Extract a curve from a poly model?
 

Hey,

I'm currently working on a poly model in maya 2010 and I would need to extract a profile curve from my surface... I tried duplicate the edges, extracting the adjacent faces and merging the vertices, but to no avail... I know you can do it in nurbs, but since it's all modeled in polys and conversion from polys to nurbs is pretty much a big no-no...
Any ideas?

Thanks!

make the model live then draw a curve on it? hope this helps

Yeah, that's what I ended up doing... Thanks!

Hello garch,

If I understand you correctly, this is what I do..

1. Select the curve (edge) that you want to extract (duplicate) .
2. Go into the "Surfaces" Menu Set (i have version 2009) and under the "Curves" Menu select "Duplicate Surface Curves"
3. Immediately select "Attach Curves" under the "Edit Curves" menu and then with the curve still selected, delete history. Deleting history will unlink the attached curve from the "in pieces" curve because at this point you will have 2 curves on top of each other. One will be a complete curve. The other will be in pieces. Just delete the "in pieces" curve.

Note: These 2 curves are in addition to the original curve that is still apart of the geometry.

Thanks, this is exactly what I needed.

Thanks Perfecto. Precisely what I needed too. Great help even after 3 and half years XD ;)

There is a simple way to do this "modify/convert/polygon edge to curve"...........dave

Thank you Dave. I might as well just ask, how can I extrude faces from a long curve after?
I selected the curve and tried to extrude a face / polygons but Maya doesn't let me.

It might be that you are trying to extrude at the end of the curve you need to extrude from the beginning, try surfaces edit curve "reverse curve direction" then do your extrude..................dave