Basic Problem..extract tool
 

Hi all,
I'm working through a book for Maya. I'm at a point where I have a full body geometry, I want to select the faces of the hips and legs of the model, and I am supposed to use the extract tool to make the legs and hips a seperate mesh. I selected the faces, opened the tool, made sure the box is checked " seperate extracted faces" ( to make the extracted faces a new mesh according to help files ), I click extract and get an error messege saying, " No Object matches name:ChipOff1, the model turns from green highlight to white. the lower legs and hips part isnt a different mesh. (extract2.jpg)
If I click on the box to UNCHECK seperate extracted faces, the model shows the manipulation tool, I can go to inputs and change "keep faces together" from off to on, ( making the faces stay together?) but it is too still part of the torso. ( extract4.jpg) Any body have an idea what I'm doing wrong here? I can usually figure most everything out as I go, but this one is got me stuck so I thought I'd look for help. Could it be that at one point in the early stages of building the model, the legs and hips were "combined" to make the whole body one mesh? Any and all replies are appreciated..
Taylor

extract2

Hi Blayd the settings are correct.
If you after you have performed the extract command, click the manipulator tool once (the lightblue circle above the red arrow in the top screenshot) and you can start moving the extracted geometry in world coords (origin axis X, Y, Z)
You may want right click the bottom geometry and select object mode.


Try it on a simple poly cube with 2 divisions in height and try extract the bottom half by selecting the faces you want to extract, apply extract, click manipulator once, you should now see the green and white wires, right click -> object mode, select the bottom object, move it out of the way.
Just to get a feel for the process.

Off topic if this is a game model you typically don't want to extract the bottom half at all. If you are about to UV you can work with selections, view selected, hide and other tricks for easier UV'ing rather than extracting geometry.

Thanks for the reply, but it didnt work. Both pieces were still one mesh. After extracting, if I clicked on one piece, the other would be highlighted as well. I had to "detatch" the pieces then use the extract tool to finally get two seperate mesh objects. ( I found a post from way back that someone had suggested this to get the results I was looking for... two seperate meshes from one piece.) Oddly enough, I needed to seperate the head as well from the torso, ( I wasnt supposed to join them yet at this stage in the book..but I did..) and the same procedure, just selecting the faces that make up the head and then keep faces together, with seperate faces checked, worked perfectly. Got two seperate meshes right off. Dont know why the body didnt work that easily, I'm guessing there was somehing in the past history that may have something to do with the problem.

Without detaching the pieces, and doing it as decribed in the original post
Yes, I could move each seperately, but they were still the same mesh.
No, this isnt a game model, just a model from a book to learn Maya's tools.. and no, not UV'ing it right now.
Thanks so much for the reply, I appreciate it!!:beer:

Oh, and as you stated above,
"You may want right click the bottom geometry and select object mode."
On that instance of trying to use the tool, I couldnt right click the bottom half because every face was a seperate object after the extraction. So, only a single face at a time would become an object. But thanks...

I use a MEL script called DetachSeperate.mel. Do a search and you will find it.

All you do is select the faces you want to seperate then run the script and it does what the name says. :attn:

Thanks for the tip, I'll search for it, too bad you have to use a script for something that should work in the program...Thanks again for the help!!:beer:

Nice tip Velusion, have been after for such a script for a short time now :bow:

Thanks...... got it!:attn: Just need to make sure I have it placed right. Thanks again!!

No problem guys. Someone on this board told me about that script a year or 2 ago. I've been using it ever since..... and I agree; it should be built into Maya.

Well, the extract tool is the tool in Maya for this, but it must have been something I did that caused it not to work properly. The script it seems, will work no matter what, where the extract tool, wont if somethings not right. I guess I should be trying to figure out what I did that caused the problem. It did work when I seperated the head from the torso, but not when I wanted to seperate the torso into two pieces. Maybe in time, my models will be better built???:confused: Any way.. thanks for the help and the script reference. Got one more newbi question. I put the script in the scripts folder, assuming that to use it I call it using the scripts editor? Or.. should I have put this into maybe, a shelf folder along with the .bmp icon that came with it to maybe create a button?? Not sure.. but thanks so much for the help.. I'll need alot more!!:headbang: