one another and it appears as though they are just a Single Edge like the red one highlighted in the photo below. Is there a simple way to go about it?

[damaggio]

Select the edges that go on not quite straight in line and use the scale  to flatten them all in Y making them straight again.

[Artist157]

Sorry, I don't quite understand your idea, but I tried to select the two edges and use the scale tool. Unfortunately it didn't help my situation.

[damaggio]

I understand but is all I  can figure out from your image, perhaps u can record a video or provide more angles of the issue.

[Artist157]

Not sure if the following images help at all, but please let me know if you have any questions...

[damaggio]

Sorry, I don't know what  this is, it would be better to just zip the mesh here.

[Artist157]

Let me know if this is okay...

[damaggio]

Thank you for the model Gurleen,

as I said before, all you need to do is select that long row of faces, edges or the vertices and flatten them with scale tool in any direction you desire, work by checking in all orthographic views and move it to the correct spot. I understand it can be a bit confusing for beginners but give it another try.

Also your scale is extremely  small, Maya is in Centimeters, find out an average size on the internet and correct your scale, also there's a bunch of disconnected vertices in the model and finally remember there's no point of worrying about the other side of a symmetrical object if a mistake occurred when you can simple concentrate on one half of modeling which is a lot faster, then copy the mesh, flip it with -Z , -X or -Y and simply rotate one half 180 degrees and combine the 2 parts and merge the vertices.Done.

Keep practicing and good luck.

[Artist157]

I've tried using the Scale Tool in 2 different ways. In both cases I Press "D" on my Keyboard and select the Red Slanted Edge (see OP image) to Align the Pivot. From there it doesn't matter if I leave the Orientation of the Tool's Axis at Custom or World because either way, it wants to move the Vertice towards the Center of the Red Edge - which is not what I want...

How can I change the Working Units/Scale, but also of everything else in the Scene so that I don't have to do it manually?

I also want to remedy the the Disconnected Vertices, but I have a hard time with Target Weld if the Vertices are occupying the same space.

Also, thanks for the tip about working with only half the model.

[brentmc]

Here is my solution. (which does require a few steps but is not that complicated)

1) Select the vertex and activate the scale tool
2) Enter pivot editing mode (D)
3) Shift-click on the first edge's vertex to set the pivot position
4) Shift+Ctrl-click on the second edge vertex to aim the manipulator towards it
5) Hold V  and drag the pivot manipulator's X axis to snap to the point being moved
6) Exit pivot editing mode (D)
7) Scale to zero along perpendicular axes to straighten the two edges

Straighten Edges

[Artist157]

Thanks Brent, your Method is great for anyone who only wants to Straighten Edges and it's become my go-to for that kind of Operation. However, in my case, I don't want to just have the Edges be Straight... I want to also Prevent any World X & Z movement of the Central Vertex so that it Moves Directly Up or Down and not at an Angle.

[brentmc]

Hi,

My approach would be first to straighten the edges as described in my previous post.

Next I would snap the pivot position to the perpendicular edge point (V + select axis) and do a second scale operation.

[Artist157]

The Final Position of the Central Vertex has to be at the Exact Intersection Point between Line AB and Line CD as shown below.

Somehow, this Point has to first be Found, Aimed at, and then finally, the Yellow Vertex has to be Moved there...
If one of the Lines is Straightened, then Straightening the Other Line cannot undo the Straightening of the First in even the slightest... It must be Perfect...

[brentmc]

I was able to do this using some other modeling tools.

1) Use Multi-Cut to add a perpendicular edge to the vertical face using the Shift+Ctrl modifiers.

2) Use Target Weld to weld the the original vertex to the newly added one

Note: In most cases I would probably just eyeball this or if I really needed an exact mathematical solution I would write a script to calculate the intersection and move the selected vertex.

[Artist157]

Hi Brent,

Thanks for your continued help and feedback on this.

Your solution using Multi-Cut and Target Weld is really interesting (I'm guessing that using target weld this way doesn't lead to hidden faces?) and your idea to use some kind of coding to automate this would be awesome.

It has to be said that I did come up with a solution of my own for solving the vertex's position before ever posting this thread... It involved creating 2 3-sided planes that I overlapped and used boolean to solve for the intersection point. You may have also discovered that the vertex on the other side, that you leverage in your example, is actually in the correct World XY spot - this was not a coincidence. If you wanted to you could just use some simple scaling to solve for the intended vertex very quickly given that they are mirrors...

However, the intention here was that I wanted to find out if there was a better way to solve for the vertex because the one I came up with felt too cumbersome. It wouldn't be able to rely on the mirrored vertex because it obviously wouldn't be in the correct spot... I'm not sure if Maya has a specific tool designed for handling this kind of task besides coding, (I'm not familiar with python or pymel) or if anyone knows Maya well enough to be able to makeshift a better alternative.

[brentmc]

Maya is not well suited to precise (CAD-style) modeling.

In order to solve these kinds of problems it would be better to have something like snapping guides so you could snap to intersections etc. based on guides that could be added to the model.

I was able to approximate snapping guides using linear curves but it required many steps so I'm not sure I would advocate this as a general approach.

1) use Modify > Convert > Polygon Edges to Curves to extract degree 1 curves for edges A-C-B and C-D.
2) delete edit point C from first curve to get curve A-B
3) use Curves > Cut to split the curves at their intersection point (generating 4 separate curves)
4) create a locator and position it near the intersection point **
5) use curve snapping to snap the locator exactly to the intersection point
6) use point snapping to snap the original point to the locator

Whew!

** Note: I had to first move the locator close to the intersection as it would not snap to it from far away.



One thing 

[Artist157]

Thanks for sharing your method. It does work well, but yes, it does require a couple steps so that everything is set up correctly. I found that moving the locator was a bit challenging at first to snap to the cut curve, but hiding the mesh behind it did make that process simpler. It's interesting and helpful to note, how once the Locator is riding along a curve, it won't move off of it and will stop at its ends... This obviously makes moving the Mesh's Vertex to it more Accurate - which is a huge plus...

Also, the CD Curve may need to be moved/raised so that it creates the intersection with AB before cutting can work and it may also be a little bit faster to create the curves using Create>Curve Tools>EP Curve Tool. As I'm sure you are aware, "V" can be held down and the AB Vertex's can be clicked. -For some reason my mesh's vertex's are highlighted either yellow or magenta depending how I'm interacting with it and I don't know how to turn that off...

I wish that the Mesh's Vertex could Snap to those of the Curves since it would remove the need for a Locator, but that doesn't seem possible... Overall though, I feel like this may be the best that I can expect with Maya right now, but hopefully a future update comes along to help ease this Process or maybe a better method is already possible...