Points along existing geometry

[nycsamurai]

I'm wondering how would one go about getting points along geometry. Like if I'd want to position geometry to put feathers on a bird, I'd do it off the tangent of the poly at a certain point. Not really sure how I'd get the position in a script though. Is it even possible to get the interpolated position at a certain point between the vertices?

[daikath]

In Maya 2011 there is a point on poly constrain,

http://download.autodesk.com/us/maya/2011help/files/WS1a9193826455f5ff-7f10494411f03a24f242b7b.htm

For older versions of Maya, you can simply place a folicle node on the geometry and it will follow the geometry alongside being its own node. Or you can make use the the rivet script.

http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/downloads/scripts-plugins/animation/c/rivet-button--2

Maybe not exactly mel commands, but you can then acces the follicles worldaspace coordinates, or the world space coordinates of a locator with the rivet or point on polygon constrain.