Maya Hexagons

[bengranger]

I was sent this great 3dMax tutorial on how to create hexagons from quads, and to extrude them as a cage:

http://designreform.net/2008/04/12/hexagon...ic-mesh-smooth/

Now I'd like to try to replicate this in Maya 8.5, using prebuilt modeling functions.
So far I've managed to get octagons through the following steps:

1. Model the geo with quads, starting with a cube and hand-subdividing as necessary
2. Convert to triangles through Edit Mesh>Add Divisions [Exponentially; Div:1; Mode: triangles]
3. Smooth [default settings]
4. Select every middle vertice of the octogon and then convert selection to faces
5. Delete selected faces.

I know I can model this quite easily by hand, but i was trying to challenge myself and think of a way to do this semi-automatically.
Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Ben

[joojaa]

step 4 on can be expanded save vertex selection before the smooth as quaick selection set, then smooth whole object reselect set, convert to edges delete select all vertices delete. Then get face count bevel everything, select faces [0:num-1] delete, select object extrude. smooth again.

[naughty]

If you watch that video closely you'll see that it's not the quad faces that become hexagons, but the quad corners which form the center of the hexagons.

so. here's my take:

create your quad "box". select ALL the verts and add these to a new set.
Triangulate the mesh (regular triangulation, not add divisions)
Mesh Smooth (defaults as before)
select the vertices in the set - convert selection to EDGES - Delete edge/vertex

you now have your base hex mesh. I'm not sure exactly how you'd emulate MAX's "classic" smoothing in Maya which would be the next step, but you could use extrude face (keep faces together: OFF) on all the hexagons before deleting them as a starting point...

hope this is of some use...

:nathaN