Smooth Profile Lines Also Retaining Edge Based Lines?

[snadiab]

I have been working with toon lines and have noticed some odd behavior. As I understand it, when the smooth profile option is off inside the pfxToon node we get edge based toon lines. If smooth profile is on the toon lines are then based on the normal. However, when looking at the geometry of the lines it appears that when smooth profile is turned on, I get both the edge based lines and the normal based lines. Also, the normal based lines appear dashed.

To look at the geometry of the lines, I convert the toon lines to polygons using the option in the toon menu and then use a different camera to get a close look at them.

I've tried these lines in Maya 7, 8, and 8.5 and get the same behavior each time. I have played with many settings but am still seeing this.

My question is how can I get only the normal based lines? Is there an option I should have on or off?

Here are some pictures (from a scene with a torus knot that has one toon node attached to it) to demonstrate what I mean:

With smooth profile turned off:

With smooth profile turned on (tighter profile is turned off, but turning it on doesn't seem to make a difference):

[duncanbrinsmead]

The smooth profile code does not work well when it is a mix of hard and soft edges. Your torus is has soft edges in one direction and hard edges in the other. The smooth profile is turned off internally for hard edges (this is important for objects like a poly cube). When it is mixed on a single face it can get confused. I think triangulating might help in these cases. However if you want your object to work nicely with smooth profile either make all the normals soft or create a duplicate hidden object with soft normals that you create your toon lines on.

Duncan