V15.05.01
Release Date - 06/06/2026
Interactive Curve Tool V2
Major Upgrade
Interactive Curve Tools no longer rely on Maya’s Soft Selection. They now use a custom visual falloff system designed specifically for curve editing.
Brush Circle and Hover Display
All Interactive Curve Tools now include a brush circle and curve hover display.
Because of this upgrade, some older radius-related UI options have been removed, such as the ‘use radius slider under Cut/Attach’.
Sculpt Tool
Sculpting and falloff behavior have been greatly improved.
Hovering over curves will show the affected curve segments, and falloff settings are now displayed more accurately inside the Sculpt Tool.
Smoothing has also been improved. Only CVs inside the brush circle, along with their immediate neighboring CVs, will be affected.
Added Falloff Modes
Volume - The standard behavior. Curve segments and CVs inside the brush circle are affected.
Precision - Similar to Maya’s Soft Selection behavior. Only the center segment or CV and nearby connected components are affected. This is especially useful when sculpting coiled or curled curves.
Add Tool
Holding Shift now displays a preview of curves before they are added.
The previous radius-of-influence slider has been removed. The brush circle is now used to determine reference curves.
If newly added curves appear too straight, it usually means there are not enough nearby curves to sample from. Increase the brush circle size to include more reference curves.
Fixed an issue where newly created curves could jump away from the mesh when Scatter Mode and Scatter Align to Face Normal were enabled. New curves should now remain attached to the base mesh correctly.
Cut Tool
Curve segments inside the brush circle will now be cut directly.
Adjusting the brush radius will preview how much of the curve will be affected.
Draw Tool
Drawing curves now uses a faster overlay display, with cyan as the default color.
This is much faster than the previous display behavior.
Attach Tool
Curve segments inside the brush circle will now be copied and re-attached to the tips of curves.
Adjusting the brush radius will preview how much of the curve will be copied.
Extend Tool
It’s now a press-only for LMB as the previous LMB + Drag can cause uncontrollable behaviour with curve extensions.
Move Tool
The Move Tool now displays curve roots.
Curves can only be moved when their roots are inside the brush circle.
Marking Menu - Normalize + Rebuild
Added Normalize and Rebuild CVs options.
Marking Menu - Automatic Install + Hotkey Assignment
Menu -> Install Marking Menus will now automatically be done through this option button. You can assign a hotkey to it after it is installed.
Lite Mode (Removed)
Removed Lite Mode, as it had limited usefulness on modern machines and added unnecessary maintenance cost.
UI
The UI layout has also been updated, removing the previous three-pane layout.
GS Curve Tool
The issue where enabling advanced visibility on GS curves could cause CV display problems is now resolved.
Known issues
Maya 2027 can be slower when more curves are in scene, and when there is no initial selection before entering a tool.
Workaround - for multiple curve adjustments, please select them before entering an interactive curve tool, or hide curves thats not being worked on. (use Curve Color Tool)
Existing or Entering tools can sometimes cause Maya to remember the hotkey that was exited (W, E, R), on mouse clicking opening up Maya’s Marking Menu.
Workaround - Go to object mode, or re-enter and exit the tool again to refresh it.
Ghost Preview - Curve display does not match the current Maya curve position. This can happen when:
While in an Orthographic viewport, zooming in or out the camera while the brush circle still hovers on curves can cause those curve displays to ‘hang’ at the pre-zoomed position.
Quick UI expansion/collapse or viewport size adjustment.
Workaround - Alt + LMB to move the camera a bit, or, re-enter the tool.
Curve Extract Tool
From Card
Removed the need to manually choose extraction methods such as Subdiv or Traverse. Curve extraction now works automatically while preserving the card’s curvature and edge flow.
From Edge
Added a new option: "Single Edge to Extract Full Loop"
When enabled:
· A connected edge chain will be extracted as one continuous linear curve. ( previous behaviour)
· A double-clicked edge loop will be extracted as one continuous loop curve.
Fixed an error that occurred when using Maya’s G key to repeat the last action.
New Mode: Guided
Added a new Guided tab for non-quad or triangulated geometry. This is best effort extraction.
Auto Extract Best Effort
This mode attempts to extract a curve automatically without requiring topology preparation. It is faster to use, but less predictable.
For more accurate results, use the Poly Resolve Tool to generate quad-grid topology before extracting.
Vertex Extract
You can now select two vertices as root and tip, or select more than two vertices, to extract a curve following the selected points.
Grouping Improved
The old grouping hierarchy has been removed to keep the workflow simpler.
Added "Group Curves By Selection" option. When enabled, extracted curves are grouped per extraction procedure. If multiple geometries are selected, each geometry will receive its own curve group.
Progress Bar Improved
The progress bar should no longer appear frozen when extraction encounters an error.
False Mesh Detection Improved
Geometry selection validation has been greatly improved and is now much faster, making it easier to detect unsupported or incorrect geometry types. (ie, tubes selected but using functions from the Card tab)
Maya Curve Color Tool
When the Curve Color Tool is open, duplicated curves from a curve color layer will now automatically have their curve width set to 3.
Hair Builders: Tube / Card
Hair Tube Builder and Hair Card Builder now include the compatibility to the Interactive Curve Tool behavior updates.
The Duplicate Button (Left Click Behaviour)
LMB on the Duplicate button will now just run the duplicate directly on selected strands. RMB will now open the options for duplicate modes.
Fixes
Duplicate In-Between
Now preserves the current selection mode, whether working with geometry or curves.
Hair Tube Builder Scale Ramp
Previously, scale ramp values were prevented from being set exactly to 0.00. This restriction was originally intended for Hair Card Builder UV behavior.
This has now been changed back, so Hair Tube Builder scale ramp values can be set exactly to 0.00 again.
Scale and Twist Ramp Points
Deleting a point on the scale or twist ramp should no longer cause the selection to jump to the end of the ramp.
Poly Resolve Tool
Auto Mode
The tool can now automatically decide which mode to use. You no longer need to manually choose between UV mode and Retopologize mode.
Mesh Detection Added
Selection type validation has been added, using the same detection system from the Curve Extract Tool.
This helps prevent users from accidentally resolving the wrong type of geometry, such as trying to resolve a card under the Tube tab, which could previously freeze or crash Maya.
Undo
Undoing a resolve operation is now possible in most cases.
Reduced Computing Time
Resolving cards is now up to 50% faster.
Guide Color Tool
Descriptions with growth mesh that have larger face counts (50000 + ) should now also work.
User Preferences
Tools that store user preferences, including Hair Tube Builder, Hair Card Builder, Braid Builder, Interactive Curve Tool, and the Main UI, now categorize their variables inside Maya’s user preference .mel file.
This applies to Maya 2023 and newer.
This update also addresses issues with scene preset settings in some tools for Maya 2022 users.
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