Center coordinates
 

Well I know how to center an object's pivot point, but how do I get it's xyz values to reflect that new center pivot point? Maya says my object's center is still at 0,0,0, when it clearly is not.

Any thoughts?

Take your object and snap it (hold down the x key) to the very center of the grid. Choose Modify>Freeze Transformation and your object will reset to 0,0,0.

OK, but then how do I get it back in place. It has to be exact. Is there a way to get the coordinates of where it is without have to move it and freeze it?

You could make a duplicate, take the original back to the origin, freeze transformations, then take it back and try to line it up with the duplicate as best you can. You can make precise movements if you zoom in really close in the side, front, and top view panels.

yeah, but it's so lame you can't be exact.

ok, ok. It's not as lame as you think. Here is a way to do it.

Make a duplicate of your object. Take the original to the center of the grid, freeze transformations, then move it next to your original. (not directly on top of it, just next to it.) WIth the original object selected, press "insert." The pivot point for the object appears. Hold down the "c" key and snap the pivot point to a vertice. Point snapping can be a little tricky, but you can do this. Just try a few times. It can be done. Once you have the pivot point snapped to a vertices, press insert again. Now since the pivot point is directly on a vertice, you can point snap the object to the same vertice of the duplicate. Delete the duplicate, then center pivot your original.

This DOES WORK. If you can't figure out hwo to do something, I can provide a full explanation with images if need be.

Now you can't say it's lame. :)

Yeah, OK. But it is a crazy work around. Let's be honest, when you center the pivot point, the X,Y,Z should read the coordinates of where the center is, not 0,0,0

no it is not a crazy workaround. it would be a hell of a mess if everytime you change the position of pivot the xyz coordinates would change. you can enable the handle, and snap the pivot to the handle w/o snapping the pivot to a vertex. point snapping works also for handles - but only if they are visible.

You've also got the alignment commands under the modify menu.

Center pivot was not made to make the coordinates of your object change, but to make the pivot of your geometry appear at the center of your geometry. Like Babyduck said - it would be crazy if the coordinates were always changing. If you group an object to another object, the child object will lose its world coordinate and will move according to where its parent is. It absolutely has to be this way, otherwise we would have an emense amount of trouble driving that object with expressions and the like because it has to move according to where the parent object is.

The thing to remember is that center pivot has only one use and it does what it's supposed to well. Messing with coordinates requires you to use other tools specifically designed to modify coordinates. Alias|Wavefront purposly made two seperate tools for each so users could have more flexibility.

The routine I explained above is not really "a crazy work around" because it can be done in mere seconds. It's not that difficult to do in my opinion.

and... I'm sorry if I came across as being a little harsh in this post, but you really shouldn't jump to conclusions so quickly. Be patient.