Workflow for separting an object into parts...

# 1 05-05-2008 , 01:43 PM

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Join Date: Apr 2008

Posts: 18

Workflow for separting an object into parts...

I have a tuck object that is all one piece and I want to separate the polygons into the various parts of the truck under one group - so the group "TRUCK" would have under it poly surfaces called "door Right, "Door Left" etc. I am selecting faces and separating them but it keeps creating group after group and making things messy. Is there a way to simply detach parts and have them stay poly surfaces under ONE group without maya continuously creating groups? I spend more time deleting history, reparenting polysurfaces, and deleting groups than I do actually breaking the object apart! There has to be an easier way!

-John

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# 2 05-05-2008 , 02:48 PM

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Join Date: Jan 2005

Location: Livingston, Scotland

Posts: 1,701

The easy way was to plan that from the start. You can carry on as you are doing by doing it bit by bit, but its time consuming and may be prone to problems

This will teach one valuable lesson that all new modelers learn. Plan ahead and then model, if you know that the project requires individual peices in the model then model those parts seperatly.

I would have broken it down to:

Cab
Body
Door Left
Door Right
Trailer
Canopy
Chassis

The list it endless, and depends on the complexity you need. Another reason for doing each part on its own is to allow easire UVing and then texturing.

I know this isnt really that helpful, but unfortunatly you have modeled yourself into a bit of a corner.

Chris (formerly R@nSiD)
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# 3 05-05-2008 , 04:01 PM

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Join Date: Apr 2008

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Well actually had I modeled the truck myself it wouldn't be an issue user added image

But we received the truck object from an agency and it wasn't broken up (as is usually the case in production). I am personally new to modeling in maya after having used various other 3d graphics apps for years...so the maya mentality is a bit new to me (especially modeling in it)

In an app such as 3ds Max or LW, you can easily separate parts of an object out and still keep them under one master group node...the equivalent of literally one topmost group and a series of poly_surfaces under it. So, my inital question still stands...seeing as how the model came to us in its current state...is there a way of breaking it apart that will ungroup each "broken off" poly surface and reparent it to the topmost group node so everything is clean.

-John

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# 4 05-05-2008 , 04:41 PM

Senior Software Developer
Join Date: Jan 2005

Location: Livingston, Scotland

Posts: 1,701

You can try:

Polygon > Seperate in Maya 7 or below

or

Mesh > Seperate in Maya 8 and above

But this still depends on how it was built in the first place, other that that you would need to select the faces you need to seperate and use the Edit Mesh > Duplicate Face command

Chris (formerly R@nSiD)
Twitter
When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will truely know peace - Jimmy Hendrix

Winner SM VFX Challenge 1

3rd Place SM SteamPunk Challenge (May 2007)

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# 5 06-05-2008 , 10:32 AM

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Join Date: Dec 2005

Location: London

Posts: 429

I never use seperate tool dosent work that good for me.

Use under the same tool menu, Extract.

Extract is so good, it makes no mess.

Work flow depends on person to person.