Hi,
Does anyone know if its possible in Maya to smooth a mesh using Hard edges to control the subdivision (see attached 3DS Max image).
The only option I can find in Maya is to use the Maya Catmull-Clark option and use ‘Propogate Hard Edges’ and ‘Preserve Hard Edges’ but it doesn’t work the same way as 3DS Max does.
The only workaround I’ve been able to find in Maya is to extract the faces (keeping them part of the original mesh) and it then smooths both surfaces separately just like 3DS Max.
Hi,
Thanks for your rely - see image below, this is the result I get when I use the 'Maya Catmull-Clark' smooth option and 'Preserve Hard Edges' option. (compare this to 3DS Max screenshot - very different result). I'm hoping there's something simple I'm missing here.
Hi!
No, you are not missing anything.
The only way to achieve something similar is by using Creases.
https://help.autodesk.com/view/MAYAUL/2018/ENU/?guid=GUID-DEB060F9-A4B1-4F73-8B4D-B18A13D0E54B
Your workaround with Extract is OK, but i would prefer Detach as it's faster and then of course use Merge later to combine the vertices again.
Adding to mspeer's suggestion, this is how you can get the exact sharp edges you want and not have to go through a lot of menus each time to make this a viable workflow. There are three scripts below with descriptions of what they do for each script.
//Set mesh options to receive creasing correctly
string $selection[] = `ls -sl -fl`;
//Get object name
toggleSelMode;
toggleSelMode;
selectMode -object;
string $objName[] = `ls -sl`;
//Get shape name
select ($objName[0] + ".f[0]");
string $getShapeName[] = `ls -o -sl`;
//Turn off Use Global OpenSubdiv
setAttr ($getShapeName[0] + ".useGlobalSmoothDrawType") 0;
//Turn on propogate edge hardness
setAttr ($getShapeName[0] + ".propagateEdgeHardness") 1;
//Turn on Maya Catmull-Clar
setAttr ($getShapeName[0] + ".smoothDrawType") 0;
select $objName;
//Turn on crease for selected edges and harden normals
SoftPolyEdgeElements 0;
polyCrease -value 10
//Turn off crease for selected edges
SoftPolyEdgeElements 1;
polyCrease -value 0;
