The following table lists the Maya equivalents for terms, hotkeys, and workflows related to modeling in Softimage.
In general, the Modeling Toolkit is your one-stop center for modeling tools. To open it, click the 
icon in the Sidebar buttons in the upper-right corner. See Modeling Toolkit for more information, and watch these videos to learn how to use some of the tools: Drawing Polygons with Maya's Modeling Toolkit and Smoothing Polygons and Transferring Maps in Maya.
Watch this video for information on how to select object components: Softimage to Maya Bridge: Selecting Components in Maya
| In Softimage | ...becomes in Maya |
|---|---|
|
Raycast selection: F10 |
Camera based selection option for the Select tool. |
|
Raycast Polygon selection: U |
Switch component mode to Face, hold the Tab key and drag. See Select polygon components for more information. |
|
Vertex selection: T |
Vertex selection: F9 or right-click and choose Vertex Press Alt + F9 to select the vertex face |
|
Edge selection: E |
Edge selection: F10 or right-click and choose Edge |
|
Polygon selection: Y |
Face selection: F11 or right-click and choose Face |
|
UV selection |
UV selection: F12 or right-click and choose UV |
|
UVs |
UVs are automatically assigned to primitives. Select Window > UV Texture Editor to edit - see UV Texture Editor overview for more information. |
|
Tweak Component Tool (M) |
Tweak mode: You can tweak components by holding the tilde (~) key while dragging components to move them. See Move components with Tweak mode for more information. To activate custom pivot editing mode, press D or Insert. See Change the pivot point for more information. |
|
Adjust subdivision level: + and - |
The subdivision display does not apply to the viewport by default. Press 3 and then press Page Up or Page Down key to adjust the subdivision level. After that, use the 1 and 3 keys to toggle between base mesh and your chosen subdivision display level. See Smoothing polygons for more on Maya's polygon smoothing techniques. |
|
Duplicate with offset: Ctrl+D |
Edit > Duplicate Special > |
|
Perpendicular cutting: Ctrl+Shift |
Mesh Tools > Multi-Cut Tool > See Make 90 degree cuts with the Multi-Cut Tool for more information. |
|
Extrude on current selection |
Under the Edit Mesh menu, there are three separate Extrude commands: one for vertices, one for edges, and one for faces. Select the appropriate command for the element that you want to extrude. See Edit Mesh > Extrude for more information. The same applies to commands such as Bevel and Bridge. See Edit Mesh > Bevel and Edit Mesh > Bridge. Edit Mesh > Face > Extrude also automatically caps the bottom of the object. |
|
Smooth and relax |
In the Artisan tool settings (Modify > Paint Attributes Tool > |
|
Texture Editor |
Window > UV Texture Editor The UV Texture Editor lets you view and interactively edit the UV texture coordinates for polygon, NURBS, and subdivision surfaces within a 2D view. See UV Texture Editor overview for more information. |
|
Move Center to Bounding Box. |
Modify > Center Pivot: Select an object and click the down arrow to select its Shape node, then choose this command. |
to set up the options for the offset.