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Synopsis

polyCut [-caching boolean] [-constructionHistory boolean] [-cutPlaneCenter linear linear linear] [-cutPlaneCenterX linear] [-cutPlaneCenterY linear] [-cutPlaneCenterZ linear] [-cutPlaneHeight linear] [-cutPlaneRotate angle angle angle] [-cutPlaneRotateX angle] [-cutPlaneRotateY angle] [-cutPlaneRotateZ angle] [-cutPlaneSize linear linear] [-cutPlaneWidth linear] [-cuttingDirection string] [-deleteFaces boolean] [-extractFaces boolean] [-extractOffset linear linear linear] [-extractOffsetX linear] [-extractOffsetY linear] [-extractOffsetZ linear] [-name string] [-nodeState int] [-onObject boolean] [-worldSpace boolean]

polyCut is undoable, queryable, and editable.

This command splits a mesh, or a set of poly faces, along a plane. The position and orientation of the plane can be adjusted using the appropriate flags listed above. In addition, the cut operation can also delete the faces lying on one side of the cutting plane, or extract those faces by an offset amount.

Return value

stringThe node name.

In query mode, return type is based on queried flag.

Related

polySplit, polySubdivideEdge

Flags

caching, constructionHistory, cutPlaneCenter, cutPlaneCenterX, cutPlaneCenterY, cutPlaneCenterZ, cutPlaneHeight, cutPlaneRotate, cutPlaneRotateX, cutPlaneRotateY, cutPlaneRotateZ, cutPlaneSize, cutPlaneWidth, cuttingDirection, deleteFaces, extractFaces, extractOffset, extractOffsetX, extractOffsetY, extractOffsetZ, name, nodeState, onObject, worldSpace
Long name (short name) Argument types Properties
Common poly modifier operation flags
-caching(-cch) boolean createqueryedit
Toggle caching for all attributes so that no recomputation is needed
-constructionHistory(-ch) boolean createquery
Turn the construction history on or off (where applicable). If construction history is on then the corresponding node will be inserted into the history chain for the mesh. If construction history is off then the operation will be performed directly on the object.
Note: If the object already has construction history then this flag is ignored and the node will always be inserted into the history chain.
-cutPlaneCenter(-pc) linear linear linear createqueryedit
The position of the cutting plane.
Default: 0.0, 0.0, 0.0
-cutPlaneCenterX(-pcx) linear createqueryedit
Cutting plane center X coord.
-cutPlaneCenterY(-pcy) linear createqueryedit
Cutting plane center Y coord.
-cutPlaneCenterZ(-pcz) linear createqueryedit
Cutting plane center Z coord.
-cutPlaneHeight(-ph) linear createqueryedit
The height of the cutting plane
-cutPlaneRotate(-ro) angle angle angle createqueryedit
The orientation of the cutting plane.
Default: 0.0, 0.0, 0.0
-cutPlaneRotateX(-rx) angle createqueryedit
cutting plane X rotate angle.
-cutPlaneRotateY(-ry) angle createqueryedit
cutting plane Y rotate angle.
-cutPlaneRotateZ(-rz) angle createqueryedit
cutting plane Z rotate angle.
-cutPlaneSize(-ps) linear linear createqueryedit
The width and the height of the cutting plane
Default: 1.0, 1.0
-cutPlaneWidth(-pw) linear createqueryedit
The width of the cutting plane
-cuttingDirection(-cd) string create
This flag specifies the direction of the cutting plane. Valid values are "x", "y", "z" A value of "x" will cut the object along the YZ plane cutting through the center of the bounding box. A value of "y" will cut the object along the ZX plane cutting through the center of the bounding box. A value of "z" will cut the object along the XY plane cutting through the center of the bounding box.
-deleteFaces(-df) boolean createqueryedit
whether to delete the one-half of the cut-faces of the poly. If true, they are deleted.
Default: false
-extractFaces(-ef) boolean createqueryedit
whether to extract the cut-faces of the poly into a separate shell. If true, they are extracted.
Default: false
-extractOffset(-eo) linear linear linear createqueryedit
The displacement offset of the cut faces.
Default: 0.5, 0.5, 0.5
-extractOffsetX(-eox) linear createqueryedit
The X-displacement offset of the cut faces.
-extractOffsetY(-eoy) linear createqueryedit
The Y-displacement offset of the cut faces.
-extractOffsetZ(-eoz) linear createqueryedit
The Z-displacement offset of the cut faces.
-name(-n) string create
Give a name to the resulting node.
-nodeState(-nds) int createqueryedit

Maya dependency nodes have 6 possible states. The Normal (0), HasNoEffect (1), and Blocking (2) states can be used to alter how the graph is evaluated.

The Waiting-Normal (3), Waiting-HasNoEffect (4), Waiting-Blocking (5) are for internal use only. They temporarily shut off parts of the graph during interaction (e.g., manipulation). The understanding is that once the operation is done, the state will be reset appropriately, e.g. Waiting-Blocking will reset back to Blocking.

The Normal and Blocking cases apply to all nodes, while HasNoEffect is node specific; many nodes do not support this option. Plug-ins store state in the MPxNode::state attribute. Anyone can set it or check this attribute. Additional details about each of these 3 states follow.

State Description
Normal The normal node state. This is the default.
HasNoEffect

The HasNoEffect option (a.k.a. pass-through), is used in cases where there is an operation on an input producing an output of the same data type. Nearly all deformers support this state, as do a few other nodes. As stated earlier, it is not supported by all nodes.

It’s typical to implement support for the HasNoEffect state in the node’s compute method and to perform appropriate operations. Plug-ins can also support HasNoEffect.

The usual implementation of this state is to copy the input directly to the matching output without applying the algorithm in the node. For deformers, applying this state leaves the input geometry undeformed on the output.

Blocking

This is implemented in the depend node base class and applies to all nodes. Blocking is applied during the evaluation phase to connections. An evaluation request to a blocked connection will return as failures, causing the destination plug to retain its current value. Dirty propagation is indirectly affected by this state since blocked connections are never cleaned.

When a node is set to Blocking the behavior is supposed to be the same as if all outgoing connections were broken. As long as nobody requests evaluation of the blocked node directly it won’t evaluate after that. Note that a blocked node will still respond to getAttr requests but a getAttr on a downstream node will not reevaluate the blocked node.

Setting the root transform of a hierarchy to Blocking won’t automatically influence child transforms in the hierarchy. To do this, you’d need to explicitly set all child nodes to the Blocking state.

For example, to set all child transforms to Blocking, you could use the following script.


import maya.cmds as cmds
def blockTree(root):
nodesToBlock = []
for node in {child:1 for child in cmds.listRelatives( root, path=True, allDescendents=True )}.keys():
nodesToBlock += cmds.listConnections(node, source=True, destination=True )
for node in {source:1 for source in nodesToBlock}.keys():
cmds.setAttr( '%s.nodeState' % node, 2 )

Applying this script would continue to draw objects but things would not be animated.


Default: kdnNormal
-onObject(-oo) boolean createqueryedit
whether to act on the entire polyObject or its selected face components
Default: true
-worldSpace(-ws) boolean createqueryedit
This flag specifies which reference to use. If "on" : all geometrical values are taken in world reference. If "off" : all geometrical values are taken in object reference.
C: Default is off.
Q: When queried, this flag returns an int.

Flag can appear in Create mode of command Flag can appear in Edit mode of command
Flag can appear in Query mode of command Flag can be used more than once in a command.

MEL examples

// Introduce new edges at the middle of a cylinder
//
polyCylinder -r 1 -h 2 -sx 20 -sy 1 -sz 1 -ax 0 1 0 -cuv 1 -ch 1 -name pCylA;
polyCut -cd "Y" -ch 1 pCylA.f[0:59];

// Delete the bottom half of the cylinder
//
select -cl;
polyCylinder -r 1 -h 2 -sx 20 -sy 1 -sz 1 -ax 0 1 0 -cuv 1 -ch 1 -name pCylB;
move -r 3 0 0 ;
polyCut -cd "Y" -df 1 -ch 1 pCylB.f[0:59];
select -cl;


// Split the bottom half of the cylinder
//
select -cl;
polyCylinder -r 1 -h 2 -sx 20 -sy 1 -sz 1 -ax 0 1 0 -cuv 1 -ch 1 -name pCylC;
move -r 6 0 0 ;
polyCut -cd "Y" -ef 1 -ch 1 pCylC.f[0:59];

// select one of the cylinders, and select the polyCut node from the
// channel box, and enter the showManipulator Tool, on the Toolbar.
// You can interactively place the cutting plane, and the result of
// cut operation will adjust accordingly.