Sorry, another XSI-esque question here.

I am doing human character modelling and am trying to figure out how I can get some kind of symetry working so I can ignore the second half of the model and focus on the first.

In XSI there is something called a symetry map. I can't seem to find this in Houdini, and the mirror and fuse ops combined don't properly work at some points, since fuse seems to over merge and mess up the mesh.

Surely there is a Houdini-esque solution to this problem?

Just use the mirror SOP as a template. It does the fusing down the seam for you. It even has a tolerance setting so that it doesn't fuse points close to the seam. Set the tolerance very low in this case and ensure that the points at the mirror plane are at the mirror plane. You can also turn off “Consolidate Seam” if you just want to do a straight mirror for visualization only.

As well, make absolutely sure that your mirror plane is around the origin (at least two values should be zero).

Hi there,

Please try the following:

1. Put down a Box SOP.
2. Append a Clip SOP and set the Direction to 1,0,0 so now you're left with only the right half of the Box.
3. Append a Mirror SOP to the Clip SOP and set the Direction to 1,0,0 as well.
4. Next, append a Fuse SOP with the default parameters.
5. Append a Subdivide SOP at the end, set up your Depth and turn on the Template (pink) Flag.
6. In the viewport, hit “Page Up” till you get to the Clip SOP.



From this step, you can start your modelling. If there are cracks when you're modelling, they can easily be fixed with an Edit SOP.



When you're done, append an Edit SOP before the Mirror SOP and select the points that you want ‘X=0’. Ctrl+RMB on the handle to bring up the Edit Geometry option.



After “Flatten selection to c-plane”.



I hope the above helps!

Cheers!
steven

For those interested in a solution that even works if you move the middle points off the origin, I've posted a hip file over on odforce:
http://odforce.net/forum/index.php?s=3bbf1d88ebc2bcd9371011916776dd2b&act=ST&f=15&t=1068&st=0&#entry7166 [odforce.net]

As Jeff said, the Mirror SOP will fuse points along the Mirror plane so the Fuse SOP in my example is not necessary.

Also, definitely check out Edward's solution, it is really simple but most importantly, it works.

Cheers!
steven