Extrude Inward without Overlap in Maya

[@CEOHankScorpio]

There's a similar way you can do this just by constraining your pivot. Once you've hit extrude, hit W to go back to your Move tool and then D to adjust the pivot. Now hold Ctrl and left-click on the edge you want to align to (which would be your inward facing edge ring at the center of your corner bevel) and then D to accept. Now your move tool is oriented to the 45 degree mark so you get the same thing as adjusting X & Z simultaneously. The upside of this method is you can potentially move your edge in at a non-45 degree angle if you wish and you don't have to have your model be on a world-axis plane; it could be tilted or rotated arbitrarily. And you don't have to remember, "Wait, am I on the XZ plane or YZ plane?" etc. Once your move tool is oriented at the correct angle you can also then snap it to something more convenient (one of the verts for example) rather than floating arbitrarily in the center of the selection. The downside is that if you don't HAVE a 45 degree edge to align it to, like you did an even number of divisions on your bevel, you're out of luck. You need geometry to align to. It does have the same issue with needing instances and cleanup that your method does.

[@malcolm341]

Good trick, thanks for sharing. In some situations you can actually just switch the move tool to component mode and just move the edges, but that only seems to work under symmetrical conditions.

[@KugleeKuglee]

The problem with that you must go to fix it everywhere manually if you have a more complex shape. (Shame that Maya dev cant handle that like any CAD software)

[@CynBox]

I came on KZbin now to specially and publicly Thank You Malcolm. You have been a huge problem solver and huge part of my 3D Modelling journey. I have been working on a huge modelling project and stopped for a minute to think about how difficult and time-wasting modelling had been before I came across your tools and tutorials. Thank you Very much Sir

[@malcolm341]

What a great review. Thank you for taking the time to let me know you found these videos useful.

[@dougjohnson1517]

One of those basic things Maya should've addressed 20 years ago. How is this just not like a checkbox in the extrusion options? It drives me crazy how they focus on obscure features that only 5% of the users will ever touch, while 95% of us are coping with these basic, "3D 101" workflow issues multiple times a day.

[@malcolm341]

Yes agree, it would be great if there was a fix for this issue in the actual tool.

[@i20010]

Right! Does Max, C4d, Blender also extrude like Maya, or are smarter?..

[@malcolm341]

@@i20010 good question, I haven't used Max in years so I can't remember and I haven't used C4D or Blender.

[@juancarlosgzrz]

This is why I use 3ds max

[@1Robertwaterworth]

Thanks for sharing that tip Malcolm. I wish I had found this video earlier. This issue is one I also encounter from time to time and it drives me crazy. I've been looking for a solution for a while now. What you demonstrated here seems straightforward enough for a thick-headed dope like me to remember. This is Awesome! Thank you once again

[@TheAndrewBen]

4:40 Thank you for the solution! I never would have thought to do it this way

[@malcolm341]

Thanks, it has it's limitations, but it can be useful in some situations.

[@funeralmuse]

Oh god the answer to this bastard problem was right there all along

[@malcolm341]

I know, right, I've been dealing with this issue for literally 20 years and then a solution just presented itself when I was fiddling with some settings.

[@NOTSparkyPants]

Oh man, you just changed my whole workflow. This is great.

[@malcolm341]

That's awesome, hopefully it's faster.

[@swayantibiswas9632]

this is such an awesome trick.. thanks

[@malcolm341]

I'm glad you found it useful, thanks for commenting and letting me know.

[@vishusvinn21]

Freelance/academic 1 seat means??. Can I reinstall the product on my 2nd pc. And uninstall from my 1st pc ??

[@malcolm341]

@vishusvinn21 Sure, for home use you can use it on both your machines at the same time. The 1 seat requirement just means you're not supposed to share the scripts with anyone else other than yourself.

[@vishusvinn21]

Ohk sir thank u

[@BlackDidThis]

Great Trick! I am a little lost in what you want exactly though. As in: IF you want perfect round corners or just the curvature to repeat itself. If the former: I just use wedge to model out the frame and then fill it in. If the later: I model the frame out WITHOUT the rounded corners (In your case 45 degree cuts) and then when I am finished with the model I select and bevel/chamfer the connecting edges... adding divisions to my will... to the width as I wish. Both methods are in some way a little less impediment in compare to yours. But the elegance of your method is the amount of control you are granted... Which I liked a lot. It is all a matter of give/take to what fits your needs and time restraints guess. I hope this helps... Black

[@malcolm341]

Yes bevel is another way to get the same results, for me I'm not that good at sub-d modeling so I always end up stuck in this state, where the model is almost complete and I need to extrude inward. Limitations with this technique is it only works on flat surfaces that are aligned with the grid, helps in some situations, but falls apart in others.

[@kaidkyoung4298]

OMG! this is SO SMART!! It will save me 100s of hours! Thank you!

[@malcolm341]

That's awesome, I'm glad you found this useful.

[@artbybruno1734]

Thanks Malcolm! Really great tip! Never would thought of that. I do know of another way of achieving a very similar result that works very well imo. Without instancing the obj. Just select that edge and do the extrude; accept it and change the gizmo to scale; then press CTRL + MMB drag - that will do a scale along the normals. Might not be 100% as accurate as yours, but I think it works great, and it's a bit faster. In some situations might be all you need.. Give it a try.

[@malcolm341]

That's interesting, I'm not sure what it's doing to the scale tool there, can you make it work on the whole extrusion or does it only do it on one quarter? Also, technically you don't need to make any instances, that has no affect on the modeling workflow, it's just for visualization so I think holding Ctrl and scaling is doing something similar, the downside is it's not parametric, so you can't un-scale it once you let go of Ctrl.

[@artbybruno1734]

@@malcolm341 yeah, works on the whole extrusion. I wish I could send you a screen shot... Also, lets say you have 10 holes on one surface where you previously did an extrude (ex. extruded 10 faces on a surface (faces separated), turned them into 10 x holes). Then, if you want to resize all those 10 holes at once, just select them all, and use CTRL+MMB and it scales them uniformly. Another tip is scaling with the "Translate" gizmo On: for pipes, in "face" mode, and with the gizmo in "Translate" (w), CTRL+MMB will also scale the tube/pipe along the normals, so you can make it thicker or thinner without changing its size/lenght! It's a neat trick. Learned it from Mario Brajdic's tutorial @Elementza. Not sure if you already know this.. Maybe its helpful.

[@malcolm341]

@@artbybruno1734 yes those are good ones, use them all the time.

[@graemechung]

this was super helpful thankyou!!

[@malcolm341]

Great, thanks for commenting and letting me know.

[@michom245]

What I would like to know is how to make that soomth rounder corner.

[@malcolm341]

I just used bevels to get the initial corners done.

[@michom245]

@@malcolm341 Thank you. But I was refering to how you made so the edges don't come out from one point and they simply go down the line. Or was it it taht and the just extrude the outer faces then deleting the previous one?

[@malcolm341]

@@michom245 What time stamp are you looking at so I can explain.

[@michom245]

@@malcolm341 at 0:41

[@luaraloddi]

Something quick here, my extrude gizmo only appears the Z direction. How can I fix it? Thanks!

[@malcolm341]

I've never seen that before, try pressing t, does the extrude settings box appear?

[@luaraloddi]

@@malcolm341 it must be some maya bug, just did another object and it worked! Thank you anyway, I'm a new 3D student.

[@malcolm341]

@@luaraloddi Oh great, glad it's working now. If it happens again try deleting history on the object in question and try the extrude again.

[@luaraloddi]

@@malcolm341 Taking notes, thanks!

[@Torey3D]

Another amazing insight! Thanks Malcolm!

[@malcolm341]

Thanks.

[@samcraftYT]

Nice trick! I will definitly use that. I will also use the vertices pivot to scale down to make the curve smaller.

[@malcolm341]

Thanks, glad it helped.

[@yanis_the_artist]

Thank you for the video. I have a problem while extruding my mesh. The model is distorted after extruding. The vertices of the object fly apart. Can you please help me?

[@malcolm341]

Sounds like you need to turn on keep faces together in the extrude settings, or maybe the verts aren't weled together before extruding?

[@yanis_the_artist]

@@malcolm341 this did not work for me. Anyway, thank you 🙂

[@malcolm341]

@@yanis_the_artist Try delete history and freeze transform? Reset the extrude tool? Can you send an image of the problem you're having to [e-mail]

[@MenaceManTV]

This make so much sense. Thanks for showing us this tip. 🙂

[@malcolm341]

You're welcome, glad you liked it.

[@koroshghanbarzadeh1360]

This is super useful! thanks for sharing.

[@malcolm341]

That's great, thanks for commenting.

[@senatuspopulusqueromanus2082]

But what if I need it to shrink?

[@malcolm341]

@senatuspopulusqueromanus2082 Select verts and use the slide tool to slide the verts back along the extruded edges. Select verts, enter the move tool and hold Ctrl + Shift and drag the manipulator in the direction you want.

[@senatuspopulusqueromanus2082]

@@malcolm341 Thanks)

[@i20010]

Genius!! thank you!

[@malcolm341]

You're welcome, has some limitations, but better than nothing.

[@AlexTsekot]

Very cool, thanks for this. Now we need an easy way to do matching radius fillets with bevels, for some reason maya just sucks at this.

[@malcolm341]

Yeah someone asked me about that with beveling and I could not figure it out. Everything in Maya is not symmetrical by default.

[@atTheHop]

This is a nice trick. I'll try it next time. There is one other problem: Extruding inwards on a curved surface. The result is always uneven and I have to spend time trying to manually fix it.

[@malcolm341]

Please post an example of the issue and I'll take a look.

[@fullmastidramaentertainmen2130]

can we use this without using mirror

[@malcolm341]

Sure, you just won't see all for sides update and will need to mirror them later.

[@lavivaneau0]

Holy crap!!! I have the jankiest workflow to do this and it's not actually this perfect. This will save so much time. I do not have a better way at all lol

[@malcolm341]

Life's good, kind of, ha ha.

[@feizai245]

Did not know this trick. But I usually make a duplicate of the object, cut until one corner left, and set the move tool to custom following the middle diagonal edge to move it to the position I want. Re-arrange the vertices of the loose ends to meet the parent object's axis, then mirror it back to one piece, combine, and bridge. Not a parametric method but it gets the job done fairly fast and easy.

[@malcolm341]

That sounds like a lot of work, maybe time for an upgrade. By the way, you don't need to make the four instances, that's just for visualization, you can just do it on one corner using this method like you're already doing.

[@feizai245]

@@malcolm341 Thanks for the response. Your method seems more efficient. It also gives straight and parallel diagonal lines, mine does not so it requires to delete all edges in between and multicut new ones. I will surely give yours a try. And again, thanks a lot.

[@AlisaOrlova]

out of topic. hello sir! Vertex snap (v) doesn't respect planar handles in move tool. Do you have some advice for this? Cause i need it after Max.

[@malcolm341]

Maya can only snap on one handle at a time, unlike Max which can do XZ at the same time. In Maya it's annoying you have to hold v and drag x, then drag z. If you have to snap a lot of verts on XZ at the same time you you can select all the verts, then in the channel box set a key on Y only so those verts are locked in place, then snap XZ at the same time and scrub the time slider to fix Y when you're done. After that just duplicate the object or bake the animation.

[@vishnurk3107]

this guy is my god

[@malcolm341]

If you're referring to me, thanks for your nice comment.

[@heendung9727]

You're best thx my teacher

[@malcolm341]

Thanks for commenting, have a great day.

[@TheDorianTube]

Hated this issue since the beginning. I thought it was just me not being knowledgeable enough. It seems it was common instead.

[@malcolm341]

Oh yeah I think everyone faces this, it's the worst.

[@TheDorianTube]

@@malcolm341 Btw dude, out of curiosity, all your megapacks combined are roughly $124. Is there a chance in the future of seeing a $99 Megapacks Megapack LOL?

[@Torey3D]

@@TheDorianTube tbh even at $200 they would be a sweet deal, so many time savers in there ;)

[@TheDorianTube]

@@Torey3D I have to agree. I tried uahahah. I hope they will still work through the various versions of Maya.

[@malcolm341]

@@TheDorianTube You can buy the whole Mega Pack for $44.99 USD and get every single script plus new scripts that get added later? The UV pack and Modeling pack are cut down versions for people that only want UV or modeling stuff and want to save some money, they're not needed if you purchase the Mega Pack for a couple extra bucks. I think I just saved you $50 bucks, happy holidays.

[@tannerellison3D]

Maya sorcery! Thanks as always \m/

[@malcolm341]

Glad you found it useful, thanks for commenting.

[@davemauriello8088]

You could just activate the extrude edge tool and then switch to scale (R).

[@malcolm341]

Thanks for the suggestion, I gave it a try, it doesn't scale the faces evenly so the extruded edges are skewed as you scale them.

[@davemauriello8088]

@@malcolm341 So you want the size of the corners to not scale? Sure, yeah, you'd have to duplicate the corners, translate, and bridge or instance like you did. I was unclear what the goal was. I thought it was just dealing with the overlapping.

[@malcolm341]

@@davemauriello8088 Yes correct I want to prevent overlap while keeping the shape intact. It was suggested by someone else to delete all the corner segments and then use bevel to avoid the problem completely, which works, but I had already past the point of no return on my model.

[@ちゃしろの]

Useful! Thank you!

[@malcolm341]

Glad you found it useful.

[@jinchoung]

hey malcolm, nice trick! especially in using the x and z axis attributes inside of the polyextrude node! normally, if you select a component, you don't get access to the axes in the channel box! actually, with the scale tool, if you CONTROL drag the perpendicular scale handle (in your case it would be Y), you'd do a 2D scale on x and z. it would still shrink but the shape would be perfectly maintained until it collapses in the middle. you're getting the wonky shapes if you drag the x and z individually because you're not maintaining the proportion. but if you do the 2d scale, it is maintained although it does get smaller. your version is better though in that the distance on the top and on the sides remain the same as if you are using offset. with the scale, you wider axis gets a wider inset space and shorter axis gets a shorter inset space.

[@malcolm341]

Nope, sorry that does not work and never has, because my geometry shape is a rectangle the scale tool will always skew, if my shape was a perfect square it would work as you suggested, but because I have a rectangle scale of any kind will always skew because the way scale works in Maya has always been broken. Here you can see the problem described in more detail using the scale tool as you suggested kzbin.info/www/bejne/nXmkoWNjgLZ_hac

[@jinchoung]

@@malcolm341 i'm not sure if "skew" is the right word... in your example vid, if you watch the shape that's shrinking, with the offset attribute in the transform node that you end up using (also - great trick!) the shape in the middle's aspect ratio is changing wildly in order to keep the inset even. the difference with the 2d scale is that it preserves the aspect ratio of the shape your scaling as it scales down but that results in the insets becoming uneven. i tried it with a rectangular shape with the rounded corners and the rounded corners seem to maintain the shape of the original... but as noted, it does indeed scale that round radius smaller. but insofar as most of the time, we're concerned about the inset frame and not the shape in the middle, i totally agree that your technique is superior.

[@malcolm341]

@@jinchoung yes you're correct the uniform scale does preserve the rounded corners correctly, but still has the issue of getting pinched. I see what you're talking about now, with regular scale it maintains the original shape at the center of the extrusion and just shrinks it, but this causes the edges that connect to the outer shape to look non-uniform, with inset the edges that connect the two look uniform. Ideally Maya would have an option in the scale tool to switch between 2D and inset since I find most of the time I want to scale with inset rather than scale and keep aspect ratio.

[@BadMuthaFuca1313]

there is an easier way, use the unbevel script for maya, it's very save time tool)

[@malcolm341]

@@BadMuthaFuca1313 that's not a standard tool that comes with Maya, but please share the link I'll take a look.

[@cr3d294]

You could also plan out, bevel all corners at the same time and do your extrusions later. Or crease edges and subdiv later. Though you method works too.

[@malcolm341]

I did bevel the corners, then I extrude inward and fail...

[@ChaosWolfNinja]

OMG! Thank you!

[@malcolm341]

You're welcome, this helped me a lot.

[@ChaosWolfNinja]

@@malcolm341 Yeah! I had duplicate the shape and scale it down then bridge the pieces but this seems quicker. Will need to test it in my modeling scenario but thanks!!!

[@malcolm341]

@@ChaosWolfNinja indeed, everyone has a trick for this, also you don't need to make the instances, it will work on one corner, but it's a bit harder to visualize.

[@ChaosWolfNinja]

@@malcolm341 Most definitely! And your mirror tool is just awesome! I hate how Maya's tools can be so backwards sometimes.

[@malcolm341]

@@ChaosWolfNinja thanks, yeah I can't model without the mirrorEr, it's the way Maya used to work back in the day.

[@wanderingthedesert5599]

The fastest way to get what you want is to just create a rectangle and inset the fact via CTRL+E (Extrude Face), and delete the backface. Next, Use the Connect tool to insert an edge loop at the midpoints of each edge running vertical and horizontal (you'll bevel these to add your support loops later). Next, grab the diagonal edges and and bevel them to whatever resolution is needed. Bevel the lines you created with the Connect Tool earlier to get your support edges. Now go in with the Insert loop tool and add whatever detail you need.

[@malcolm341]

I gave it a try, but I must be doing something wrong since it creates the same issue as extruding inward, the bevel to add the support loops clips into itself as you change the fraction.

[@frumpeting]

Clever!

[@malcolm341]

Thanks.

[@sgiff]

So maybe Im blind but I cant find that mirroring toolbox/shelf from your store? I've purchased a bunch of your scripts but cant find this one heh. Are you sure its on the store?

[@sgiff]

Sorry, found it after doing a search.

[@malcolm341]

@@sgiff you beat me to it, thanks for trying my scripts.

[@kanetizard7952]

Strange that it works in max and not Maya, I use Maya exclusively for the temporary pivot/snap controls (holding D) I can't model in Max because it is missing. Why can't we have the best of all features !? we need Mayax...

[@malcolm341]

Yes it's a bit annoying, but because Autodesk owns both Max and Maya I doubt we'll ever see the two combined, that would mean half as much money. I gave Blender a try for a couple weeks, but it also had limitations, had some stuff from Maya and some stuff from Max, but it was it's own thing and had its own flaws so I went back to Maya.

[@ruudygh]

Im so impressed that Maya still cant do this simple things properly in 2023.

[@malcolm341]

Yes it's very annoying, they should definitely fix this.

[@vinnyclifton7006]

Why not just use bevel here? Make the corner you want to round a single edge loop and bevel it with chamfer enabled and ass many segments as you want. Done EZPZ.

[@malcolm341]

Good idea, I gave it a try and it kind of worked, but it still had overlapping geometry I had to clean up manually. I think because my mesh wasn't symmetrical the bevel didn't behave the same on both sides.

[@Martin_Huetter]

yea ok that just shows the idea, but for more complex objects, curved and non planar surfaces this helps nothing. But it got me thinking and I just tested a few things in Maya. I feel like there would be some simple script possible to create curves of the broder egdes, offset the curve (also creates errors) then rebuild and smooth the curve, then extrute the geometry and snap it onto the curve. Also not 100% accurate but could work in many occasions.

[@malcolm341]

This helps me quite a bit, in fact I need to extrude planar shapes inward all the time. Why don't you post an image of the shape you're trying to extrude so everyone can see the issue you're facing.

[@Sportsman134]

probably a dumb question but any chance that one day this maya toolkit can be used in blender's industry compatible mode?

[@malcolm341]

I'm not sure what Blender's compatible mode is?

[@Sportsman134]

@@malcolm341 it just means blender uses very similar controls to maya, like alt+lmb to pan around, w to transform, e to rotate, etc. So i thought maybe with the controls matching, perhaps you could get the toolkit to crossover as an add-on too.

[@malcolm341]

@@Sportsman134 no unfortunately the Maya tools are written in mel script which is not available in Blender and the UI would need to be designed to work with Blender. I've looked into Blender briefly and found most of the tools I've created are already available on the Blender store so not much point to port my stuff over. As well, I would need to learn Blender Python script and re-write all my tools in Python to get them working in Blender so I doubt this will ever happen unless Maya were to go out of business.

[@Sportsman134]

@@malcolm341 oo makes sense. Haha fair enough. thanks!