Page 1 of 1

Hard Edge with Smooth Mesh?

Posted: 21 Apr 2017, 19:29
by Rez007
Hello. I have a real quick question, and it is probably something easy that I am missing, but can anyone please let me know how to make super hard edges (razor thin) while using Smooth Mesh? In Softimage, I would just mark the edges as "hard" and then with/without smoothing it would always stay hard. With Maya, the hard edge seems to work when a mesh is not smoothed, but doesn't take that into account when it is smoothed. When I use the Crease tool or Crease sets, setting the crease to 2.0 (which is fully creased) still leaves a rounded edge when smoothed and not razor sharp.

I am more-or-less looking to find out how to do it similar to Softimage, rather than adding extra geometry/edge loops to make the edge harder. Thanks in advance!

Re: Hard Edge with Smooth Mesh?

Posted: 21 Apr 2017, 23:12
by Mathaeus
More or less like SI, or, what I'm using, is:
Set Smooth Mesh method to Maya Catmull Clark or OSD Adaptive (OSD = OpenSubdiv). In case of Maya Catmull Clark, turn on "propagate edge hardness".
Select some edges, run MEL like this (or put this into script):

Code: Select all

polyCrease -value 10 -vertexValue 10;
polySoftEdge -a 0;
and SI 'soft edge' could be:

Code: Select all

polyCrease -value 0 -vertexValue 0;
polySoftEdge -a 180;
That is, subd creasing and split normals for shading, they are two different things in Maya. "Hard edge" in Maya means only a shading feature, 'crease' is only a 'geometry' feature, so it's possible to see the 'absolute' crease on subd wireframe, but still with strange smooth shading, and reverse.
Not sure about yours 2 as absolute crease, let's say that Crease tool, by moving MMB to right, allows to go to 10.

Re: Hard Edge with Smooth Mesh?

Posted: 22 Apr 2017, 02:52
by Rez007
Hi Mathaeus, Thanks for the help and posting your script. I haven't used MEL yet, so I will have to look into that. I thought I was just missing something and it was something easy, never knew it would be "clicky" to do something so simple. Kind of surprised that Autodesk hasn't streamlined that a bit more.

Yeah, you can go higher than '2' in the creasing. The MMB and Crease Sets can't be used in conjunction though, and I believe I was reading in the documents that while using the Crease Sets and setting the value to '2' results in a full crease. It would be nice if there was a separate value slider in the Crease Sets for "Normals" to automatically adjust it right there, or do a CTRL + MMB to set normal shading directly in the Creasing Tool.

I appreciate the fast reply and info. Thanks!

Re: Hard Edge with Smooth Mesh?

Posted: 22 Apr 2017, 03:16
by Mathaeus
Rez007 wrote:Hi Mathaeus, Thanks for the help and posting your script. I haven't used MEL yet, so I will have to look into that. I thought I was just missing something and it was something easy, never knew it would be "clicky" to do something so simple. Kind of surprised that Autodesk hasn't streamlined that a bit more.
Commands are on menus, while it is two instead of one: mesh display > harden edge, and mesh tools > crease. MEL just runs both at once.
Creating a script and assigning shortcut is perhaps simplest in 3d world, you just use runtime command editor (it's part of hotkey editor) - or drag and drop selected lines of code to shelf. Do not hesitate to use or create scripts.

Re: Hard Edge with Smooth Mesh?

Posted: 26 Oct 2017, 15:07
by myara
I don't think you have something like that in Maya.
AFAIK, creases will always give you roundy edges if you subdivide.