smoothness wont work_hot keys

[bullet1968]

Hi guys,

well Ive googled and googled ad nauseum and cant find a solution. My smooth operation on the 1,2,3 keys wont function at all, I have uninstalled and reinstalled Maya to no effect. It tells me in the command bar down below it has completed the op but nothing happens to the model. I resort to smooth mesh and CTRL Z atm but this is painful. Any ideas from the wide audience out there??

Cheers bullet

[daverave]

Hi Bullet
Could be a crupt scene, open a new scene if it works there then import your model into a new scene.............dave

[bullet1968]

Hi dave,

nah mate tried all that, nothing worked, even ctbram led me through a preference delete/reconfig, that didnt work either. I might have to unin/re-in again??

[NitroLiq]

Have you tried using the Page Up key? Page Up/Page Down control the smooth iterations for the preview. If the smoothness level is at 0, you won't see any changes. Try pressing the 3 key then hitting Page Up 2-3 times and see if that works.

[ctbram]

Nitro that is neat I did not know you could adjust the smooth preview subdivision level using the page up and page down keys.

That will come in handy. For some parts I like the sub division level at 3 instead of the default 2 and for that I go to edit attributes (ctrl-a) and make the adjustment in the smooth mesh tab.

Page-up and down changes the subdivision level on the selected object. I looked in preferences and did not see a way to set it globally. Is there some place he could have done that because as I recall he gets the subdivision level 0 for smooth preview (3-key) on everything even after opening a fresh file.

[NitroLiq]

AFAIK, there isn't a global pref for this. It just works on a per mesh basis. You can select a mesh's shape node and enable/disable/edit the smooth preview in the attribute editor, as well. Maya 2009+ adds render subdivision to these settings so you can do some things like turn off the preview but still have it render out out subdivided in MR. Here's a short blog article on it:

http://www.muttsy.net/blog/2010/01/22/mesh-smooth-preview/

I use 2008 so just have the basic attibutes (basically what's already controlled by hotkeys).

It looks like someone else has encountered the same issue:

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=696887

[bullet1968]

Thanks Nitro I will give it a go

cheers bullet

[bullet1968]

Ok guys,

I can get the subs to work in the attribute editor no probs but it still doesnt work. When I press the p-up or down the command saya "Error: No proxy detected on pSphereShape1." I assume I am doing something wrong??? Thanks for the thread link Nitro, I will try the suggestions there.

I run WinXP S3
2.66 G dual core
up to 1.7 G NVIDIA 9600GT
4 G DDR 2 ram

so I shouldnt have card or processor probs should I??

cheers bullet

[ctbram]

bullet,

1. make a new scene
2. make a poly cube and select it
3. press ctrl-a and then select the mesh smooth tab
4. now with the cube still selected press the page up and page down button
5. you should see the sub division level (which by default should be 2) increase or decrease as you press the page up and down buttons


If you are not then something is wrong. If you are and things are still not smoothing then you have something wrong. If the subdivision level number goes up and down and you are getting error messages then ...you guessed it something is wrong.

But for all the time we are spending jumping through flaming dagger hoops you could have uninstalled and reinstalled maya about 5 times now. lol

If it still does not work with a clean install of maya then you have a os issue, gfx card issue, virus issue, driver issue, or your machine is just cursed.

[bullet1968]

Ok ctbram,

the sub levels do go up and down when I open the smooth mesh tab with p-up/down but only when I hit the slider in exponential controls, is this correct??? but 1,2,3 still dont work, looks like a clean?

Addenda: it will only work when I actually touch the slider bar and get it to highlight, otherwise p-up/down doesnt affect it, when I highlight the slider the divs will go up and down affecting the mesh. 1,2,3 still doesnt work, I have no virus that I know of N360 is pretty good in that regard. I have had LOTS of trouble with NVIDIA before but only on certain games and all my other Survey CAD works fine with topo's. You could be right ctbram, uninstall AGAIN bwahahahahahahaha, thtas a cry/sob/suicide note. (jokes) :(

[ctbram]

"slider in exponential controls"??? Maybe it is because we have different versions but I have no idea what you are referring too.

Once again I have used every version of maya since version 3.0 and you simply press 1 2 or 3 NOTHING ELSE! No sliders, no anything. I am not awhere of any way to change this behavior even on accident!

So I really don't know what more to suggest. If it were me I'd wipe maya, clean all remanence of it from your machine, and reinstall and before you do ANYTHING, before you hit any control or alt or ANY keys what so ever, before you touch any sliders -

create a poly cube and press the 3 key if it does not smooth then you have something other then a Maya problem to figure out.

[NitroLiq]

Yeah, I don't quite understand what you're adjusting.

1. make a new scene
2. make a poly cube and select it
3. hit the 3 key.

If it says the smooth operation occurred in the cmd line but the cube still isn't smoothed, then try hitting the page up key. Just remember the object has to be selected for the smooth or iteration adjustment to occur.

Aside from that...no idea what the issue would be. What version of maya? Can you post a screen shot of what you're fiddling with (sliders, etc)?

[bullet1968]

Hi guys,

forgive the stupid questions, Im sorry for my inabilty to figure this one out. I have tried the page up/down nitro, it doesnt work, yes I have the mesh active. I can only find mesh options up top in the mesh tab, none in the editor in pshape. I have expanded all of them and cant find anything.

I am running Maya 8 Nitro, here are the screen shots, the divisions with the p-up/down keys only move WHEN I make the slider active. I am probably a nincompoop but this has got me stuffed. IF I am doing or looking in the wrong place I sincerely apologise (at the moment I feel like a child). Otherwise I will go with ctbrams and reinstall, clean the lot out, registry too I suppose?

cheers bullet

http://www.dropbox.com/gallery/4090628/1/maya%20smooth%20error?h=649918

[bullet1968]

Nitro,

it works with subdivisions only, I assume I have made a complete idiot of myself??

[bullet1968]

no luck, did the reinstall, oh well, I will have to live with it. Thank you to all who tried to help this poor soul.

[bullet1968]

Thanks to ctbram,

he has pinpointed the trouble, Maya 8 cant smooth preview polys, my apologies as all of the forums I went to omitted this bit of info. ct you are a bloody legend, omnipresent one.

Cheers bullet

Thread dead

Upgrade to Maya 2009 (divorce). ladadadada

[ctbram]

Sorry about the confusion bullet.

I started out as a nurbs modeler and the 1,2,3 keys have worked for NURBs and SubDs all the way back to version 3 of Maya.

They added the capability to polygons in Maya 2008. But you could not render (in mental ray) the smooth preview.

In Maya 2009 they added the capability of mental ray rendering the smooth preview.

So from Maya 2009 on I have not really used the regular smooth function. Unless I want to upres my model and then cut in more detail into the higher res mesh (but I try to avoid this method of modeling unless I don't plan to smooth after adding the new detail).

So for Maya 8.0 your best bet is to apply a polygon>smooth then set divisions to 2. Render, tug verts, add details, and such but DO NOT delete history ot you will bake in the hi res mesh.

To get back to you base mesh set the number of divisions in the poly smooth node to 0 and then once back to the base mesh you can delete history.

Best of luck in keep up the good work. Your CH 701 is coming along well.

[NitroLiq]

Apparently, in Maya 8, smooth preview only works with NURBs and Sub-D. It was added for polygons in Maya 2008.

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=563523

So, you can either use the regular smooth command and undo like you've been doing or the way I used to work in Maya 7 is to take advantage of poly proxy similar to what this guy shows:

http://www.imanishi.com/mayablog_en/2009/01/maya-tutorials-polygon-modelin-2.html

What I would do is adjust the proxy settings (when creating) so the smoothed mesh and proxy are output to two different layers, then just move the smoothed one over a specific amount (-2 in the z for example). This would allow me to to see how my edits to the proxy are affecting the smoothed version side-by-side. If the model/scene gets taxing on the computer, then turn the smoothed layer(s) off. Sometimes I like this more than smooth preview but it does take more to set it up. If you've ever watched SM's apache tutorial, that's the workflow that KB uses as he's building up the parts. Very handy.

[bullet1968]

Thanks ctbram,

I will do that, JUST DONT DELETE mt history, hahahaha its caught me a few times now!!

Cheers Nitro,

I will be buying a few DVD's one of the Spitfire and the Apache (cos it looks hot!!). I will keep your advice and ct's on a notepad for ref.

Thanks again guys.