Maya: Ship Wheel - Tools and Process

On Canvas, there is a selection of worksheets Gary has created to teach the basics of Maya, and helpful tools and techniques we should be using when creating our gun models. I began with low polygon house model, and now this ship steering wheel.

I firstly began by adding a cylinder primitive from the polygons tab. I adjusted the scale (R) to an appropriate size, and then duplicated (Ctrl+D) the cylinder, which I scaled down slightly further. I then used the Booleans tool, which can be found in the Mesh tab. I used the Difference option which allows you to subtract one object from another, in this case, the smaller cylinder from the larger one.

The Boolean tool allows various options, the Difference option
allows one object to be removed from another... 

leaving me with the outside rim of the wheel.

After adding another cylinder for the central hub, I used the Live Snapping tool to have objects snap into place along a grid, to create the spokes and handles of the wheel.

The finished ship wheel.