Auto-center pivot new objects using 'Create Poly'?

[theone]

so I do a lot of poly modeling from just creating faces for, say, extrusing. in larger scenes I do this away from the global center. and, as far as I know, new objects are grouped under the world node, hence the pivot is set to 0,0,0. now, if I want to translate my new poly object, I first need to center the pivot befpre I can access the axis widget. is there a shortcut for 'auto-centering' the pivots?

[campbell]

you should just pop xform -cp in a MMenu, hotkey, or shelf, to get it a little closer. ...or you could just group the object w centre pivot, or select all your faces/vrts just created and move them as one block (the transform centred on the components).

but if you really want to have it automated im happy to sort that for you ... need to know what method you use to enter the create polygon tool? (menu, shelf, mmenu, hotkey?)

[theone]

shelf - thnx

[campbell]

ok, what you need to do is open up the shelf file that has your tool button on it (found in prefs>shelves>shelf_shelfName.mel), and scan through it until you find the entry for your tool, it will have something like polyCreateFacetCtx there. all you need do then is paste the following line onto the end of the first toolButton entry there (but inside the "`;"). save the file (you might want to make a backup before you do this), and start maya. you cant do this whilst running maya (well you can, just delete the shelf, go back to your text editing app, save the file, and load shelf).

heres the gobldygok:

-onc "optionVar -iv sJobKiller scriptJob -e "DagObjectCreated" "{string $pols[] =ls "polySurface*"; xform -cp $pols[(size($pols)/2)-1]; string $curCtx =currentCtx; if(!gmatch $curCtx "polyCreateFacetCtx*"){ evalDeferred ("scriptJob -koptionVar -q sJobKiller; optionVar -rm sJobKiller;");}}";"

mind the line wrap crap!

[theone]

i wish i could say it worked...

have a look at the entries in the mel-file, maybe you can re-post the command as it is supposed to be inside the shelf file?

btw: using maya 5 - tells me that it finds invalid objects / entries in the shelf...

ok - here goes:

shelfButton
    -enableCommandRepeat 1
    -enable 1
    -width 34
    -height 34
    -manage 1
    -visible 1
    -annotation "Create Polygon Tool: Create polygon faces" 
    -label "Create Polygon Tool" 
    -image1 "polyCreateFacet.xpm" 
    -style "iconOnly" 
    -command "setToolTo polyCreateFacetContext ; polyCreateFacetCtx -e -pc `optionVar -q polyKeepFacetsPlanar` polyCreateFacetContext" 
    -doubleClickCommand "setToolTo polyCreateFacetContext ; polyCreateFacetCtx -e -pc `optionVar -q polyKeepFacetsPlanar` polyCreateFacetContext; toolPropertyWindow" 
;

[campbell]

ahh yeah, there are two methods for creating a tool button entry on your shelf (MMB-drag from toolbox, or ctrl-shft-alt click from menu), and their created entries are different.

ok, so for the latter method, your able to edit the command in the Shelf Editor, so just open that up, find your button, go to its command, and dump this in:

optionVar -iv sJobKiller scriptJob -e "DagObjectCreated" "{string $pols[] =ls "polySurface*"; xform -cp $pols[(size($pols)/2)-1]; string $ctx =currentCtx; if( $ctx != "polyCreateFacetContext" && $ctx != "moveSuperContext" && $ctx != "rotateSuperContext" && $ctx != "scaleSuperContext"){ evalDeferred ("scriptJob -koptionVar -q sJobKiller; optionVar -rm sJobKiller;");}}"; setToolTo polyCreateFacetContext ; polyCreateFacetCtx -e -pc optionVar -q polyKeepFacetsPlanar polyCreateFacetContext;

... ive changed it just a tad, to make it betterer. if you enter the tool from the main menu, a MMenu, a hotkey specifically bound to the tool, or w/i a script, you wont have the auto-centering. it will, however, continue to work if you enter it by using Y hotkey (return to scared tool), or hit the sacred tool button in the tool box (after having first entered through shelf button).

should be dandy now!

[theone]

eternally grateful! works like a charm!

actually, oftentimes i move the pivot away from the center anyway to, say, a vertex, and in that case it isn't really necessasry to be able to see the pivot before moving it...
still, for quick and controlled translations you just gotta have the widget around!

thnx!