Set vertex normals to custom pivot

[v_kruchinin]

Hi all!
does anyone know if there is a way to manually set the direction of vertex normals for a group of selected vertices along the axis of a custom pivot? Previously i did it that way: select vertices, then set the pivot using the D key on a keyboard and then click Mesh Display -> Set vertex normal (without options) and everything went well. But suddenly that stopped working and now the normals are being set to the values typed into the options of the "set vertex normal" button. 
If there is no default option for doing that so maybe someone could share a simple script for doing that?

[brentmc]

Hi,

You can use Mesh Display > Vertex Normal Edit Tool with the vertices selected is probably the easiest solution. 

Note: I find it hards to believe that Set Vertex Normal ever worked with the pivot. That command just uses the values in the option box. Perhaps you are mis-remembering and were using the Vertex Normal Edit Tool instead?

It would be possible to make a script that uses the Custom Axis Orientation (aka Pivot Orientation) but it would require a bit or work and you would have to decide what axis to align the normals to.

If you want to go down that path have a look at bakeCustomToolPivot.mel in the Maya installation. It shows how to get the Custom Axis Orientation from the tool and then you would have to convert that to a vector and set the normals to that vector.