Active Smooth Poly MEL Script
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Manual Installation Guide
What's new in v2.4 ?
Using a Proxy Is Sometimes Not
Much Fun
When modeling with polygons, both beginners and professional users refer at some point to the smoothed version of the model, to get a glimpse at how the model will look like, Smoothed.
One common way is using a Maya's Smooth Proxy (which is a low resolution poly "cage" around a smoothed copy of your mesh). However, this method has flaws, such as slow reaction and overlapping of the high res wireframe over the low res wireframe (as seen in the illustration).
Active Smooth With a Single Hotkey
Active Smooth Poly presents a different way to solve the "reference to the smoothed poly" problem. Along with other important features, Active Smooth mainly performs two actions:
Upon Pressing a selected key the selected object will be quickly smoothed.
Upon Releasing that key, the object will unsmooth immediately.
*
The hotkey can be set as a Toggle
Main Features
Selection Preserver
Smoothing Radius
smooth only within a given radius from your components.
Mouse Wheel support for increasing/decreasing smoothing radius
Hide Grid/Wireframe/Vertices/Faces/Edges when in smooth mode
Apply a Blinn Shader apply a blinn shader when in smooth mode
Multiple objects support
Independent original Maya smooth settings
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| Beautifully implemented, plenty of options, and an essential plug-in for modelers. I struggle to work with out it :) |
-NUKE-CG
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| I really love this plugin. Makes everyday work so much more efficient and convenient at the same time! |
-AndreBerg
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| "The best plugin EVER!
It's the best and ONLY plugin I use frequently.
Fantastic stuff" |
-nethstar
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| Thanks a lot for this script! Saves a lot of time!!! |
-Fortune
|
| Excellento! works great for Mac. |
-Shape Modelson
|
| (Comments taken from highend3d.com) |
Smoothing Radius
The Smoothing Radius allows you to work on complex and large polygonal models, without ever suffering from slow reaction.
Slide Mouse Wheel Up to increase the Smoothing Radius
Slide Mouse Wheel Down to decrease the Smoothing Radius
Smoothing Radius transition value can be set in
the options box
The Smothing Radius feature can be easily modified in the Active Smooth Poly options box available in the polygons menu set: Polygons->Active Smooth Poly Options
Active Smooth Poly utilizes the Smoothing Radius by default of 6 vertices. This will smooth only the 6 neighbouring vertices/faces/edges around your selection.
Courtesy of digiteck3d.com
Hide The Wireframe
Also, you can choose to hide the wireframe, current selection and even the grid.
Courtesy of digiteck3d.com
Put On Some Gloss
When active-smoothing you may automatically attach a blinn shader, to catch those imperfections instantly.
Courtesy of digiteck3d.com
Remembers Your Selection All The
Time
Active Smooth Poly always preserves your selection. Whether you've selected before smoothing, or during the smoothing mode.
Selecting vertices after smoothing can be useful for finding problems, like in this example:
Courtesy of digiteck3d.com
Supports Multiple Objects
Active Smooth Poly supports multiple objects.
This means you can now smooth any selection of polygonal objects. Moreover, you can also select different types of components at the same time.
Shown in the example: Three poly objects in three different component types: Object, Face and Vertex.
The Active Smooth Poly Options Dialog Box
Active Smooth Poly adds a new menu items to the Maya's "Polygons" pull down menu, In the Polygons menu set (F3).
This options dialog box offers you the same smoothing options you're used to, in Maya. Only these settings are exclusive to Active Smooth Poly.
In addition, You can find in this dialog all the settings for the operation of Active Smooth Poly. This includes mainly Hiding features, Smoothing Radius settings, and Operation Mode of the hotkey.
New in version 2.4
For a complete list see the readme file.
Version 2.4.1 (06.16.07)
New! Supports for Maya 8.0-x64 and 8.5-x64 versions
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