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Author Topic: Point editing features  (Read 11097 times)

5L1D3R

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Point editing features
« on: March 13, 2008, 05:20:57 pm »

First I want to say that I think Mr. Glanville has done an excellent job creating such a powerful, free, stand alone modeling tool.
Since it is free, I tend to think of asking for features as looking a gift horse in the mouth. Think of these more as suggestions for turning the gift horse into a race horse.  ;D

1. Target weld for vertices - that way, you wouldn't have to reposition multiple points, and then merge them, and you wouldn't have to worry about repositioning the resulting vertex.

2. Elements only editable for the selected mesh subdivision or spline.  ...If you want to use another mesh as a reference, you could select the mesh to edit and modify it's elements, without accidently modifying elements of the reference mesh.

3. Editable viewport background color - sometimes the current color is too dark or the wrong shade to view certain textures well.

4. My last request would have to do with scaling.  I tend to use the scaling tool as a last resort, because of how it scales in reference to the object's axis, instead of scaling in reference to the selection.  For example, after scaling 4 points, I have to move the points back to their original location.  This makes it difficult to scale accurately because I can not scale them in reference to anything, since they move away from any reference points.
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hihosilver

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Re: Point editing features
« Reply #1 on: March 13, 2008, 05:26:10 pm »

5L1D3R:  I have some suggestions for you that help with some of these problems.

First, Target welding, I completely agree with.  It would be a very useful tool at times.

Secondly, there is a way to only work on one object at once in point edit mode.  If you select the objects in object edit mode and press "g" or go "Build>Group", then the objects that are grouped cannot be edited in point-edit mode.  You can group an object by itself as well, so there's no need for multiple objects.  So that's the method you can use to isolate what you will be editing.

Third, I can agree with this, and also think it would be nice to be able to change the colors of the points and/or edges when selected and deselected.  My reasoning for this would be that I have a lot of reference images with white backgrounds or black backgrounds, and I lose complete vision of the points/edges with these backgrounds.

Fourth, you can change the axis that you'll be rotating/scaling things around by using the Object/Axis mode, or simply pressing "shift + o"
From here you can rotate/move the axis as much as you'd like.  It is still a little more work than having it simply resize around a temporary axis that's averaged in on the points, but it's not much trouble and can be very helpful.
« Last Edit: March 13, 2008, 05:28:31 pm by hihosilver »
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Claude

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Re: Point editing features
« Reply #2 on: March 13, 2008, 11:27:51 pm »

For the first point,this should make your life easier.
The script will allow you to snap your points to the point
with the right location and then you merge all of them.
Should minimize moving the points around.

http://www.anim8or.com/smf/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=168.0;attach=125
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5L1D3R

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Re: Point editing features
« Reply #3 on: March 14, 2008, 11:46:09 am »

Thanks Claude.
Though I don't usually like to use scripts or add-ons with Anim8or, because I think it's stand-alone, single-file structure is it's best feature, I'll try this as soon as I can.
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