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Trim or untrim a NURBS surface
Trimming
Stitching
Perform boolean operations
on surfaces
Boolean
operations are actions that trim surfaces to create the appearance
of a union, intersection, or subtraction between two objects.
To perform a boolean operation on a surface
- Choose an action from the
Edit NURBS > Booleans submenu.
- Union trims the surfaces so they appear
to be merged.
- Difference trims the surfaces so that
the volume of the second surface appears to be subtracted from the
first.
- Intersection trims the surfaces so that
only their shared volume remains.
- Click the first surface and press . Then
click the second surface.
The order in which you
click the surfaces only matters for the Difference tool.
Maya subtracts the second surface you click from the first.
Maya groups the combined
surfaces.
You can make the following
adjustments after creating the Boolean shape:
- To change the Boolean operation,
such as changing Difference boolean to an Intersection
boolean, select the boolean node in the Channel Box and change
the Operation option.
- You can select the node of one of the
original objects in the outliner or hypergraph.
NoteThe only way to retrieve
the original objects after a Boolean operation is
to use Undo.
Troubleshooting boolean
operations
If you get a “not a valid
NURBS shell” error it means the boolean tool cannot create meaningful
geometry from the surfaces you clicked.
For example, in the following
illustration, the horizontal cylinder does not enclose a space that
can be combined with the vertical cylinder. If you move the horizontal
cylinder up, the boolean actions will work.