Select connected geometry

# 1 01-02-2012 , 06:47 AM

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I hate to do the whole "In Lightwave we..." but it's probably the best way to say what I want to say. So, in Lightwave we can select a polygon on a piece of geometry and go to 'select connected' and the whole of that geometry will get selected as one part. Then you can take it and move it or put it in a new layer or what ever, the point being it's a way to grab that piece of geo.

The equivalent I can find in Maya would be to select some polygons on a piece of geometry and keep expanding the selection until that whole piece is selected.

The question is, is there a faster way to do that? More or less select the one face and do something that then selects all the other faces connected to it.

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# 2 01-02-2012 , 06:57 AM

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not sure why you would want to do this since in object mode (F8 to toggle between object and component mode) you can just select the whole thing.

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Last edited by jsprogg; 01-02-2012 at 07:02 AM.

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# 3 01-02-2012 , 07:05 AM

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yeah like jsprogg says, just select while in object mode.

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# 4 01-02-2012 , 07:10 AM

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Because my object is a car that is all one object and I would like to break it out into all its separate bits. It wasn't created in Maya and was imported as an OBJ and I exported it as one whole object rather than a bunch of separate obj's (as I probably should have).

So in object mode if I select any part of the car the whole car gets selected.

Just tell me if this is impossible in Maya and I will export separate obj's for all the parts.

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# 5 01-02-2012 , 07:14 AM

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To break up an object there is no other way other than to select the faces you want and Extract Faces. you can use the paint selection tool to speed up the selection or grow the selection or simply use the lasso tool.
Its the main disadvantage of using obj to import.

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Last edited by jsprogg; 01-02-2012 at 07:17 AM.

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# 6 01-02-2012 , 07:19 AM

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You could try Mesh>Extract...which MAY extract the pieces into the seperate parts they were in when created. So RMB...object mode...select car then Mesh>Extract...IF it wasnt in seperate pieces when saved you may be having to do what jsprogg said.

You can also pick 1 face somewhere central on an object 'piece'...then hold down SHIFT and use the > key to increase/expand. Im not sure if obj have layers in the outliner?? jsprogg?

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# 7 01-02-2012 , 07:19 AM

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well if its been combined into a single object your could go to mesh>separate first and it will be broken into all the individual polygon objects and placed into a group then you can pick each object separately.

You can always recombine things with mesh>combine.

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# 8 01-02-2012 , 07:20 AM

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LOL at least you only have to do it to one half of the car....

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# 9 01-02-2012 , 07:23 AM

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Im not sure if obj have layers in the outliner?? jsprogg?

Originally Posted by

obj comes in as a single object so Separate won't work and Mesh Extract was what i was talking about when i said to extract faces.The only other option is to import separate obj's .

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# 10 01-02-2012 , 07:31 AM

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obj comes in as a single object so Separate won't work and Mesh Extract was what i was talking about when i said to extract faces.The only other option is to import separate obj's .

Originally Posted by jsprogg

I don't play with objs made up of multpile combined objects much but I just created and exported a model from modo as obj, then imported it into maya and, as you say, it comes in as a single (combined) object.

However, I then successfully used mesh > separate to split it into all the individual poly objects.

Is there something special about his VW model from lightwave that I am missing?

Can you attach the model because now I am curious to see this behavior where you can have a obj made up of individual objects but cannot separate them?

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# 11 01-02-2012 , 07:36 AM

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Is there something special about his VW model from lightwave that I am missing?

Originally Posted by

To be honest Ct it's been a while since i have imported from another package and i was not aware separate would work ...always worth a try i guess but i have never had much luck separating obj's, not a problem for me since once you get really comfy with the select tools and tumbling to the right camera angle it's fast to select faces.

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# 12 01-02-2012 , 08:38 AM

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I have used seperate but for me it create a load of dupicates that at first I did not notice, may be export from lightwave a fbx file see in that comes in to maya seperate...........dave

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# 13 01-02-2012 , 08:44 AM

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I go off to dinner, come back and there's a discussion going on, yay! Well, 'Mesh/separate' did the trick. So thanks everyone, I would never have got there without you. This forum is really great.

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# 14 01-02-2012 , 11:19 AM

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sorry jsprogg LOL I thought that might be what you meant...sorry bro

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# 15 01-02-2012 , 12:47 PM

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something to remember dj...CAD programs export to the formats you want BUT they dont always import the way you expect. Trust me on this one...I have to import so many different formats for Surveying I spend a LOT of time fixing them up...painful stuff man.

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