mirroring on the fly
 

hi,
how do you do that thing in maya where, if you are modelling a symmetrical body, you model one side and the other side gets modelled too as you keep going. thanx a lot.

P.S. i just vaguely remember some feature like this...sorry if its not even part of maya...

1. Select the object

2. Goto Edit menu->Duplicate
(Click the little box to the right of duplicate to bring up the options dialog.)

3. In Duplicate Options find Scale input boxes. There should be three of them. If I understand correctly they represent X, Y, Z.
Anyways, it's the first input box that's interesting. Set Scale X to -1

4. Make sure Instance is checked in the same dialog.

That should do the trick.

This is the one thing about Maya that I have problems with - I think there should be a modifier in Maya that does that automatically. Cinema 4d has one that works well. I think it is called "symmetry"? It works well because it welds the two halves together while you are modeling and when you are through you make it "editable" (something like that). It replaces numerous steps that you have to do in Maya.

If I knew how to write mel, I would make a plug-in that does that. but I don’t :(

That's not necessarily true. It depends what direction he needs to mirror in...he could be working in the z-axis or y rather than the x.

thanx a lot...i got it now. it works. thanx.

Howardporter, they make a mel like that. its called CPS. it dose teh mirror and also smooth proxy all at the same time..

ooh. I have seen that talked about, but i havent tried it yet. I think i will now :D thanks!