The Combine command in Maya will essentially create a new entity in the database and in the scene. This means that you will have named your old object, and the new object will have a unique name. It will also have its own new transform, pivot location, and the hierarchy will be gone.
AttachMaster allows a user to attach multiple objects together while maintaining the name, translation, pivot, and hierarchy of the original object.
What if you wanted to combine object, but keep all that stuff? Of course scripting comes aid. AttachMaster is a small script that will retain object name, and transform information. The script will even keep hierarchy and pivot information after the combine. Definitely will come in handy.
Simply select the target (the object that you want to attach other objects to), then select in any order any and all poly objects that you want to attach to the target. Run TT_AttachMaster.
The “Merge” checkbox will combine all of the objects and apply a very small vertex weld threshold. Setting the “No Merge” check will combine all of the objects together without any vertex welding being applied. Combined object retains the name, pivot, translation, and hierarchy of the first object you selected. The script can’t keep rotational data, as it is currently not supported.
Check out the freeware AttachMaster script for Maya here.
