Moose's Modo Mission

Mr.Moose

I am currently trying to tackle Modo, And figured I'd have a lot of questions and would like to try and keep it all in one place to make it easy.

SO First question,

I'd like to get "bolts" *Spheres embedded in the mesh* around the cannon. Would there be a function that lets me easily create or replicate the mesh into all these positions? Or should I just copy and paste it over and over?
I was thinking the Clone Curve.. Read the inline help..I think I am missing something. Will take a look at it in the morning, but leaving this here for tonight! Thanks in advance if anyone knows~

Bek

Radial Array (Duplicate tab).

Easiest way would be if you selected the loop around which you want to duplicate items, and align the workplane to that selection (workplane dropdown menu).

EarthQuake

Yep, what bek said^

Mr.Moose

Awesome! Worked perfectly!
Is there no preview button for most of these functions/modifiers? Applying and then ctrl+z is a lot more tedious to preview than just sliding it around and seeing the results in real time. (Though the tools are wicked cool :P)

Mr.Moose

I was remodeling the entire thing in modo to get familiar, and uh. Well..
Next question! Is there a "Make Symmetrical" button, this part is symmetrical but the other side is missing this piece. (Blender has this function, but I can't find it in modo) All I find online is that modo has symmetry, and you need to make sure things are perfectly symmetrical before activating, So hrms..

Or would it be best to upright it, delete half, mirror it and rotate it into position again




Working on figuring out what modo does do and doesn't, Adding new tools to my workflow and taking away a lot of my old ones

EarthQuake

Generally you want to work with symmetry active in modo, but you can do symmetry after the fact by deleting half the mesh and mirroring it over.

repete

You can try the pushing points tool kit (by William Vaughan) when you lose symmetry

http://pushingpoints.com/v2/pushing-points-toolkit-for-modo/

Very handy tool kit :poly121:

dzibarik

yeah, Pushing Points is the furthest you can get to Max's awesome symmetry modifier in Modo. And yes, you'll have to ctrl-z a lot.

Mr.Moose

I think I'll wait until I get a handle on normal modo before I add add-ons :P That I don't even know how to setup for modo lol

igi

there's no way I can use modo without scripts, and I think many people finds it that way. Using scripts are highly encouraged. There's many incredibly handy scripts.

you can start here
http://community.thefoundry.co.uk/discussion/topic.aspx?f=37&t=52061

some of scripts are coming with easy drag'n'drop style installer. For example a must use script for all game artists:

http://community.thefoundry.co.uk/discussion/topic.aspx?f=83&t=77919

yeah, take your time and take a grip at the existing tools, then scripts.

[Deleted User]

If you are interested into diving a little deeper into Modo scripting and C++, join Skype [URL="skype:?chat&blob=Sn-wYJmsDCavlKbuKqyyPELT2CtBMWycNz3dAvjL8BbEDmDhg_BR04ul33wY4L97IDrKmiKMAF9OnwrhYCuWhB2t4Rwvdf59VU0T2CdlB2zTGeOpjKb0pI3t8HY9uMageTj8E-i88w4Bwq-vjxdrK99rlbhMgjWMgWIjGoJcHv481P5q2qoWpoAj-9XpufkUAK_Ozw"]Modo Developers Channel[/URL]. You need to have Skype installed to open this link.

Also worth to bookmark are three Github Gists, made by:
- Matt Cox
- Lukasz Pazera
- James O'Hare - known also under alias "Farfarer"

You can get really nice code examples to study on each of those links.

Mr.Moose

Thanks for all the stuff guys!
@igi Woah.. Some of these scripts sound crazy. I've got it bookmarked for the moment I get comfortable with modo. My muscle memory still wants to fight me with navigation

@mantragora I start my computer science courses this coming semester, So I will be considering writing up my own code~ Thank you for that info.

Bek

Mr.Moose wrote: »

Awesome! Worked perfectly!
Is there no preview button for most of these functions/modifiers? Applying and then ctrl+z is a lot more tedious to preview than just sliding it around and seeing the results in real time. (Though the tools are wicked cool :P)

Well radial array should be in real time once you click to activate the tool. So you'll have the mesh you want to duplicate active, select the Radial Array tool, and click in the viewport to make it active. Then as you increase/decrease the number of duplicates you should see it update in the viewport. I'm guessing you didn't activate the tool first and were just typing numbers into the input fields and hitting apply?

igi

yes, this seems a beginner mistake. A selected tool in modo needs one click in order to be activated. And press Shift+LMB to reapply the tool without dropping.

Also if you want a particular tool to automatically activate without clicking, go to the pipeline tab under Lists, first select the respective tool and right click on the name of the tool and select 'auto-activate'. There are some other options too, for example 'select trough' gives you ability to select polys without dropping the tool, might come in handy in some cases.

Mr.Moose

Ah, Right! I was using Shift+LMB for other things,Not sure why I didn't make the realization. (Kinda used to the similar tools in blender which were applied completely different :P)

Farfarer

Select through is toggleable via ; key I think.

Also works as a hot-key so you can hold it down and it'll enable, select stuff, then let go and it'll disable.

MDiamond

This video show some nice tricks with the workplane, might be useful to expose a few possibilities.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kL2ih7mFvQU

Mr.Moose

Really helpful video! Thanks
Getting more and more familiar with modeling!

While theres right click and draw selection (Along with all the loop select tools. L , up arrow and shift up for expand ) is there any box selects or anything im missing?
ETA: Just wondering, I can't find any additional things in the in-line help

dzibarik

Mr.Moose wrote: »

While theres right click and draw selection (Along with all the loop select tools. L , up arrow and shift up for expand ) is there any box selects or anything im missing?

right click everywhere - lasso style

I've mapped it to a pie menu.

Mr.Moose

So it is only the right click for larger selections? No paint or box selections?

Found it.
RIght click> lasso style

Mr.Moose

Problem... And my google fu is not solving it

I select a ring of edges and use extrude, and drag down..However..they don't extrude nor drag down?
Wut?

ETA: Found it as well, Can't extrude an edge but can extend it..
Okay then.

Bek

Also, MMB lasso selects through geometry.