Vertex normal script for Maya

Hi everyone!

I just wanted to share a script I've done for Maya to quickly be able to set the vertex normals based on the face normals. I know there are a few ways to do this within native maya, as well as a few scripts, but I haven't been able to find one which averages the normals for verts shared by multiple selected faces. This can be quite annoying when setting up curved or round surfaces.

[Blocked Image: http://i.imgur.com/oBTdSYt.jpg]

For 3ds max there's a great script called GetVertNormalFromFace which does this. What mine does is essentially the same but in Maya. Just make a face selection of the faces you want to set the vert normals for and run the script.

[Blocked Image: http://i.imgur.com/98uBPfL.jpg]

To run the script, just paste into the script editor as python and drag it to a shelf, or set it up as a hotkey

Here's the script:

# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


# - pompVertNormFaceAvg


#


# - Sets the vertex normals of a face selection,


#   averaging normals shared by multiple selected faces.


#


#


# - by Pontus Karlsson 2013 (www.pomperi.com)


# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------




import maya.cmds as cmds




faces = cmds.filterExpand(sm=34, ex=True)


verts = cmds.ls((cmds.polyListComponentConversion(faces, ff=True, tv=True)), flatten=True)


normals = [[], [], []]




for v in verts:


    conFaces = cmds.ls(cmds.polyListComponentConversion(v, fv=True, tf=True), flatten=True)


    shaFaces = list(set(conFaces).intersection(set(faces)))


    faceNorm = cmds.polyInfo(shaFaces, fn=True)




    for normal in faceNorm:


	    label, vertex, x, y, z = normal.split()


	    normals[0].append(float(x))


	    normals[1].append(float(y))


	    normals[2].append(float(z))




    x_avg = (sum(normals[0]) / len(shaFaces))


    y_avg = (sum(normals[1]) / len(shaFaces))


    z_avg = (sum(normals[2]) / len(shaFaces))




    cmds.select(v)


    cmds.polyNormalPerVertex(xyz = (x_avg, y_avg, z_avg))




    normals[:] = [[], [], []]




cmds.select(cl=True)

I hope someone finds it useful

Hehe, thanks guys

kikette: Glad you like it!

I'm currently trying to re-write the script in OpenMaya to make it a bit faster. Also trying to come up with a good way to maintain hard edges, as it's quite cumbersome whenever you want to keep hard edges intact when setting up the vertex normals for a mesh. I think the best way workflow-wise is to set up hard and soft edges before manipulating the vert normals (meaning you would simply soften the whole mesh if you don't want any hard edges) then run the script and wherever there's a split, the vert normal will be set for each face individually.

If anyone have any suggestions, that would be awesome!