Maya lattice beyond 50000 points?

[sid]

Hey all,

Was wondering if anyone knew of a way of extending the amount of subdivisions in a lattice in Maya. I need to have  a lot of subdivisions down one axis, but Maya complains when I push the value higher and says:

// Error: line 1: ffd1LatticeShape (Lattice Node): A lattice may not contain more than 50000 points. //

Anyone got any ideas?

Cheers,
Sid

[matt estela]

wrap deform to a elongated cube with as many points as you require? or multiple lattices? or another deformer type perhaps (sculpt/sine/wave)?

or ask AD real nice for a custom lattice with that limit removed. :)

[sid]

All good suggestions, tried them all, but can't get something that fits neatly in my rig.

It's so bloody annoying. The limit on the number of points in a lattice is 50,000, but I just need a shedload of divisions down ONE axis. BUT... the S, T and U division attributes on the latticeShape have a limit of 400 applied to them, which means that I'm only using 400 x 2 x 2 points = 1,600 points!!!!

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!!!

All I really need is for that maximum 400 division limit to be removed!!


Sid

[Michiel Duvekot]

Two lattices usually do the job for me. As long as the lattice bases are properly scaled and positioned, I don't see why that couldn't work.

--
--
Michiel

[Sagroth]

Try saving to .ma and typing in the values you need, e.g.:

createNode lattice -n "ffd1LatticeShape" -p "ffd1Lattice";
setAttr -k off ".v";
setAttr ".td" 1000;
setAttr ".cc" -type "lattice" 2 1000 2 4000 ...

Error pops up after reloading, but seems to be working on a test
sphere.

[sid]

Interesting approach!

On a poly sphere yes, you're right it does work, but the sphere ends up being totally mangled (I didn't move any of the lattice points).

My scene seems to be a bit different though, when I save it as a .ma file, I don't get the line that reads:

       setAttr ".cc" -type "lattice" 2 1000 2 4000 ...

And if I try and just set the ".td" attribute to 5000, when the scene opens, it just defaults back to 2 x 2 x 2 divisions :(


Sid

[Sagroth]

That's strange. I've tried it on 2009 and 2011 xp64...

1) make a polySphere with 1000x1000 divisions
2) create a lattice on it with default settings
3) set T Divisions to something non-default, like 10 (or attribute
won't appear in .ma)
4) save to .ma
5) edit three values in these two lines

createNode lattice -n "ffd1LatticeShape" -p "ffd1Lattice";

...
setAttr ".td" 10;
setAttr ".cc" -type "lattice" 2 10 2 40 ...
...

to

createNode lattice -n "ffd1LatticeShape" -p "ffd1Lattice";

...

setAttr ".td" 1000;
setAttr ".cc" -type "lattice" 2 1000 2 4000 ...

...

6) save and reload the scene - error about data loss appears, but
sphere is nice and good (not mangled) and lattice is 2x1000x2. It
doesn't defaults back even if I change S/U Divisions (they update
properly also). And the lattice seems to deform it properly.

[sid]

Ahhh, I see what's going on with the final value in the ".cc" line now....

However, I don't even have this line for my lattice in my .ma file... it's actually a flow path object, I wonder if that has something to do with it?

Sid

[sid]

Yeah, it's definitely something to do with the flow path, the second you create one, the lattice loses those attributes in the ASCII file. I can't even find a reference to the total number of points anywhere :S

[Sagroth]

Lattice from "flow path" works for me also the same way :)

createNode lattice -n "ffd1LatticeShape" -p "ffd1Lattice";

setAttr -k off ".v";
setAttr ".tw" yes;
setAttr ".sd" 1000;
setAttr ".td" 2;

Actually, I can set up to 1000 while creating flow path right through
the option box... But 1000 seems to be the max even for .ma method :(

[sid]

Ah! I was setting this value higher than 1000, which is why it wasn't working! But yes, you're right, this does seem to work!!

Dude, this is awesome, if you're in London gimme a shout cos I owe you a few beers!!

Sid

[Sagroth]

Far from it and don't like beer, thanks anyway ;)
Glad it helps.