Maya API - MFnMesh Slicing and Surface Conversion

Coding
1

Hey, I’m in the middle of developing my first plugin for Maya, and I can’t for the life of me figure out a reasonable way to divide a mesh in two with a ‘slicing plane’ (similar to the slice tool in 3ds Max). The Mesh and MNMesh classes in the 3ds Max SDK have tons of convenient functionality for editing meshes, but I can’t seem to find comparable functionality in the Maya API. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Also, is it plausible to convert between different surface types (without significant loss) within a plugin node? For example sub-division surface -> poly mesh and back to sub-division surface? Or would it be considered best practice to create to write separate similar plugins for the different surface types.

TIA

2

As to the first part of your question, have you looked at the polyCut command? I know that Jason Schleifer uses that technique in his AF Tools (Create a slice plane, and then cut along that plane).

Doc:
http://download.autodesk.com/us/maya/2011help/CommandsPython/polyCut.html

3

Ok, I’ll check it out- thanks!