Hey I just noticed this!

[djwaterman]

I just realized that when using polygons with smoothing (3 key), that you get a sub-D type smoothing except on outside edge corners, see illustration. I understand that this may just be the way it is in Maya, but it's not what I'm used to.

50525

Normally if I want sharp corners I would add more divisions.

The other thing is that this sharp cornering will disappear if I give that object thickness, behaving once more as I would expect it.

Should I just ignore this and accept it, I think the same thing happens in XSI.

[Perfecto]

From the looks of your geo, I would think those corners should be curved as well. How did you create that geo?

[djwaterman]

Just a polygon plane with (3 key) smoothing. I also made a poly cube, smoothed it, it went like a ball, then I deleted faces off it until there was one face left, and that last face popped into a perfect square. So it seems to be happening to planar non-dimensional poly objects.

[ctbram]

To smooth you need 3 edges not verts. Only interior verts will change position, corner verts are pinned. None of the corner verts are really smoothing (in the sense that you are thinking of it). I am recording something for you now to clarify things.

Standbye....

[ctbram]

Watch this....

http://youtu.be/_OCMkq9XVEA

[Perfecto]

Hmm, doesn't work like that for me. Left is 1 on keyboard and right is 3 on keyboard. Am I missing something?

I also created a cube, press 3 and it was ball. I deleted 3 faces and I got perfectly round face. Pressed 1 and it went to square face.

[ctbram]

As I recall there is an option to change the smoothing behavior that releases the corner boundary verts from being pinned. You may have turned that on.

Or maybe the default behavior has changed between versions of maya, although I doubt this as I have been using maya since version 1.x and I always remember smooth working as I showed in the video. What version of Maya are you using? I am pretty sure that you have changed the default behavior though.

You might try renaming (do not delete) your maya preferences folder and then reopening maya and see if smoothing a square poly plane rounds. If it does then I have no idea why it is working that way on your system perfecto. I am pretty confident that is not the default behavior though.

[THX1138]

Maya version 1.x must have been a bloody nightmare to navigate through.

I wish Alias was still developing Maya.

[ctbram]

Confirmed. I renamed my preferences folder and the behavior is as I show in the video so I am now 99.9% sure that you switched on that is causing non-standard behavior when pressing the smooth preview key. I searched for a little bit but did not find anything though to explain why. But I am certain that the default behavior is as shown in the video.

If anyone knows what the switch is to allow the corner boundary verts to smooth please post a reply.

[Perfecto]

I just bought a new computer and loaded Maya on it. I haven't modified anything. I deleted prefs folder just to be sure and it still smooths the corners. I also loaded Maya 2009 on a laptop and tested it out and it does same thing, smooths the corners. It might be a version thing.

[ctbram]

I might be a version thing perfecto. I never ran version 9. I went from 8.5 to 10 and so it could be that.

I would be interested to know now though because I have version 10,11, and 12 on different machines even and it works like in my video.

So if anyone out there is watching this thread chime in.

[bullet1968]

I found it he he he he

[ctbram]

@perfecto: Okay, it was driving me crazy but bullet found the switch perfecto.

I knew it should have been in the polyshape attributes under Smooth Mesh but that tabs has TWO subtabs and I hate the way you cannot tell if a tab is a subtab so I did not see the damn Extra Controls subtab. Well I saw it but did not realize it was a subtab of Smooth Mesh.

Select an object goto polyshape Smooth Mesh > Extra Controls Boundary Rules and the default should be "crease all". I am betting you have somehow turned on "crease edge" (see the screen captures). This is why on your system the boundary corner verts are unpinned.

I checked on a couple different versions of Maya, on a couple different machines, and also asked bullet to check a couple hiw his systems and the default appears to be "crease all". Not sure how you flipped it to crease edges unless you went into the settings and preferences but that should have been cleared when you renamed the my documents maya folder or when you did a fresh install.

[ctbram]

By the way the first place I looked was in the Smooth Mesh tab of the poly surface node. I did not see that the "extra controls" was a subtab of the Smooth Mesh tab because maya does nothing to indicate subtabs. They should be indented! to me it just looked like "Extra controls" was a main tab and since I opened all the main tabs first I did not open it.

So I blame poor ui design. I spent several hours scratching my head trying to understand how perfecto was unpinning the boundary verts and I was in the right place right at the start!

[ctbram]

Now the question is: What setting is really best? I tend to lean towards the defaults for just this reason. It only works on your machines and five years from now will you remember what switch you turned on?

[bullet1968]

remember what ctbram? LOL

cheers bullet

[Perfecto]

I think it must be the version of Maya then. My version doesn't seem to have the crease option.

[ctbram]

@bullet: what I meant was - You decide to turn the non-default switch to unpin. Then you go to someone elses machine or you update maya but a long stretch has gone by and you have to remember how you turned the non-standard behavior on. I was just saying why I tend to stay with the defaults. But this is because I am not using the program constantly and changing things from default can cause me grief if I am away from the program too long.

This is also one of th reasons I do not like to remap default hotkeys.

If I used maya every day I might be tempted because I would remember the changes I made.

[ctbram]

@perfecto: Looks like map borders / smooth internal would give the default 2012 behavior. It's odd though because if you are using 2009, so is bullet and his defaults to the same behavior that I describe in the video.

The important thing is we now know why your version of Maya is acting different.

[djwaterman]

I apologize for asking a question and not getting back to say thanks, Rick, thanks for the video, basically it seems this is Maya's (default) way , but you can change it if you want.
Personally I prefer the edges to be unpinned, if I want them hard I can add more divisions. So it would be nice to know if it is possible to set it so that this become the default behavior.
Did you also see the option 'Legacy' in the Crease edge options, does this refer to older versions of Maya settings I wonder?

The reason I need the edges un-pinned is so the mesh can move into other 3D apps so I don't want to be using any kind of custom wieghting effects, just plain polygons that can be smoothed.

[ctbram]

@dj - Glad I could help. If you are using 2010 and up go to preference and the selection section and then check the box that says "Ignore Selection Priority". This will enable the behavior you seek.

In older versions I think the settings that Perfecto has is what you want http://simplymaya.com/forum/showpost.php?p=333629&postcount=17.

[djwaterman]

By the way, it's pretty cool to have a youtube video that welcomes you by name.