Determining vertice location

# 1 30-04-2013 , 11:55 PM

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Join Date: Apr 2013

Location: Atlanta, GA

Posts: 15

I searched and found the way to determine the x, y, z for a selected vertice, tried it on the corner of a cube, brought up the component editor under Windows, worked as prescribed, but when I try this on my high-poly model, I only see the ID of the selected vertice displayed, no coordinates, normals, etc. I'm a total newb, forgive me for missing something simple, might there be a difference in the vertices present in my mongo mesh that came in via the .obj and those used in a primitive poly?

I'm pretty sure I'm using the correct selection tool (select point components), which is what worked when selecting the corner of the cube, but even if not, I tried the other types and none brought up the info I need. Thanks in advance.

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# 2 01-05-2013 , 12:22 AM

Technical Director
Join Date: Feb 2004

Posts: 2,988

You can do this. If you don't know how to code, that's fine. Just copy and paste the code below into command line at the bottom of the main Maya window. Then select the text, and middle mouse drag it into your shelf. Now whenever you press that icon, it will print out the location of the current vertex in the command line. Also, make sure that the text next to the command line says "MEL", not "Python". If says "Python", click on it, and it will change.

This will work for all objects, CVs, etc as well.

Code:

xform -ws -q -t;

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

Last edited by NextDesign; 01-05-2013 at 12:24 AM.

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# 3 01-05-2013 , 02:20 PM

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Join Date: Apr 2013

Location: Atlanta, GA

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Nice, thanks for that. I'm curious why the component editor shows this info for a vertice selected from a primitive poly, but not my mesh. Not that I care enough to slow down figuring that out, my new button works magic.

I'd like to ask a follow up, my use for this info is to parent the mesh to a null object located at a known vertice. This point exists in an overlapping area of a second mesh, which I'm needing to align and eventually merge somehow with the first mesh (and a third, fourth). My approach was to place parent null objects at three locations, common points of interest, on two meshes, then simply copy the locations of one null set and paste them into the other, forcing both the position and rotation of one mesh to align to the other. I'm confident the logic is valid, but not sure if Maya supports parenting only by position not rotation, then if you can in turn move through the sequence of aligning the nulls, not losing position on one as you align the next. Make sense? Thanks for your time!

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# 4 01-05-2013 , 03:21 PM

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Join Date: Feb 2004

Posts: 2,988

It does, but it's not called parenting. Take a look at the point constraint. Glad the command worked out!

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

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# 5 01-05-2013 , 08:13 PM

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Join Date: Apr 2013

Location: Atlanta, GA

Posts: 15

Okay, I'll look into point constraints. Thanks, I'm still crawling trying to navigate this huge mesh down to the vertice level on various panels, slow work this first part, I'm sure I'll figure out how to streamline the mechanics. Whenever I hit that function on the shelf, I'll think of ya.

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# 6 01-05-2013 , 09:40 PM

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Join Date: Apr 2013

Location: Atlanta, GA

Posts: 15

Hmm. I've searched the Help, believe I'm warm finding pointConstraint under Nodes. I'm reading about setting the attribute of the pointConstraint to targetTranslate, which it would appear would support the kind of alignment routine I'm after, but I'm scratching my head about making use of this info, will dig more on how Nodes are created and their application. If you can offer some basic steps, majorly appreciated.

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Determining vertice location

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