Is it possible to freeze .ptns (tweaks) on a mesh using python?

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Chad_Fox

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Sep 30, 2015, 6:28:45 PM9/30/15
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Hi all

Does anyone know if it's possible to freeze .pnts (tweaks) on a mesh using python? I've been struggling with this for a while with no results. 

To be clear. I want to remove/freeze/zero these values on meshes that don't have tweak nodes or history. For those who don't know, the tweak nodes are created when a new history operator is added and all tweaks are transferred to this node from the .pnts array on the mesh shape. Fortunately when there's history I can just delete history and all tweaks are gone too.

Any input or suggestions to try would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

Chad

Marcus Ottosson

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Oct 1, 2015, 3:47:11 AM10/1/15
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I remember encountering this not long ago and there was a scripted solution for it, a command of sorts. But I can't remember what it was..

Until you find it, you can always plug the outMesh of your mesh into the inMesh of an empty mesh (`cmds.createNode("mesh")`). It will "bake" those values into the new mesh, you can then delete the original.

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Roy Nieterau

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Oct 2, 2015, 7:48:24 AM10/2/15
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This could be of interest: http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=874851

*typed on phone

Cheers,
Roy

f.michal

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Oct 5, 2015, 2:27:11 PM10/5/15
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W dniu 2015-10-01 o 00:28, Chad_Fox pisze:
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Hi Chad !
Have you found any solution ? I got struck by this again lately, and I even posted to group an hour ago or so !

Chad Fox

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Oct 5, 2015, 5:17:53 PM10/5/15
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​Thanks for the input, unfortunately the CG talk thread doesn't give me any new info, in fact I recommend people read that one carefully as there's a few people tossing around ideas of .pnts that are not accurate. 

As the thread points out, you can edit pnts with setAttr, but setting the pnts to 0, 0, 0 just moves the verts back to their base location. wish I could just setIdentity on the pnts array hehe.​


-Chad

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Ian Jones

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Oct 5, 2015, 5:23:35 PM10/5/15
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In the past one of the ways we've sanitized meshes like this is make a cube and combine it with the desired mesh then delete the first 6 faces (from the cube). That tends to force Maya to rebuild/reset everything.

Ian


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Michał Frątczak

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Oct 5, 2015, 5:24:53 PM10/5/15
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There's a risk however of changing vertex order ?


On Monday, October 5, 2015 at 11:23:35 PM UTC+2, Ian Jones wrote:

In the past one of the ways we've sanitized meshes like this is make a cube and combine it with the desired mesh then delete the first 6 faces (from the cube). That tends to force Maya to rebuild/reset everything.

Ian


On Mon, Oct 5, 2015, 2:17 PM Chad Fox <chadl...@gmail.com> wrote:
​Thanks for the input, unfortunately the CG talk thread doesn't give me any new info, in fact I recommend people read that one carefully as there's a few people tossing around ideas of .pnts that are not accurate. 

As the thread points out, you can edit pnts with setAttr, but setting the pnts to 0, 0, 0 just moves the verts back to their base location. wish I could just setIdentity on the pnts array hehe.​


-Chad
On Mon, Oct 5, 2015 at 11:26 AM, f.michal <f.mi...@gmail.com> wrote:
W dniu 2015-10-01 o 00:28, Chad_Fox pisze:
Hi all

Does anyone know if it's possible to freeze .pnts (tweaks) on a mesh using python? I've been struggling with this for a while with no results. 

To be clear. I want to remove/freeze/zero these values on meshes that don't have tweak nodes or history. For those who don't know, the tweak nodes are created when a new history operator is added and all tweaks are transferred to this node from the .pnts array on the mesh shape. Fortunately when there's history I can just delete history and all tweaks are gone too.

Any input or suggestions to try would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

Chad
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Hi Chad !
Have you found any solution ? I got struck by this again lately, and I even posted to group an hour ago or so !

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Ian Jones

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Oct 5, 2015, 5:28:50 PM10/5/15
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Only if it has too (verts with no edges etc) but its almost always desirable in our experience. Of the mesh is generally clean Maya will preserve the vertex order with operations like that. We've been doing it with blendshapes for years.


On Mon, Oct 5, 2015, 2:25 PM Michał Frątczak <f.mi...@gmail.com> wrote:
There's a risk however of changing vertex order ?


On Monday, October 5, 2015 at 11:23:35 PM UTC+2, Ian Jones wrote:

In the past one of the ways we've sanitized meshes like this is make a cube and combine it with the desired mesh then delete the first 6 faces (from the cube). That tends to force Maya to rebuild/reset everything.

Ian


On Mon, Oct 5, 2015, 2:17 PM Chad Fox <chadl...@gmail.com> wrote:
​Thanks for the input, unfortunately the CG talk thread doesn't give me any new info, in fact I recommend people read that one carefully as there's a few people tossing around ideas of .pnts that are not accurate. 

As the thread points out, you can edit pnts with setAttr, but setting the pnts to 0, 0, 0 just moves the verts back to their base location. wish I could just setIdentity on the pnts array hehe.​


-Chad
On Mon, Oct 5, 2015 at 11:26 AM, f.michal <f.mi...@gmail.com> wrote:
W dniu 2015-10-01 o 00:28, Chad_Fox pisze:
Hi all

Does anyone know if it's possible to freeze .pnts (tweaks) on a mesh using python? I've been struggling with this for a while with no results. 

To be clear. I want to remove/freeze/zero these values on meshes that don't have tweak nodes or history. For those who don't know, the tweak nodes are created when a new history operator is added and all tweaks are transferred to this node from the .pnts array on the mesh shape. Fortunately when there's history I can just delete history and all tweaks are gone too.

Any input or suggestions to try would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

Chad
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Hi Chad !
Have you found any solution ? I got struck by this again lately, and I even posted to group an hour ago or so !

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Chad Fox

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Oct 5, 2015, 5:45:06 PM10/5/15
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Yeah, worked great with blendshapes. Problem with this merging of meshes is that it creates a new mesh and we lose any custom attrs and connections on the mesh. I've been freezing tweaks by Applying a lattice to the entire model then deleting history. This transfers all pnts to tweak nodes then deletes them. In anycase, I'm still hoping there's a way to freeze the tweaks without this workaround. :P

Cheers


-Chad

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Marcus Ottosson

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Oct 6, 2015, 3:45:34 AM10/6/15
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Try this.

cmds.polyMoveVertex("pCubeShape1", constructionHistory=False)


Alternatively, connect the outMesh to a new mesh, as in my first post. And then, disconnect, and connect the outMesh of the new mesh into the inMesh of the original. This will give you double transformations. Then you can simply the vertex values.

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Michał Frątczak

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Oct 6, 2015, 5:44:50 AM10/6/15
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That seems to do it. Thanks to all.


-Chad

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Hi Chad !
Have you found any solution ? I got struck by this again lately, and I even posted to group an hour ago or so !

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Chad Fox

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Oct 7, 2015, 4:52:27 PM10/7/15
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Marcus, you are the man. Thanks for this solution!


-Chad



-Chad

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Hi Chad !
Have you found any solution ? I got struck by this again lately, and I even posted to group an hour ago or so !

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Paul Molodowitch

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Oct 7, 2015, 8:56:49 PM10/7/15
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Awesome, I didn't know about that! In the past I had to do the connect-to-a-mesh hack... this is way better.  Thanks Marcus!

Marcus Ottosson

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Oct 8, 2015, 3:39:31 AM10/8/15
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No problem guys, but I can't take all the credit. I got suggested this solution only a few weeks ago by Roy Nieterau.

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Nicolas Combecave

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Oct 9, 2015, 1:27:50 PM10/9/15
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The pnts attribute is a multi attribute, that is empty when no tweaks are made on a geometry.
So we basically do a removeMultiInstance on every index found for the attribute.
Special care needs to be taken if this object is deformed, because the index 0 is connected to a tweak node, via a tweakLocation attribute.
So you have to disconnect tweakLocation attribute, do the removeMultiInstance, and reconnect the tweakLocation attribute...
Go figure...
A little bit convoluted, but it's the cleanest way we found so far.

Nicolas



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Nicolas Combecave

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Oct 10, 2015, 1:22:34 AM10/10/15
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Ah Sorry guys,
I read "remove tweaks" instead of freeze!

Nicolas

Chad Fox

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Oct 13, 2015, 7:18:32 PM10/13/15
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Thats okay! Removal is good too since freezing them with the moveVertices command does leave the pnts array intact even though they are all zero'd.

Thanks for your input

Cheers

Chad


-Chad

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Roy Nieterau

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Dec 6, 2019, 5:33:53 AM12/6/19
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I know this is an ancient topic - but just to make sure other people might find this when they google or search. This seems like it's the exact Maya function to just "collapse" the .pnts data into the vertex positions: https://help.autodesk.com/cloudhelp/2018/ENU/Maya-Tech-Docs/CommandsPython/polyCollapseTweaks.html

This Maya function will "bake in" or "collapse" the Vertex tweaks of a Mesh into the vertex positions. It basically clears the .pnts attribute whilst preserving your output. It's super fast too.

Be aware that it seems to error out when there's no tweaks on the mesh yet. However, that's not an issue since you can also query it instantly with this method:
for mesh in meshes:
    if cmds.polyCollapseTweaks(mesh, query=True, hasVertexTweaks=True):
        cmds.polyCollapseTweaks(mesh)

Chad Fox

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Dec 6, 2019, 3:36:41 PM12/6/19
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Thanks for the follow up. I will take a look at this today!

-Chad


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Chad Fox

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Dec 6, 2019, 3:38:56 PM12/6/19
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Ha, according to the docs this was added in Maya 2016, just after I was trying to solve the problem.

-Chad

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