Easy way to find non-quad faces

# 1 12-08-2004 , 06:39 PM

Subscriber
Join Date: Jun 2003

Location: Yorkshire, UK

Posts: 392

Can anybody tell me a easy way to find non-quad faces in a poly mesh? Other than manually going over it? A mel script maybe?

Thanks.

Quote

# 2 12-08-2004 , 06:48 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Dec 2002

Location: Seattle, WA

Posts: 1,154

Do a search for quadChecker.mel on Highend3D.com. That will help in finding non-quad faces on your mesh.

Danny Ngan
Animator | Amaze Entertainment
my website | my blog | my job

Quote

# 3 13-08-2004 , 12:54 PM

Subscriber
Join Date: Jun 2003

Location: stuck in the 90's boston, USA

Posts: 1,871

be sure to delete history before u run this script, as it is extremely slow on dense meshes with a llot of history.

Image dump

Quote

# 4 13-08-2004 , 05:09 PM

Subscriber
Join Date: Jun 2003

Location: Yorkshire, UK

Posts: 392

Thanks Danny, Vlad will try that out.

Quote

# 5 14-08-2004 , 05:42 PM

Subscriber
Join Date: Jun 2003

Location: Yorkshire, UK

Posts: 392

Hmm I couldn't find quadchecker.mel but I did get quadcheck.mel, I assume its just had a name change. Alas I can't get it to work. I've tryed selecting the whole mesh, faces, some faces etc etc and it doesn't appear to do anything, I did it with history intact and deleted. I have even left it running overnight as a test.

Any help would be very much appreciated.

Quote

# 6 14-08-2004 , 09:54 PM

Subscriber
Join Date: Jun 2003

Location: stuck in the 90's boston, USA

Posts: 1,871

i have attatched the quadChecker.mel script.
u must select the transform noode of the mesh you want to check and in the commad lind or script editor type "quadChecker;" it is case sensitive.
Place this in you /user/maya/5.0/script path if u r on linux
otherwise this probably goes in your documents path folder of the maya 5.0 in windows.

Attached Files

quadchecker.mel (2.3 KB, 788 views)

Image dump

Quote

# 7 14-08-2004 , 10:18 PM

Subscriber
Join Date: Jun 2003

Location: Yorkshire, UK

Posts: 392

Vlad your a life saver, thats been driving me round the bend.

Quote

# 8 22-08-2004 , 06:13 PM

Lead Modeler - Framestore
Join Date: Feb 2003

Location: UK

Posts: 6,287

What about the clean up command>options?

_J

Quote

# 9 22-08-2004 , 08:20 PM

Subscriber
Join Date: Mar 2003

Location: with PonysGirl

Posts: 2,573

cleen up will not do it.

Lonepig. Depending on what it is, its probably not worth it to get totaly anal about quads..

if you see a bump when its smoothed, its prob a try or Ngon. and you should cheak the mesh where it will deform for more than just for quadness anyway.
In other words if its not causing you problems.. fixing it might cost heavyness. Heavyness = harder time UV, painting weights, rigging. slow display.

sean your post that might have started this LonePig. I only sean one tryangle on the alien face that would have given you problems. right buy the corner of the mouth. You killed it. I'd relax a little and pat your self on the back.

Just my take on things btw.

Good spot for Jango though also ! that would have coused problems there with deformations.

Last edited by Pony; 22-08-2004 at 08:31 PM.

Quote

# 10 22-08-2004 , 08:55 PM

Subscriber
Join Date: Jun 2003

Location: Yorkshire, UK

Posts: 392

Thanks for the comments Jango, Pony but i've got rid of the little blighters now thanks to the quadChecker script.

I know its not vital to have 100% quads its just something i'm trying to achieve for this project.

Quote

# 11 11-09-2004 , 04:24 PM

Subscriber
Join Date: May 2004

Posts: 2

Use selection constraints. You'll find it under:

Edit Polygons > Selection > Selection Constraints

There you can choose whether to select only quads, triangles, etc. You have to be in component mode, what this will do is, if you select 'N-Gons', it will only select N'Gons in your selection. Which means you'll have to select your whole mesh, but it's another way around the problem

Quote