Few newbie questions

[Schalldämpfer]

How do you make an edge line up perfectly vertically or horizontally?

[Bertie]

Select it and scale it in perpendicular to the direction of the edge.

[Schalldämpfer]

Hmm... that doesn't seem to work. I know it worked in Max, but in Maya, the edges just turn the other way when I do it a lot of times.

Now how do you replicate the Symmetry modifier in Max in Maya?

Also, what's the equivalent of smoothing groups in Maya?

[Bertie]

Oh balls I always do that, apologies I never noticed it was the Maya forum!

[Kristopher_Lee]

Bertie was still right because after working in Max all the time and switching back and forth to Maya, I still use that method and it works. You just have to be careful not to go over where it folds back on itself.

Now you can select all the vertices of that specific row and then snap them to the location of the vertex you want to align it with. That's the other way of doing it.

[hovercrafter]

You can also go into vertex mode. Select the vert you want moved then click on the axis to move it in. Then hold down v and middle click over the vert you want it aligned in. Repeat for the other axis. If you want to do a lot of verts then double click on the move tool to open the tool settings and uncheck "retain component spacing" and they will all line up.

For smoothing groups, Maya doesn't have them. You can adjust the hardness of edges though through the normals menu.

For symmetry, just do a duplicate special. First freeze the transformations and then set the scale in the direction you want to mirror to -1. Select instance for the type of copy and what you do on one will update on the other. That's just one method, but by far the quickest to do it.

[Kristopher_Lee]

Originally Posted by hovercrafter

You can also go into vertex mode. Select the vert you want moved then click on the axis to move it in. Then hold down v and middle click over the vert you want it aligned in. Repeat for the other axis. If you want to do a lot of verts then double click on the move tool to open the tool settings and uncheck "retain component spacing" and they will all line up.

Now didn't I just say that? You don't automatically win because you used more words!

[hovercrafter]

Originally Posted by Kristopher_Lee

Now didn't I just say that? You don't automatically win because you used more words!

Doh missed that part of your response. Sorry :P

[Schalldämpfer]

Anyway to merge the center vertices when the model is mirrored?

Also, how do you select only the vertexes on one object rather than also picking up another object that lies on the same area as the chosen vertex?

[InProgress]

If you have 2 separate objects, select on only one the vertex mode. The other shouldn't interfere at all if it's not combined to the object you want to select the vertices from.