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Synopsis

squareSurface [-caching boolean] [-constructionHistory boolean] [-continuityType1 int] [-continuityType2 int] [-continuityType3 int] [-continuityType4 int] [-curveFitCheckpoints int] [-endPointTolerance linear] [-name string] [-nodeState int] [-object boolean] [-polygon int] [-rebuildCurve1 boolean] [-rebuildCurve2 boolean] [-rebuildCurve3 boolean] [-rebuildCurve4 boolean] string string string [string]

squareSurface is undoable, queryable, and editable.

This command produces a square surface given 3 or 4 curves. This resulting square surface is created within the intersecting region of the selected curves. The order of selection is important and the curves must intersect or their ends must meet.

You must specify one continuity type flag for each selected curve. If continuity type is 1 (fixed, no tangent continuity) then the curveFitCheckpoints flag (cfc) is not required.

Return value

string[]Object name and node name

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

Related

boundary, doubleProfileBirailSurface, loft

Flags

caching, constructionHistory, continuityType1, continuityType2, continuityType3, continuityType4, curveFitCheckpoints, endPointTolerance, name, nodeState, object, polygon, rebuildCurve1, rebuildCurve2, rebuildCurve3, rebuildCurve4
Long name (short name) Argument types Properties
-caching(-cch) boolean createqueryedit
Toggle caching for all attributes so that no recomputation is needed
-continuityType1(-ct1) int createqueryedit
Continuity type legal values for curve 1: 1 - fixed boundary 2 - tangent continuity 3 - implied tangent continuity
Default: 2
-continuityType2(-ct2) int createqueryedit
Continuity type legal values for curve 2: 1 - fixed boundary 2 - tangent continuity 3 - implied tangent continuity
Default: 2
-continuityType3(-ct3) int createqueryedit
Continuity type legal values for curve 3: 1 - fixed boundary 2 - tangent continuity 3 - implied tangent continuity
Default: 2
-continuityType4(-ct4) int createqueryedit
Continuity type legal values for curve 4: 1 - fixed boundary 2 - tangent continuity 3 - implied tangent continuity
Default: 2
-curveFitCheckpoints(-cfc) int createqueryedit
The number of points per span to check the tangency deviation between the boundary curve and the created tangent square surface. Only available for the tangent continuity type.
Default: 5
-endPointTolerance(-ept) linear createqueryedit
Tolerance for end points, only used if endPoint attribute is true.
Default: 0.1
-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
-rebuildCurve1(-rc1) boolean createqueryedit
A boolean to determine if input curve 1 should be rebuilt (with curvature continuity).
Default: false
-rebuildCurve2(-rc2) boolean createqueryedit
A boolean to determine if input curve 2 should be rebuilt (with curvature continuity).
Default: false
-rebuildCurve3(-rc3) boolean createqueryedit
A boolean to determine if input curve 3 should be rebuilt (with curvature continuity).
Default: false
-rebuildCurve4(-rc4) boolean createqueryedit
A boolean to determine if input curve 4 should be rebuilt (with curvature continuity).
Default: false
Common flags
-constructionHistory(-ch) boolean create
Turn the construction history on or off.
-name(-n) string create
Sets the name of the newly-created node. If it contains namespace path, the new node will be created under the specified namespace; if the namespace does not exist, it will be created.
-object(-o) boolean create
Create the result, or just the dependency node.
-polygon(-po) int create
The value of this argument controls the type of the object created by this operation
  • 0: nurbs surface
  • 1: polygon (use nurbsToPolygonsPref to set the parameters for the conversion)
  • 2: subdivision surface (use nurbsToSubdivPref to set the parameters for the conversion)
  • 3: Bezier surface
  • 4: subdivision surface solid (use nurbsToSubdivPref to set the parameters for the conversion)
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

// Creating square surfaces with three curves and fixed continuity type:

string $crv1 = `curve -d 3 -p 8 0 3 -p 5 0 3 -p 2 0 2 -p 0 0 0 `;
string $crv2 = `curve -d 3 -p 8 0 -4 -p 5 0 -3 -p 2 0 -2 -p 0 0 0 `;
string $crv3 = `curve -d 3 -p 8 0 3 -p 9 3 2 -p 11 3 1 -p 8 0 -4` ;

// These curves form a rough triangle shape pointing at the origin.

squareSurface -ct1 1 -ct2 1 -ct3 1 $crv3 $crv1 $crv2;

// Creating square surfaces with four curves, tangent continuity
// type and to use 6 points per span in checking the continuity:

string $crv1 = `curve -d 3 -p -2 0 4 -p -2 0 5 -p 1 0 3 -p 3 0 4 -p 6 0 5`;
string $crv2 = `curve -d 3 -p 6 0 5 -p 8 0 2 -p 8 0 -3 -p 7 0 -4 `;
string $crv3 = `curve -d 3 -p 7 0 -4 -p 2 0 -3 -p -1 0 -5 -p -2 0 -4`;
string $crv4 = `curve -d 3 -p -2 0 4 -p -4 0 1 -p -4 0 -3 -p -2 0 -4` ;


// These curves form a rough square shape around the origin.

squareSurface -cfc 6 -ct1 2 -ct2 2 -ct3 2 -ct4 2 $crv1 $crv2 $crv3 $crv4;