Back View Panel

[rhino]

How do I create a back View Panel? Could someone please let me know. I have tried to experiement to play with the panel -Front, Side, Top and Pers- and try to get a new panel as back view? Nothing works. I am just new to Maya and am learning as I can!
Please advice me. Thanks!

[danlefeb]

I dunno what version of Maya you're using, but I've found this script to be handy:

http://www.highend3d.com/maya/downloads/mel_scripts/interface_display/754.html

[rhino]

Thanks. I am using Maya 6. I guess I will need to update to 7 or 8.
May I ask you which version are you using? Is Maya 8 better version?

[laxman]

Since baout v.5 i've had a back camera set up i use quite a lot when I use image planes. Just select the front camera in the outliner and look at the attributes in the channel box. Then create a new camera, be sure to select orthographic in the options. Then translate it and rotate it so that the line is facing the direction you want (for back it should be facing the front camera) and I think the translate is -100 in the x direction. THe open the script editor and choose echo all commands, make sure your in perspective view and then go to lookthrough camera->back (name the camera back before doing this). In the script editor you should see the command that tells maya to look through the camera. Highlight it and middle click and drag it to the shelf. The go to window->settings-> marking menus. Select commonModelingPanes and choose edit marking menu then middle click and drag the icon from your shelf to a free spot. Now everytime you start a scene create a camera called back and the button will always be there to change to that camera quickly.


BTW: you can delete the icon on the shelf. And it will save you some time if you open up the script editor and then go through the steps of creating the camera and nameing it back. Then select that script and middle click drag it to the shelf so everytime you open maya you click on the button to create a camera and you can start using it right away.

[rhino]

Thanks soooooo much! That helps me alot!

[laxman]

No problem. BTW maya 7+ has a compass which lets you see the back right away (you can also have a left side view). Also if you want you can copy and paste a script into notepad and save it as a .mel file and put it in your scripts directory. Then edit your userSetup.mel (in the same directory) and at the very end of the file type in the name of the script.mel you just created. That way it will run the script and create a camera everytime maya opens, and the back button you have in the modeling panel will work immediatly. That was a cool little trick I had and my friends were wondering how I did it, but then maya 7 came out and it wasn't so impressive anymore. oh well...