Won’t this change effect people who depend on these features for building classic-styled maps? 
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Use a decal
It’s a bit annoying to use a decal every time you temporarily need a direction check on a part, and often the decals won’t work well (unions/meshes). It’d be nice if they replaced this function with a “show face direction vector” sort of button or view mode that superimposed a 3-axis on the part.
I also find it warmly endearing that so many people also used hinges/motors as direction pointers 
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I don’t think it’ll break, so you shouldn’t worry
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FYI hinges/motors have used the exact same mathematical joint underneath as the Constraints do for a long time now. If you set up the Constraints correctly they will have identical behavior to the hinges/motors you were using.
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I use this all the time too!
Its quick and easy to do.
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If existing models will not break, can I use older versions of Roblox Studio to make models so I can continue using older surface things?
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This just complicates things. Probably one of the less smart ideas from Roblox, it’s harder to do surface inputs like inlets/studs now.
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I think Roblox executed this in the best way possible, instead of completely removing surfaces they just made it hidden and harder to access or edit for developers but surfaces like Studs are still there for anyone who wants to use them visually. Rest in peace surface inputs, for the eight years I have been developing games on Roblox I have never once used them and always just dodged them in properties. Anyone else? lol…
It’s too bad that we can’t use the surface properties to preview what surface we are editing as a great way to view what surface we are selecting is anymore, excited to see what that Lua Draggers addition is though.
Until that comes, to anyone looking for a quick replacement here’s another quick solution: I just updated one of my first lightweight plugins that shows you a parts size when selecting it to include basic part directions that can be easily understood without taking up much space. For anyone who relied on that behavior of surfaces and would be interested I’d love to get some feedback from you!
https://www.roblox.com/library/5144745849/UPDATE-8-18-Part-Size-Display-Plugin
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Will setting a part surface to Hinge via a script still be possible after the September 7th update? Many vehicles in my game rely on this.
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I personally never actually used Surfaces, I purely set everything to smooth in scripts. I only ever used the Surface properties to highlight the surfaces I want. The View Selector doesn’t do a good job of this, and there is no way to actually view local space without adding instances in any way shape or form (i.e. its not natively supported in studio).
I wouldn’t call that a professional use but the thing is, there is no real professional use. Obviously, (I mean Roblox is clearly aware) there will be native support an some point in some form, but, it is still valid to point out that the creation of instances is the only current alternative and in my opinion, that’s even more unprofessional as long as you aren’t literally marking surfaces like the original post mentioned (that’s bad practice for a few reasons). There are definitely better alternatives to marking the surfaces, but, there are no better alternatives to viewing surfaces without the property view.
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I have a question:
For motors, I couldn’t find them a few weeks ago, so I tried to use a constraint, however the part I wanted to have rotation, didn’t seem to attach and stay in place and rotate like the motor system did. How can I achieve this.
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I known that there are better features than the legacy motors however you should not kill a feature people rely on. If they want to use it that is fine. I and many others use the legacy motors still to create vehicles with a vehicle seat. This will break that feature and moving to the constraint system is a pain. I’d rather stick with the legacy motors as they are just much more simple to use and build things with.
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Seems like a relatively extreme solution to a very minor problem
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I’m glad surface types still exist as I think some of them can be good for appearance(like studs, inlet, glue) on blocks
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Some of us prefer to use part surfaces instead of constraints
This is a situation of simply needing to move on. Roblox is evolving. Developers should too.
Furthermore, new developers that would like to make a simple car using a VehicleSeat and surface hinges will be forced to learn how to use JointsService
New developers shouldn’t be using surface hinges in any form in the first place. They’re old and unreliable. The removal of surface hinges from any non-script based system will only allow new developers to be conditioned to the superior constraint system from the get go.
the constraints do not function in the way they are supposed to.
Please clarify what this is supposed to mean as constraints function precisely as they should. They’re advanced. Surface joints are not. Unlike surface joints, using constraints will require a little more effort than slapping on a cylinder to a brick and adding a vehicle seat. While the ease of doing that will be gone, the options you are given using constraints will be vastly increased over surface joints.
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Not that I don’t like this change or anything, but I’m disappointed that it’s less convenient to make studs for parts.
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Roblox could not have carried out this switch more perfectly. I’m glad developers were given a year to become accustomed to constraints, and furthermore I’m glad I switched over to constraints while I had the flexibility to. At this point if you’re still using surface joints, you’re WAYYY overdue for some well needed modifications to your building method.
@Hexcede @hellhawk @Dapale @tukars
Another alternative for now would be to set some part surface to something other than Smooth, and the Surface property section will reappear.
Also note that the Move tool will already give you half the information (the 3 colors are for X, Y, and Z) Expanding on the information communicated via the Move tool is how this will be solved long term.
Yes. You need to use MakeJoints. See the FAQ.
We’ve thought about this, and I think for now the answer is no. One key UX difference is that WeldConstraints will never automatically be removed or added, they only exist when you explicitly have them do so. While a Weld will be removed whenever the parts that it connects are separated.
Keeping this difference between these two instances seems good. (as opposed to both being WeldConstraints, and you end up with WeldConstraints that sometimes go away when parts are separated, and sometimes don’t.)
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What plugin did you have in mind? I would love to use it, as I’m in the same boat.
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Is there a video tutorial on how to use this? I would like to make a hinge door in my game, and I know almost nothing about surface stuff like hinges or whatever else there is lol.
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