[Continuing] Random Modo Questions

warinmysky

Hello All, Apologies if this has already been posted somewhere, I just haven't seen any real place to ask Modo specific questions other than the Modo 601 Post awhile back.

I'm a new convert to Modo from Maya and absolutely loving it so far. I am a noob at it though and do have tons of questions. I'm hoping to just use this one thread to dump my random problems, in the hopes that some of you ballers here on polycount can help a modo noob with.

First immediate question comes with it's native Loop Slice tool. Coming from Maya, it was super easy to 'Insert Edge Loop' to add holding edges etc. I'm trying to simply do the same here, and am having a bit of difficulty. As it is now, I have faces of one side selected and simply want to add a holding edge to the side. However, when I use the Loop Slice tool it gives me some weird problem areas and I can't seem to figure out why [pic attached]. Could this be to weird tool settings?

Any workflow tips are much appreciated! (No I haven't installed a ton of scripts, Since I'm new I was hoping to learn the native app before going in and using scripts etc.) Thanks!

igi

Go to edge tab,theres a tool called add edges.This tool inserts loops directly on your mesh and theres some handy options like 'both sides' and 'preserve curves'.Play with them.

You have to be careful when choosing poly loops,ngons sometimes confuses the loop slice tool.And picking order is also matters.Choose a poly loop then add loop slice and then choose another one and then add loop slice again etc.I see wonky poly selection.

warinmysky

Hey igi, Thanks for the reply! Add Loop worked just perfect. I had always left it to split at the middle so for whatever reason never considered it. What then, is the difference of Loop Slice and Add Loop?

igi

Loop slice have always been there since early versions and then add loops tool included in newer versions.Simply it does exactly same job of loop slice but faster.You can easily add new loops on your model by shift click.Theres many options on the left-bottom.Play with them,you'll find some nice options.You don't always set it to split at middle.
Oh,loop slice tool allows you to set the numbers of cuts on your model,add loop only adds single loop(and double when both sides option is on).

Bek

I use the loop slice tool quite a bit for adding loops. I like to be able to select something, then quickly apply a loop at each edge, say loop 1 at 10%, loop 2 at 90% positions. Quick and easy.

What is happening in your first post is because you have "Slice Selected" ticked in the loop slice tool. If you until that, it should slice perfectly without adding all those weird edges. Slice tool's Preserve Curvature option can be handy sometimes too.

warinmysky

Thank you @igi and @Bek Both of your tips have been awesome thus far and I'm working much more quickly already!

Bek

No problem. Also if you haven't found it yet, there should be a keyboard shortcut reference in the help folder. On 501 mine is in help/pages/modointerface/

Random tips:

I'll use Control + 1 / 2 / 3 often, control + space to change viewport from perspective to side / front etc (Which makes the quad viewport useless imo), Alt Middle mouse button to rotate viewport.. middle mouse button selects through faces. Shift + A to zoom to selection (Frame object if nothing is selected). Alt + Shift to pan. I've also bound Control + L to an extra mouse button, which makes connecting vertices a lot easier. Also test the difference between using delete and backspace (del deletes, backspace removes). That's just some random stuff I can think of at the moment. Another trick I use is using tab or shift tab to check for errors. If there's a edge or vertex that's doubled up, it's usually easy to spot problem areas in subD mode. Also finding nGons is easy with the Lists > Statistics tab (Right hand side) Expand Polygons > By Vertex. Now you can select any polygon with >4 vertices.

warinmysky

@Bek Lists>Statistics for nGons = freaking epic. Thanks! I've finally figured out how to set my own hotkeys (noob I know) but I stumbled on the hidden command line thing by accident and found I could map my keys. Do you know if there is a way to map hotkeys to the Basic, Deform, Duplicate, Etc Tabs ?

Bek

If you go System > Form Editor:
Click Find Form (Then click the F on the side to enable search)
"Basic"
it brings up a list, right click on the one in Tool Bars > modo Tools > Basic, and there should be an option Assign to Key.

warinmysky

Does anybody know of a way to permanently disable backface culling in modo? It gets a bit annoying to have to go into the materials everytime and click Double Sided on the Surface Normal