Hidden Triangles Revisited

[rgkovach]

I came across this (very old) topic in my search for some help.

http://www.highend3d.com/boards/index.php?...;hl=triangulate

I have some new artists working for me from the MAX camp, and they are wanted things in Maya to be like they are in MAX.
Specifically, can you manually define the triangulation of a mesh and remember it, so the triangles can be turned back into quads for further editing?

I have looked into attributes under Mesh Controls that handle Quad splitting, but can't get Maya to remember a manual split after i turn the 2 triangles back into a quad.

I'm using Maya 8.5. Thanks.

[joojaa]

Maya actually works like it shows, unlike max (which has several poly types) but make a new triangulation scheme in maya that reads some blind per face point data to define cut order (read the sdk examples not hard to do at all) then use the poly display-> display trangles. And make tool for setting this.

They are triangulated for view on the fly but not all renderer's make triangles out of primitives! And even wne they do its left for the render so the displayed triangulation do0e snot apply to MR for instance.

And yes theres plenty of reasons tho have native ngons, for one prman renders them faster. Tahts why even max implements this scheme.

QUOTE
Specifically, can you manually define the triangulation of a mesh and remember it, so the triangles can be turned back into quads for further editing?

Well thats just the deal a max mesh type quad is made out of triangles at all times its just that the cut is hidden from the user, its not a quad at all ever! You can also do this in maya make a uvmap that reacts to gons and use the border edges only display. Api aloso prowides a way to make a new poly based shape thats allways triangles and then you could draw edges as you wish!

Theres actually no need to classify edges like this but...

[dominic-morin]

this answer you privided for the triangulation answered for half of my own personal question regarding the edit triangulation .

now that i know how to show the triangles per object using dispaly -) polygons -) face triangles . i wonder if there is a way to turn those invisible edges ( the pointy ones ) insted of actualy creating a visible regular edge that would just make the triangles . much like the turn option in the edit triangulations.

[dryo]

Maya's polygon system works just like Editable Poly in Max. Triangle tessellation is automagically calculated on the fly. You cannot manually flip the orientation of an implicit or "invisible" edge as you could in Editable Mesh.

If you need an edge to be oriented a certain way, then you mush make it an explicit edge. If desired, you can use Edit Mesh > Flip Triangle Edge on an existing explicit edge.

[joojaa]

Yes but that don't mean you cant hide edges! And fool the user just like max mesh types. (which don't have quads at all, and causing people to think they affect the triangulation while all they do is hide edges from view).

This is easily done in 2 ways just make your mesh and then turn all edges invisible, (turn only hard on lets face it you wont have a non priority edge hard) then either:

make a shaoe tyope that draws lines based on your priority

or use base uv shape to distribute the edges by highlight. to keep this info about. Done.

Or just adjust the tesselator, wuch is the easiest way.

PS: tough theres no benefit of this, since this way you loose the knowledge on which face is already triangulated! IT does neither make work flow faster, work more precise or anything. Its just waste of time and resources for ll parts involved even the modelers. IT don't make their life easier. IT in fact only makes their work slower! Yes it even did in max!