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Create > NURBS Primitives
Create
Create > CV Curve Tool
Create > Polygon Primitives
Creates a polygon-based geometric primitive
at the origin or, depending on the primitive options you have set,
wherever you click your mouse in the scene view (Interactive
Creation). You can then move, scale, rotate, and reshape
the new object using the standard tools and polygon menu items.
NoteWhen the Maya workspace is set to High Quality
Rendering mode, primitives created using the Interactive Creation
option do not appear shaded until the primitive creation steps are
complete.
Create > Polygon Primitives > Sphere
>
- Radius
-
Specifies the distance from the center of the sphere
in all directions. (For interactive creation, appears as a single-click
setting only.)
For more information, see:
Create > Polygon Primitives > Cube
>
- Width
-
Specifies the width of the cube. (For interactive creation,
appears as a single-click setting only.)
- Height
-
Specifies the height of the cube. (For interactive creation,
appears as a single-click setting only.)
- Depth
-
Specifies the depth of the cube. (For interactive creation,
appears as a single-click setting only.)
For more information, see:
Create > Polygon Primitives > Cylinder
>
- Radius
-
Specifies the distance from the center of the cylinder.
(For interactive creation, appears as a single-click setting only.)
- Height
-
Specifies the height of the cylinder. (For interactive
creation, appears as a single-click setting only.)
For more information, see:
Create > Polygon Primitives > Cone
>
- Radius
-
Specifies the distance from the base of the
cone in all directions. (For interactive creation, appears as a
single-click setting only.)
- Height
-
Specifies the height of the cone. (For interactive creation,
appears as a single-click setting only.)
For more information, see:
Create > Polygon Primitives > Plane
>
- Width
-
Specifies the distance along the x axis (by default).
(For interactive creation, appears as a single-click setting only.)
- Height
-
Specifies the measurement along the y axis (by default).
(For interactive creation, appears as a single-click setting only.)
For more information, see:
Create > Polygon Primitives > Torus
>
- Radius
-
Specifies the distance from the center of the torus
in all directions. (For interactive creation, appears as a single-click
setting only.)
- Section Radius
-
Specifies the size of the sections that make
up a torus. Change this value to increase or decrease the radius
of these sections.
- Twist
-
The Twist option value specifies the twist angle of
the torus. Change this value to adjust the distance around the torus
in all directions.
For more information, see:
Create > Polygon Primitives > Prism
>
A
prism is a polyhedron with two polygonal faces lying in parallel
planes and with the other faces parallelograms.
When creating a prism, you can set the following
options:
- Length
-
Enter values or use the slider to specify the length
of the prism (the distance between the two polygonal faces). (For
interactive creation, appears as a single-click setting only.)
- Side Length
-
Enter values or use the slider to specify the
side length of the prism’s polygonal caps. (For interactive creation,
appears as a single-click setting only.)
- Number of Sides
-
Enter the number of sides for the ends of the prism.
The above example is a triangular prism (3 sides). The size and
volume of the prism increases with the number of sides if the edge length
and length/height are kept constant.
For more information, see:
Create > Polygon Primitives > Pyramid
>
A
pyramid is a polyhedron with a polygon base and triangles with a
common vertex for faces. Maya creates 3-, 4-, or 5-sided pyramids
with equilateral triangles.
When creating a pyramid, you can set the following
options:
- Side Length
-
Enter values or use the slider to specify the
side length of all faces. (For interactive creation, appears as
a single-click setting only.)
- Number of Sides in Base
-
Select the number of sides for the base of the pyramid
(3, 4, or 5).
For more information, see:
Create > Polygon Primitives > Pipe
>
The options are very similar to the options
for the cylinder polygonal shape, with the addition of Thickness (which
specifies the thickness of the wall).
- Radius
-
Specifies the distance from the center of the
pipe in all directions. (For interactive creation, appears as a
single-click setting only.)
- Height
-
Specifies the height of the pipe. (For interactive creation,
appears as a single-click setting only.)
- Thickness
-
Specifies the thickness of the pipe walls.
For more information, see:
Create > Polygon Primitives > Helix
>
A helix is a curve in three dimensional space
that lies on a cylinder, so that its angle to a plane perpendicular
to the axis is constant.
- Coils
-
Specifies the number of coils.
- Height
-
Specifies the height of the helix. (For interactive creation,
appears as a single-click setting only.)
- Width
-
Specifies the width of the helix. (For interactive creation,
appears as a single-click setting only.)
- Radius
-
Specifies the radius of the helix coils. (For interactive
creation, appears as a single-click setting only.)
- Direction
-
Specifies the direction of the helix’s twist: clockwise
or counterclockwise.
For more information, see:
Create > Polygon Primitives > Soccer
Ball >
The soccer ball is a truncated icosahedron:
thirty-two faces, alternating hexagons and pentagons.
For this shape, you can set the following options:
- Radius
-
Enter values or use the slider to specify the radius
of the soccer ball. (For interactive creation, appears as a single-click
setting only.)
- Side Length
-
Enter values or use the slider to specify the
side length of the soccer ball. (For interactive creation, appears
as a single-click setting only.)
For more information, see:
Create > Polygon Primitives > Platonic
Solids >
You
can create many different types of polygonal platonic solids. Platonic solids
are shapes where all sides are equal, all angles are the same, and
all faces are identical. These are:
- Tetrahedron:
four triangular faces
- Octahedron:
eight triangular faces
- Dodecahedron:
twelve pentagonal faces
- Icosahedron:
twenty triangular faces
(The cube—the fifth platonic solid—has
a separate listing in the primitives.)
You can switch between these types by selecting Solid
Type in the Attribute Editor or
in the option box for Platonic Solids.
For these four shapes, you can set the following
options:
- Radius
-
Enter values or use the slider to specify the radius
of the platonic solid. (For interactive creation, appears as a single-click
setting only.)
- Side Length
-
Enter values or use the slider to specify the
side length of the platonic solid. (For interactive creation, appears
as a single-click setting only.)
- Platonic type
-
You can switch between platonic solid types
in the options for these shapes.
For more information, see:
Common options for all primitives
For more information, see:
Create > Polygon Primitives > Interactive
Creation
You can position
and scale primitives as you create them using your mouse, without
having to use transformation tools. This option stays on until you turn
it off. For more information, see
Create polygon primitives.
Create > Polygon Primitives > Exit
on Completion
This option interacts with Interactive
Creation. When Exit on Completion is turned
on, you must select a primitive type again in order to create another primitive.
When this option is turned off, you can interactively create multiple
primitives of the same type, until you select another tool.
Divisions
The
values you enter in these boxes change the primitive by adding or
taking away faces of the polygonal surfaces.
Almost all primitives allow you to subdivide
along the height axis. The exception is the helix, which subdivides
per coil instead.
Primitives with radial symmetry allow you to
subdivide around the axis. These include spheres, cylinders, cones,
tori, pipes, and helixes.
Primitives with caps allow you to subdivide
the caps. These include cylinder, cones, pipes and helixes.
The plane allows subdivisions along the width
axis, and the cube allows subdivisions along both the width and
depth.
- Axis divisions
-
This option defines the number of subdivisions there
are around the axis. This option is called Subdivisions
Axis in the Channel Box and
the Attribute Editor.
Increase or decrease this value to add or take away
faces around the axis defined by the Axis option.
- Height divisions
-
This option defines the number of subdivisions there
are along the axis defined by the Axis option. Height is
equivalent to the Y direction by default. This option is called Subdivisions Height in
the Channel Box and the Attribute Editor.
Increase or decrease this value to add or take away faces in the Axis direction.
- Depth / Width, Depth divisions
-
When Axis is set
to X or Y, depth is equivalent to the Z direction for polygonal
cubes. When Axis is set to Z, depth is
equivalent to the Y direction. This option is called Subdivisions
Depth in the Channel Box and
the Attribute Editor. Increase or
decrease this value to add or take away faces along the depth.
- Cap divisions
-
Caps are the tops, bottoms, or sides of cones, cylinders,
prisms, pyramids, pipes, and helixes. This option defines the number
of subdivisions around the origin of the primitive caps. This option
is called Subdivisions Cap in the Channel Box and
the Attribute Editor. Increase
or decrease this value to add or take away faces around the caps.
- Round Cap
-
This option allows you to create a round surface for
the cap. Your Subdivisions Cap value must
be one or greater to see the round cap effect. This option applies
to the Cylinder, Cone, Pipe,
and Helix primitives.
Axis
This option does not appear in Interactive
Creation.
TipTo set the axis for your primitive during
interactive creation, you can use the orthogonal views. Whichever
view you create your primitive in—top, front, or side—is
the way your primitive’s axis will be aligned (y, z, or x).
By default, a primitive
is created along the Y axis. You can change a primitive’s
default orientation before you create it by changing the Axis option.
You
cannot change the orientation for a new primitive from the Channel Box,
but you can enter values in the Axis boxes
in the Attribute Editor.
Create UVs
The following table lists the common Create
UVs attributes for each type of polygon primitive.
Shape |
Normalize |
Preserve Aspect Ratio |
Other Options |
Sphere
|
|
|
Yes
|
Cube
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Cylinder
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Cone
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Plane
|
|
Yes
|
|
Torus
|
|
|
|
Prism
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Pyramid
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Pipe
|
|
|
|
Helix
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Soccer Ball
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Platonic Solids
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
For details on Create UVs attributes,
see:
Preparing a primitive for texture mapping
UV
texture coordinates are assigned for texture mapping by default.
If you do not plan to map textures on a polygonal primitive, you
can turn off the Create UVs option in the options
window.
Important note about UVs
If UVs are not present on an object, you cannot
see mapped textures. This can happen if you inadvertently create
a primitive object with the Create UVs option
turned off.
To correct the problem, select the faces of
the primitive and use any of the mapping items in the Edit
UVs menu.
You can then use the UV Texture Editor to
view the created UVs. Select the object and
use any of the UV creation or editing Create UVs menu
items.
Texture mapping options for primitives with faces
or caps
The options window for primitives
with faces or caps includes a Create UVs menu
where you can select how you want the texture map to cover the primitive
when you assign it. This Create UVs menu
is also available from the Attribute Editor.
Create UVs
(Default.)
This option assigns UV texture coordinates on the primitive for
texture mapping.
The various normalization settings fit the UVs within
the 0 to 1 texture space. Normalize Collectively
and Preserve Aspect Ratio is the default setting.
- Normalization Off
-
No normalization occurs and the texture remains
its true size.
- Normalize Collectively
-
This option maps the texture over each face
of the primitive and normalizes it so that it covers the entire
object.
- Normalize Each
face Separately
-
Only
available for Cubes, Soccer
Balls and Platonic Solids.
If you select this option, Maya maps the texture to
each face separately.
- Normalize Collectively and
Preserve Aspect Ratio
-
(Default.) Normalized UVs maintain the original ratios
of the UVs without stretching the UVs to fill the 0 to 1 texture
space. This option affects the appearance of the texture map on
the primitive.
UV options for primitive spheres
The
options window for a polygonal sphere primitive includes a Create
UVs menu where you can select an item to specify how
you want the texture map to behave at the poles. This Create
UVs menu is also available from the Attribute
Editor.
- Pinched at poles
-
Creates a UV texture map where the rings of triangles
around the poles are treated as triangles with a single common vertex
(the pole).
- Sawtooth at poles
-
(Default.) Creates a UV texture map where the rings
of triangles around the poles are treated as individual triangles,
giving the edges of the UV map a sawtooth look. Often, this looks
better in the 3D view; however, it also introduces texture borders,
which may not always be desirable.
Adjust primitive after creation
When Interactive
Creation is turned on for primitives, you can optionally modify
the subdivisions for a primitive using the following options. These options
exist only for primitives that possess subdivision attributes.
- Adjust subdivisions after create
-
Adds additional steps to the Interactive
Creation process that let you adjust the subdivisions
for the primitive when interactively creating primitives. The number
of additional steps is dependent on the primitive type. The default setting
is on when Interactive Creation is turned on.
- Adjust cap subdivisions after
create
-
Adds additional steps to the Interactive
Creation process that let you adjust the cap subdivisions on
primitives that contain caps (Cylinder, cone, pyramid, prism, helix,
pipe). The default setting is off. This option can only be used
when the Adjust subdivisions after create
option is turned on.