Edge/Vertex/Face coordinates don't make sense in move settings (Maya 2019)

[Anonymous]

Maya newbie, but coming from other 3D software.  I'm trying to model with real life scale/units in mind.  I've got a door model and it is supposed to be 30in x 78in x 1.375 in.

I've set Maya's units to inches and I've started building out this door and I thought I knew what I was doing.  I've been trying to verify my units Maya's built in distance tool, a third party MeasureTools2.0 extension (Autodesk should integrate this feature).

Here is my question... Why are edge/vertex/face "coordinates" not making any sense the move settings panel? ( I put coordinates in quotes because I don't understand what the move tool settings is telling me due to this behavior)

Here is my door:

Door and transform

• The MeasureTools (and Maya Distance tool - not shown) show the door is around 78 in.  (Close enough)
• Door Transform is fully reset
• Door is a top level object 

Here I select an edge on the top of the door:

Edge coordinates

Why does it show that the world Y for this is 198 inches and not 78 inches???

[Fovvl]

Keeping an awarness about exact size of your model during modeling in maya is pain.

The scale: if you create an object a cube for example, it is in size of one unit of whichever you chose. Therefore, if you have inches, the cube will be scaled one. One inch in every direction. But... when you select a face and extrude it by 1 it makes another inch but the object whole is still in scale 1 so it now refers to the object size and when you scale it by 2 the object is twice as big as it was before but has 4 inches in high in real measurements. The same is for verteces, if you start to modeling the cube it will still has scale 1 even if you would move the verteces by few inches. You can move verteces by exact units but I usualy get lost. I use measurements tools to check the measurements during the modeling and do the resizing in the end. Or create a references... a human body to keep in mind how big are the other objects.

There is a lot of measurement changes for different parts of modeling from verteces to groups. If you like to have doors 30in x 78in x 1.375 in., start with a a cube and set those units at the start, and create a duplicate for size check during the modeling. As soon as you start to moving verteces, extruding and bridging you cant be sure.

I think there isnt such a tool as set the object height/widh/depth to exact measurement.

Hope this will put a little light on your case.

[_sebastian_f · Accepted solution]

@Anonymous  while it´s in general correct what @Fovvl mentions, i think your problem is just that you changed the units.  in your case both measurements are correct but MeasureTools2.0 displays in inches and the modeling toolkit display is still stuck in metric units (78 inch ~ 198 cm). 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Sebastian!  That does indeed seem to be the case.

Is that a bug in this instance? Shouldn't the modeling tools display in whatever units you chose as working units?

While we are on the subject, its hard to find good information on scaling.  From all my reading, people say that units don't matter and sure you can resize if imported into another project but how about for lighting?  Obviously Arnold values need to be CRANKED to get output at real life scale.  

I've read that an unwritten standard of Maya modeling is just use default units (cm) and assume 1 maya cm = 1 real life meter and model that way.  This way you can use an intensity of 1 for lights and just use arnold exposure values.  (With real life scale i have my lights at max intensity and all that and the lights are still weak, but I heard i could uncheck normalize to fix the quadratic falloff?)

Thanks in advance!

[mspeer]

Hi!

"...i could uncheck normalize to fix the quadratic falloff?"

- That's nonsense.

"...just use default units (cm) and assume 1 maya cm = 1 real life meter and model that way".

That's true and all dynamics behave this way.

"...units don't matter..."

- Also true. Size is relative. Show me a picture of a rendered model that indicates what units have been used or what size the model has.

[Anonymous]

Thanks mspeer but these 2 seem conflicting is what Im saying

1.

"...just use default units (cm) and assume 1 maya cm = 1 real life meter and model that way".

That's true and all dynamics behave this way.

2.

"...units don't matter..."

- Also true. Size is relative. Show me a picture of a rendered model that indicates what units have been used or what size the model has.

Sure, point 2 is TECHNICALLY true but that just conflicts with what you said about point one.   If dynamics and lighting have optimal scale ranges, shouldnt these be a little more advertised to prevent weird edge cases from popping up?  

I'm just trying to boil down to the essentials because there seems to be a lot of conflicting advice about this stuff.

[mspeer · Accepted solution]

Hi!

The problem with units is nothing new in Maya.

For example create a default character or skeleton in Maya.

It has a height of 200 default units , which should be 2 meter.

Then add a bathtub with size of 2 units filled with fluid (Bifrost) which behaves like 2 meter.

Try to place the character inside the bathtub or add any other dynamics, it will not work without adjusting the settings for either the character or the dynamics.

I recommend to stay with one default unit = 1 meter, this is far less hassle,

but you CAN work with any unit you want, you just need to adapt certain settings and scales.