metaball for maya 1.0.0 for Maya (maya plugin)

metaball for maya 8.5
by Ozgur Yilmaz (gromit)



Release Notes ( v1.0.0.alpha.build 1152 )
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- it is the first public release, so it will crash alot ( though I did alot debuging )...


Installation:
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- if maya is on, close it...
- put metaball.mll to maya's plug-ins directory ( ex: C:Program FilesAutodeskMaya8.5binplug-ins )
- put createMetaball.mel to one of maya's script directory ( ex: My Documentsmayascripts )
- reopen maya
- load metaball.mll by using window->settings/preferences->plug-in manager


Usage:
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- to create the metaball surface
  * write createMetaball to commandLine in maya
  * it will create one locator and the metaball surface, which is a mesh
  * if you move the locator the metaball surface will move with it

- to add another locator/metaballHandle:
  * write addHandleToMetaball in commandLine
  * add as many locator as you want or maya crashes ( I didn't made a stress test yet )

- to see how the metaball surface created from scratch:
  * select the metaball surface
  * from the channelBox find the metaball1 node in history, open it
  * set "Max Iterations" attribute to 0
  * select the "Max Iterations" labal
  * while holding the middle mouse button drag to right on the viewport
  * the metaball surface will be created as you drag


attributes:
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- radius : specifies the metaball radius for one locator

- threshold : specifies the value where the implicit function will be drawn

- tesselation method :
                0 - uses Adaptive Triangulation Algorithm
                1 - uses Adaptive Edge Spining Algorithm
                ( this setting is obsolete, it will always use adaptive triangulation algorithm )

- max triangle size :
                defines the ratio which will be used as the max triangle size
                maxTriangleSize * Radius * 0.15 is the maxTriangle size
                maxTriangleSize also effects the min triangle size inside the code

- use view position :
                it will be added in future releases, simply it will use the cameras view point for LOD purposes

- max iteration :
                this limits the iteration to a maximum value, I mainly use it for debuging, use a value which will be enough to close the metaball surface ( in future releases I will remove this attribute )

- accuracy :
                this is the value which is used in finding the metaball surface for every vertex genereted
                        1 means 1e-(2+1) = 0.001
                        2 means 1e-(2+2) = 0.0001
                        3 means 1e-(2+3) = 0.00001
                       ... and so on
                I suggest to use 5 for accuracy, lower values will generate good surfaces in genereal but sometimes metaball surface will not be closed

- neighbour weight :
                this value is used in edgeLength calculation
                       0 will use the edge length from curvature calculation
                       1 will use the edge length by taking the mean value of the neighbours to the vertex
                between 0 and 1 it will mixes the values
                I suggest using 0 for this value but values between 0-0.5 will generate better result sometimes

Known Issues:
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- maya will crash if threshold is set to 0 or 1 or near to them , between 0.25 and 0.75 is good...
- maya will crash if radius is set to much low ( around 0.01 )
- with low accuracy values below 5 the metaball surface will not close
- tesselation method is obsolete
- use view position attribute is obsolete
- there will always be an untriagulated hole on the metaball surface ignore it, I will close this final triangle in the code later

I wrote it for fun and to enhance my maya API knowledge, you can use it freely, I will be updating the code, and I want to give the source later, when it finally finished...


Ozgur Yilmaz
Technical Director