Show in Contents

Add to Favorites

Home: Autodesk Maya Online Help

 

Create polygon primitives

Polygon creation

Create polygon primitives using the Create menu

 

User Guide > Modeling > Polygonal Modeling > Polygon selection and creation > Polygon creation > 

Create polygon primitives interactively

You can position, scale, and adjust various attributes on primitives as you create them using the Interactive Creation feature. Interactive Creation is turned on by default.

The Interactive primitive creation feature lets you create primitives in two ways:

• Click-drag in the scene to interactively position and adjust the primitive’s attributes.
• Click once in the scene to create a primitive. A primitive is created where you click. The primitive’s options are set by selecting Create > Polygon Primitives > Primitive Shape > .

  

The Exit on Completion option (turned on by default) automatically exits the primitive creation tool once you have created the primitive. If you want to create multiple primitives, turn off Create > Polygon Primitives > Exit on Completion.

The steps for creating a polygon primitive interactively consist of multiple click-drag operations in the scene view. The number of click-drag operations varies depending on the primitive type:

Before you start:

• Turn on Create > Polygon Primitives > Interactive Creation if necessary.
• Select Create > Polygon Primitives, and choose the primitive type, or select the primitive type from the Polygons shelf.

  If you want to change the non-interactive attributes that a polygon primitive is created with, such as Radius, Divisions, or Texture Mapping UVs, select Create > Polygon Primitives > Primitive Shape > .

  Primitive type	To create the primitive interactively
  Sphere, Torus, Pyramid, Soccer Ball, Platonic Solids	In the scene view, click-drag to create the primitive. The initial click-drag specifies the location for the primitive as well as the radius or scale for these primitive types. The Torus primitive has an additional click-drag step to specify the Section Radius attribute. In the scene view, click-drag to specify the subdivisions along the height and width of the primitive using the left mouse button. The Soccer Ball and Platonic Solids primitives do not have a subdivisions step.
  Cube, Cylinder, Cone, Prism	In the scene view, click-drag to create the primitive. The initial click-drag specifies the location for the primitive as well as the shape of the base of these primitive types. Click-drag to specify the height of the primitive. Click-drag to specify the subdivisions along the height, width, and depth of the primitive. Note: The number of click-drag operations for the subdivisions varies depending on the primitive type.
  Pipe, Helix	In the scene view, click-drag to create the primitive. The initial click-drag specifies the location for the primitive as well as the radius/width of the primitive. Click-drag to specify the height of the primitive. Click-drag to specify the following attributes for these primitive types: Pipe - specifies the thickness of the pipe. Helix - specifies the number of coils. Note: The Helix primitive has an additional click-drag step after the number of coils to specify the Radius attribute. Click-drag to specify the subdivisions along the height, width, and depth of the primitive.

When the primitive creation steps are complete, the wireframe color for the primitive changes from a bright green to the green color for an actively selected object.

Holding down the Shift and Control keys during primitive creation has the following effect:

To create a polygon primitive with a single click

1. Select Create > Polygon Primitives > Interactive Creation. (Ensure that a check mark appears beside the Interactive Creation menu item)

   If you want to change the settings that the polygon primitive is created with, such as Divisions or Texture Mapping, select Create > Polygon Primitives > Primitive Shape > .

   There are specific single-click settings for primitive creation.

2. Click in the scene view to create the primitive.

To create multiple polygon primitives interactively

1. Select Create > Polygon Primitives > Exit on Completion to turn off the feature. (Ensure that a check mark does not appear beside the Exit on Completion menu item.)

You can create multiple polygon primitives in succession without having to return to the Polygon Primitive menu or Shelf.