Basically it only cuts the edges/faces of faces shared by the starting point/edge, with no chance whatsoever of unintentionally cutting what you don't intend to cut (such as stuff underneath).I see. But what about the existing slice-the-hell-through functionality for situations when you do need it?
Topo knife would be very useful.yes!! very useful!! i like it!!
Topo knife would be very useful.yes!! very useful!! i like it!!
Basically it only cuts the edges/faces of faces shared by the starting point/edge, with no chance whatsoever of unintentionally cutting what you don't intend to cut (such as stuff underneath).I see. But what about the existing slice-the-hell-through functionality for situations when you do need it?
Off topic: I couldn't find a "topo"-labeled tool in Mod Tool, but what you showed in the video looks like Add Edge.
So the tool is as good as a done deal then — very nice =)I don't know when I'll have it ready.
I have a suggestion for changing the mouse actions. How about:May I suggest making Shift+MMB collapse the component (as in build 1210) instead of deleting it? You can easily delete by selecting the component(s) while holding down Ctrl+Shift and then pressing Delete. But there's no such quick route for collapsing. (Unless of course Steve adds a Collapse command and a hotkey for it.)
- LMB: Same knife action
- Shift+LMB: Toggle the Add Edge tool (with autofill when closing a face). If it's a click-drag in open space rather than on a point, it creates a new edge in space with the starting point located where you began the click-drag (if you drag the endpoint to a pre-existing point instead of releasing it in open space, it automatically connects to the mesh associated with that point--otherwise it starts a new mesh). There's also the idea that you can automatically merge two meshes when connecting a point of each mesh.
- MMB: Same Dissolve Action. This makes it feel similar to the middle mouse deselect since it's subtractive.
- Shift+MMB: Deletes the highlighted component.
- RMB: Move Action
- Shift+RMB: Move along normal action
Using the MMB can be problematic. Most mice use a wheel as the MMB and it's easy to accidentally rotate it when you're clicking. I'd like to avoid it if possible.Then how about this layout?
I'm not so sure that points with just 2 edges remaining should be merged.There's always Merge Faces in case you want to keep such points.
Using the MMB can be problematic. Most mice use a wheel as the MMB and it's easy to accidentally rotate it when you're clicking. I'd like to avoid it if possible.[/li][/list]
I'm not so sure that points with just 2 edges remaining should be merged.There's always Merge Faces in case you want to keep such points.
I also agree that MMb should either be minimised OR at least have an alternative.Would be nice to have an alternative key to act as mmb for laptops that don't have a mmb. As Trev has highlighted.
I do have a MMB and wheel, but having been recently using An8 on someone elses laptop I found soo much functionality missing without MMb... Big one was unable to deselect things...
Trev
Would be nice to have an alternative key to act as mmb for laptops that don't have a mmb.The least-surprise approach would be to emulate MMB with both LMB and RMB clicked/held together, the way X Window does it in Unix-like systems.
A third would be Ctrl+Shift as pressing both together is easy.Ctrl+Shift is reserved for temporary Select.
Unfortunately that doesn't help when using the uv tool as you need both mmb and rmb for scaling the uv image etc.
Hopefully that will be sorted out eventually its always been a nightmare to use, no fine adjustment etc, its a bit haphazard eh?!
It's simple, sure, to afterwards click on the point and dissolve it. But then multiply that by dozens of times per model vs one or two times needing the other scenario and you have the greater of two evils.In addition, after you've dissolved an edge, and a point with valency 2 has been left behind, it can become hidden by a face if you're working in shaded mode. You have to jump around for a new angle or switch viewport modes just to clean up. I also feel strongly that the cleanup should be automatic for this particular tool.
IF Vertex connected to 2 other Verticies THEN
IF Vertex is co-planner to Connected_Verticies THEN
Remove Vertex
ELSE do nothing
I still dont get how an8 will know how to connect faces like you showIf you want to understand the workings, try it in Blender (press Delete, use the Dissolve Edges command with the Dissolve Verts option) or Wings (RMB on the Dissolve command in the context menu).
There aren't many cases where one would want to keep those floating points, and merging faces or (assuming it's implemented) using standalone dissolve will allow the user to keep them.or there's always the standard knife tool to put them back again if the user really wanted them
You can also put them back while still using the topo knife. The normal LMB adds points within existing lines and Ctrl-LMB connects to arbitrary points/edges and adds new points in mid-air.There aren't many cases where one would want to keep those floating points, and merging faces or (assuming it's implemented) using standalone dissolve will allow the user to keep them.or there's always the standard knife tool to put them back again if the user really wanted them
I have to admit that if I'd known how difficult it was going to be to add, I probably wouldn't have done it.Break a mirror, get seven years of bad luck =)
Symmetrical Editing: I know you put a lot of effort in the mirror functionality, and I don't want to be a buzzkill, but it feels inherently flawed. There are a lot of limitations with its use, such as if you want unique UVs, and then you need to make some tweaks to the geometry, you're kind of screwed because converting it to mirrored will kill the unique UVs. Mirrored editing is completely restricted to right-side editing and only on the X-axis. You haven't resolved the morph targets issue either. What I suggest is to instead implement symmetrical editing. Here's the low-down:
- You can have X-,Y-, or Z-axis symmetrical editing (toggle-able, perhaps enabled by middle-clicking on one of the axis buttons, and having each axis option in Options->Symmetry).
- Symmetrical editing is different in that it doesn't automatically change a mesh in any way or have the mesh in an "active mirrored" state. It only affects actions, and does not affect selections. Meaning if you select something on one side, it won't select anything on the other side. However, as soon as you move an element, it mirrors that movement. Highlighting will be mirrored, however, to indicate that an element is going to be edited symmetrically.
- The logic is simple. If there is an element of the same type located on the other side, within a few units' tolerance, it performs the same action, just inverted, as the element that's currently being edited. If there is no element on the other side, no biggie. Determining if it's the same type can probably be done by checking if the point structure is the same.
- Elements on the plane of symmetry (give or take one or two units) can only be moved along that plane. If the same element is selected on both sides and moved, it can only be moved along the plane and not side-to-side.
- You can edit on either side, and the other side will have the actions mirrored. It's not restricted to just one side of the axis.
- Other edits, like cuts, will be mirrored automatically if the elements being cut are identical on the other side.
- For point-editing, the plane of symmetry should automatically be based on the center of geometry, not the world coordinates. There could be a toggle-able option to force symmetry along the world coordinates in all cases. Options->Symmetry->Menu items would be a nice location.
- This doesn't have to only apply to P/E/F. Whole shapes can be moved symmetrically (in this case, the plane of symmetry would be the world coordinates). A symmetrical shape can be determined as such if its bounding box size and location is the same (give or take a tolerance of a few units), it's the same type of shape (mesh vs spline vs parametric vs etc) and it has the same number of points.
- The automatic mirrored replacement and wielding of mesh shapes is useful. I think it would be great if the Mirror Parameters dialog for Build->Mirror Image... had an option to do this.
- The benefits to this is obvious. No issues with morphs, or having to deal with special considerations for mirrored objects in the other editors. It retains unique geometry, no fear on the user's end of losing stuff. No extra stuff in the an8 file. This type of editing can be extended to the figure and sequence editors very naturally without any additional learning curve for the user.
Something I said a while ago...This is a good writeup. I'd only like to point out that Metasequoia manages the things you describe well enough: it has both the toggle-able symmetrical editing functionality and an option to constrain vertices to the plane no matter what.
... I've also found some case where the clean-up goes a little to far when it's at the edge of a mesh. I'm fixing those, too.This is fixed for the next build.