Freeze transforms and Reversed normals

[vyder]

hey guys..just having a problem with freeze transforms. When i am modelling in maya, and and lets say i am modelling a symmetrical object, when i complete the object i duplicate it. after i duplicate it, i then put in a -1 value into the scale so that it is flipped. Now i can understand that everything is reversed, but when i freeze the transformations, the normals remain reversed. this is a pain because sometimes i want to take these models and run them thru Viewpoint to place them on the web. When exported from viewpoint, the reversed faces do not show up, so i have to go thru the entire model so that i can find the reversed normals. is there a way to get around this? (Viewpoint creates 3d media for the web).

thanx guys

[jeffd]

A couple ways around this.

1) Always use move component at the component level (all verts or faces selected) and do your scaling with that tool.
2) After mirroring the transform, create a cube and do a combine of your mirrored object and the cube. this makes Maya essentially rebuild the mesh and "clean" it.

--JeffD

[joojaa]

Theres a mirror command in the poly toolset that essentialy combines scaling with -1 and flip normals command.

or use filp normals after the freeze

[vyder]

thx guys...so when i set the scale value of a polygon object to -1, do ALL the normals flip, or just some of them?

another question, supposed i did this with a nurbs object (set the scale value to -1 in the x axis to duplicate and invert it), if i was to convert that nurbs object to polygons, would i still have to flip the normals, would there be any problems there?

[joojaa]

All!

nurbs objects do automaticaly get the opposite flag on so they should be fine doesent cost much to check tough!

[mikleing]

When you freeze transforms (including scaling) on an object that had a -1 scale, Maya sets the "opposite" flag on in the Render Stats for that object. This can cause trouble in exporting or merging, so you should unset the opposite flag if it's turned on, and then do a polygon reverse normals on the object.

-jeremy