There's a double/multitap key option for hotkeys in 3dsMax??
Not natively, but I use the Keyhydra plugin which is hotkey insanity.
Will check it out! Any way of getting Maya-style mouse navigation in 3DS to work properly? I know this is a Blender thread but I still haven't switched over hehe
There's a double/multitap key option for hotkeys in 3dsMax??
Not natively, but I use the Keyhydra plugin which is hotkey insanity.
Will check it out! Any way of getting Maya-style mouse navigation in 3DS to work properly? I know this is a Blender thread but I still haven't switched over hehe
In the new 2020 hotkey editor you can switch to Default Maya keymap and go from there. Or there is Customise>Preferences>Interaction mode>Maya.
For me though, 3ds Max is my first 3D program and even though I use Maya nav whenever possible in all other programs, Max nav in Max is hardwired into my brain......forever.
What's the criteria Blender uses to display highlighted edges during object mode? Keeps making me think my model has different topology until I enter Edit Mode.
Also, are there any non-destructive options in blender for chamfering models based on hard edges or some form of mesh normals control?
@Justo I genuinely love your enthusiasm! Good to see people embracing Blender.
About the wireframe thing, could this be what you're looking for? (Apologies for the random mesh lol)
As for beveling you have a few different options in the bevel modifier:
If you select "Angle", then out of the box it's set to 30 degrees which will pretty much only bevel hard edges.
If you select "Weight" then you need to mark the edges in Edit Mode either by pressing Ctrl+E if you use right click selection or I assume using the right click menu when you have an edge selected and then choosing the following menu option:
(Bear in mind this thing works a bit weird, as it is not a toggle, but a float value between 0.0 and 1.0. When you first click it, you have to either pull your mouse to the right to increase the value or type in the value directly. For example if I use this what I do most of the time is click the thing then press 1 and then press LMB or Enter to confirm. If you want to remove it, then navigate to this option again but this time you have to type in -1, then the Weight will be completely removed. (I know, lol))
@ant1fact Thank you! My enthusiasm was born from people like you posting in threads like this, so I should be thanking you really Also to all those amazing plugin creators
I had seen the Bevel modifier, but your reply helped me put things together a lot better now. I think that if I wanted something that behaved like Max's chamfer modifier, or anything in which i have full control of, this Weight option would be the closest thing. Setting everything by an arbitrary angle can sometimes not be enough, and if I manage to find a way to automate this Edge Bevel Weight, the process would be just as fast.
And you were right on the mark about the wireframe haha - I had it set to 0.99!
And you were right on the mark about the wireframe haha - I had it set to 0.99!
MACHIN3tools' Customize tool does that. With it at 1 (default), the 'show_all_edges' object wireframe option is useless, as it's always on.
But I don't want to have it enabled for the handle objects in MESHmachine.
A better way to handle this by the blender devs, would be a per object override value. Or have have a legacy option, which works like in 2.79, not depending on angles.
@justo Blender uses the concept of last selected is active, both in object and edit mode, and this will be reflected by a different colour wireframe or sub-object. For similar to Max shaded wireframe I use Maxivz tools.
Beveling is pretty much as @ant1fact described, with weights being the same as setting them in Max 2020(there is a slider in the N panel is you don't want to set weight as described above)
Hardops is a must have if you do a lot of non-destructive beveling. It's a lightning fast workflow.
Also, Meshmachine is a beast for non-destructive local beveling in edit mode.
I see you've started on the hard-surface challenge thread😁😁
@MACHIN3 So you're guilty for this!...Kidding. Thank you for the input.
@musashidan Yes, meshmachine is on my must-acquire list. AFAIK hardops was mainly a boolean-centered plugin? What cool things does it offer for non-destructive chamfering? In their gumroad I see some bulletpoints referring to this, neat. I will need to read through it later, though I wish they had a short video explaining this so I dont have to dig through their docs or watch 30+min showcases (example, meshmachine's fantastic video documentation). I'm seeing some cool gifs in their docs though.
Well I already made 2 scripts replicating the sharp'n'smooth behaviour of max&maya, which works with objects, edges and faces. They dont work with multiple objects yet though, I need to study bmesh...But I am happy with the tools I've got so far and it's enough to keep practising. I can already see if I master these things it will be a stupidly fast workflow.
@MACHIN3 😁 non-destructive in the sense that it is the only dedicated tool I've seen in any program that can unbevel/chamfer geometry.
And by the looks of your latest demos it will soon be able to operate like Maya Hardmesh, Max Smooth Booleans, and Modo Meshfusion......but with that unique Machin3 black magic...
@Justo Hardops is more than just a boolean toolkit. It's a workflow booster with an excellent modifier system. It takes care of a lot of tedious tasks behind the scenes(like a lot of Blender addons) and has many more tools than just Booleans. Of course it works flawlessly with its sister addon - Boxcutter - but is also built to support and work with Meshmachine and Decalmachine and Kitops.
Adding Bevel(and other) mods through Hops(or Fluent or Speedflow/etc) is a great way to work. Blender's hotkey based modal system is probably my favourite thing about the program. It's 100% modern and artist-friendly and is the way 3D modeling should be. Working in Max day to day(I still use it professionally and Blender for fun) is starting to actually feel a bit dated and clunky to me now, even though I know the program inside out. It's these amazing addons that are currently years ahead of Max/Maya in terms of the modeling concepts and workflows.
The way I've always used Chamfer mod in Max was by setting Smoothing Groups(oh, how I miss them in Blender) and use the 'unsmoothed edges' option in the mod. Blender works by marking edges:
Sharp/unsharp - hard/soft edges
Bevel Weight - Bevel modifier
Creases - sub-D
Seams - UV seams
All these edges can be marked and viewed in the viewport as different colours. Now that I've gotten used to this and using/marking them together it's actually a pretty good workflow. It was a bit weird at first, coming from Max, but I've learned to embrace it rather than fight it.
There is also the Select>sharp edges from the select menu in edit mode, that can get you a lot of the way.
Yeah, I'm using those in some scripts to make things faster. I suppose I'll need to dig into Hard Ops too.
I don't know if this be Blender RC bug or Justo being a doofus and forgetting something obvious.
For some reason, the bottom mesh refuses to chamfer like the above one with the Bevel modifier, even though AFAIK, both meshes followed the same process. Both have edges w/ beveled weights (displayed w/ blue lines on the right models), both have the same settings in their mods...I simply cannot make it behave. Does anyone know if there's any obvious steps I'm missing?
@Udjani I actually did not know about that! I was assuming i'd had to correct those areas manually. Though I knew it had something to do with those areas where beveled-and-non-beveled areas met, to be honest, mitering was a term I could not say specifically what it meant until I checked Maya's documentation just now (Blender's isn't updated on this new feature yet apparently). Learning Blender is updating my knowledge base in more ways than one...Thank you!
So far, my preferred Bevel options to start from a script I'm applying are:
width: 0.1 (might change this to .05) segments: 2 profile: 1 Clamp Overlap: Off Limit Method: Weight Outer Miter: Arc
@justo Not sure if you've tried Max 2020's updated chamfer mod, but mitering is a term that's used, and Radial mitering is the same as Blender's Arc mitering.
Blender's docs will only now begin to update now that 2.80 is officially out of beta.
There's a double/multitap key option for hotkeys in 3dsMax??
Not natively, but I use the Keyhydra plugin which is hotkey insanity.
Will check it out! Any way of getting Maya-style mouse navigation in 3DS to work properly? I know this is a Blender thread but I still haven't switched over hehe
In the new 2020 hotkey editor you can switch to Default Maya keymap and go from there. Or there is Customise>Preferences>Interaction mode>Maya.
For me though, 3ds Max is my first 3D program and even though I use Maya nav whenever possible in all other programs, Max nav in Max is hardwired into my brain......forever.
Thanks for that. Last time I tried the Preference method, the Maya selection was glitchy. It wouldn't allow me to double click more than one loop. I made a thread about it here and other people experienced the same. Because Max is hard coded to use ALT as de-select, it didn't like it when I assigned Alt+left mouse to pivot the camera either lol. Is Max 2020 available for all users now? here is the thread.
Any other options in Blender to change the pivot point in sub-obj selections? For example, in this image, I have three edges selected (yellow arrows), which I would like to scale down with my pivot point at the center of the cylinder (blue arrow). None of the default Pivot Point options let me do this...How can this be achieved?
The one method I can think of is to create a vert in that middle point, snap the 3D Cursor to it, and then use Pivot Point>3D Cursor, though a solution in which I dont have to create extra topology would be welcome..
Hello fellow Blender users, I am quitting Maya because I have enough of its shit. Constant crashes, weird behaviors, tools that not work in constant manner etc. etc. I was a long time lurker but I have been following Blender updates for long time and I was talking to myselt that one day I will make the switch. Today is the day. Maya broke me. Even if it's default software at my workplace(gamedev) I don't want to have anything in common with this software. So, here I am with some questions or basically one main question specific for those who made switch from maya to blender: Is there anywhere, free or paid, maya like pie menus? Or anybody have one that can share it with me. I know that blender have pie menus but I am asking if someone already made those specific maya pie menus. Because I can live with other shortcuts, diffrent navigation etc. But I cannot ditch my pie menus :P This is only thing that I want to take from maya to blender. I have already bought neat addon for custom pie menus but I want to know if somebody already did maya like pie menus. I am searching the web already and anything I found was config on gumroad with just basic pie menu and I want maya like shift+rmb pie menus etc. etc. Thanks in advance and oh boy I am so happy to make this switch from maya
Yeah, that's pretty much what the 3D Cursor is for. There is no need to ever use a parent or proxy object or to edit a pivot for that sort of stuff - as the 3D cursor takes on that role any time you want it to.
And of course you'll get it at the location you want here by "snapping it" (sending it) to selection after selecting that one vertical center edge.
@Justo you can also do that if your pivot point is set to active element, you would have to use constrais to scale only in the Z and X axis, would be pretty easy and fast without that sinful gizmo you know.
The 3D cursor is actually very useful. If you're using left click select it's shift+RMB to drag the 3D cursor around freely. This is great because you can hold Ctrl and snap to the grid or directly into object surfaces and sub-objects, and it doesn't even have to be visible.
I also use active element as a pivot all the time when modeling. Such a wonderful feature.
Hello fellow Blender users, I am quitting Maya because I have enough of its shit. Constant crashes, weird behaviors, tools that not work in constant manner etc. etc. I was a long time lurker but I have been following Blender updates for long time and I was talking to myselt that one day I will make the switch. Today is the day. Maya broke me. Even if it's default software at my workplace(gamedev) I don't want to have anything in common with this software. So, here I am with some questions or basically one main question specific for those who made switch from maya to blender: Is there anywhere, free or paid, maya like pie menus? Or anybody have one that can share it with me. I know that blender have pie menus but I am asking if someone already made those specific maya pie menus. Because I can live with other shortcuts, diffrent navigation etc. But I cannot ditch my pie menus :P This is only thing that I want to take from maya to blender. I have already bought neat addon for custom pie menus but I want to know if somebody already did maya like pie menus. I am searching the web already and anything I found was config on gumroad with just basic pie menu and I want maya like shift+rmb pie menus etc. etc. Thanks in advance and oh boy I am so happy to make this switch from maya
There are already some great pre built pie menus such as Wazou's Pie Menu and MACHIN3Tools, but I'm not sure if they're Maya Like (last time I used Maya was in 2012, so I can't recall).
What would you specifically need for these menus? The Pie Menu Editor (I suppose that's the one you bought) is pretty powerful, making it possible to create nested pie menus, macros, stacked keys, stick keys, custom panels and even hide most of Blender's default panels and add your own, so I think it's doable.
I need to update my pie menus on 2.8. I think the best for people who want to modify blender is pie menu editor. But, people should first learn blender without any addons and then after several months make their own version.
If I am not mistaken, when people mention the Maya pie menus they tend to do so because the Maya Hotbox (that's the name right ?) allows for near gesture-like inputs with a very snappy behavior when pointing at quarters/boxes. Whereas the modern Blender pie menus are imo really painful to use - not in terms of display time, but because they seem to have some massive dead zones and some weird tolerances at least by default.
As far as I am concerned that's why I dislike using them - they are just objectively slower to interact with than old school popup dropdown lists. And that's why I end up putting all my secondary tools (that is to say : used often, but not often enough to justify a hotkey) in a regular popup (not a pie) built in ... Pie Menu Editor. The 2.8 versions of things like the snap menu (shift-S) are way less efficient (harder to read, and slower to interact with) than their pre-2.8 equivalents so I need to rebuild that too. Painful stuff.
What I am getting at is : @Fletcher , as unfortunate as that may sound you might have to let go of the hope to find a near exact equivalent to the "hold key combo and flick the mouse" behavior similar to that of Maya as I don't think that the circular Blender Pie menu system will satisfy you in that regard. Also I'd assume that some of the Maya Hotbox shortcuts (shift RMB ...) might cause straight up conflict with object selection, viewport controls, and so on. That said, a nice compact menu built in PME might be all you need.
Here's an example of a boxy menu built in PME, holding all the non-hotkeyed I need for rough sculpting and viewport shading controls.
It's compact and instantly readable, and faster to browse than any circular Blender pie. But regardless : as mentionned by @wazou , a new user shouldn't concern oneself with any of that for at least a month or so anyways.
What would be your approach to spherizing/bending a flat bolt head guys?
I started with the Lattice but it is resulting in too hacky a solution I think. Use the Curve Modifier? This would imply first creating an Empty>Plain Axis, creating the Curve modifier on my object, making everything connect correctly, then repeat this process for the second axis? Or is there a shorter, simpler way of doing this?
@pior I'm in the very same boat, mate. I just cannot use those pie menus. I haven't looked into PME yet, but definitely will from your image here. I much prefer custom floating dialogues called from hotkeys and this is exactly the way I have Zbrush set up.
I'm really missing Max's quad menus. They are highly customisable old-school menus and are context sensitive and different menus are called by modifier keys+RMB.
I've tried working with Maya's Hotbox too, but while some users swear by it my brain just doesn't work that way.
What I would love to see is an expansion of the 2.80 Quick Favourites menu in the style of Max Quad Menus.
What I would love to see is an expansion of the 2.80 Quick Favourites menu in the style of Max Quad Menus.
I'm not looking the new open GL api implementation, but maybe it's possible to write an addon like a Max Quad menu. I'm not really fan of this way, but that the perfect mix between a pie menu and a simple popup.
Yeah - the issue with the Quick Favorites is that as far as I am aware there is no easy access to the commands being stored (or they seems to be buried somewhere deep), making it impossible to edit (and clean up). Whereas PME settings are directly accessible and editable from the Addon Preferences tab, really neat stuff.
That said PME for 2.8 still needs some fine tuning (I think) as it doesn't seem to fully capture commands/properties for things stored within the new overlays (like the viewport settings here). Or rather : it does, but then the resulting python needs a bit of cleanup for it to operate on the correct context. Not hard to do of course, but certainly less error-proof than what I remember pre 2.8.
For instance the Show Cavity toggle property gets captured as : bpy.data.screens["Layout"].shading.show_cavity
Whereas the actual functional code to call it from PME is : C.space_data.shading.show_cavity
Pie Menu Editor is indeed context sensitive by the way, at least based on the usual contextual spaces (3D View, UV editor, various Edit modes). And while it doesn't support a quad-based layout, it does support multiple columns and nested submenus.
That said PME for 2.8 still needs some fine tuning (I think) as it doesn't seem to fully capture commands/properties for things stored within the new overlays (like the viewport settings here). Or rather : it does, but then the resulting python needs a bit of cleanup for it to operate on the correct context. Not hard to do of course, but certainly less error-proof than what I remember pre 2.8.
Thanks for the info. Will certainly look into this as an option. Seems to be the most suitable for my needs.
That said PME for 2.8 still needs some fine tuning (I think) as it doesn't seem to fully capture commands/properties for things stored within the new overlays (like the viewport settings here). Or rather : it does, but then the resulting python needs a bit of cleanup for it to operate on the correct context. Not hard to do of course, but certainly less error-proof than what I remember pre 2.8.
For instance the Show Cavity toggle property gets captured as : bpy.data.screens["Layout"].shading.show_cavity
Whereas the actual functional code to call it from PME is : C.space_data.shading.show_cavity
That's definitely an issue also with the 2.7x versions I have used to set up my own pie menus.
Sometimes it took a bit of googling through the reference or try & error - and in a few cases I had to ask the PME author to get to the right command.
That headline of the Epic funding paints a very very exciting future for Blender! And the fact that it comes from a videogame-focused party gives me hope the devs will look into developing features for this industry in particular, fortunately.
@musashidana lattice with 2 stacked Simple Deform mods set to bend and perpendicular? Could you elaborate? I am finding it hard to picture in which exact order this should be created to do it the way you're speaking of...
@Prime8 Well, if you have any suggestions to model this already curved I'm all ears (eyes) I just went through the Proportional Edit options in Blender...they seem really powerful and easy to grasp so far, I think I could do this with this tool! One thing though: at the bottom, where it usually displays mappings help reference, I see that there is an "MsPan: Adjust Proportional Influence". I know that with PageUp/PageDown/MMBWheel I can increase/decrease the radius (as the left and middle instructions seem to point out), but what is this third reference speaking of? What's the MsPan key?
@TangDao Nice, I didn't know about that modifier! Am I correct to assume the ShrinkWrap modifier can only wrap flat things around other objects? Z height for example will always be destroyed? The modifier has tons of option combinations, specially if the mode is set to Project, though I do not know if any of them can preserve the Z height. That doesn't prevent me from using it for this case though obviously, but I'm asking so as to know for future situations in which this could be the case.
. @Prime8 Well, if you have any suggestions to model this already curved I'm all ears (eyes) I just went through the Proportional Edit options in Blender...they seem really powerful and easy to grasp so far, I think I could do this with this tool! One thing though: at the bottom, where it usually displays mappings help reference, I see that there is an "MsPan: Adjust Proportional Influence". I know that with PageUp/PageDown/MMBWheel I can increase/decrease the radius (as the left and middle instructions seem to point out), but what is this third reference speaking of? What's the MsPan key?
...
@Justo I don't know about the MsPan, It's not showing up in 2.79. You can start with a section of a sphere for the screw. For symmetrical stuff like this I would use mirror and array modifier and just model that small section.
@TangDao Nice, I didn't know about that modifier! Am I correct to assume the ShrinkWrap modifier can only wrap flat things around other objects? Z height for example will always be destroyed? The modifier has tons of option combinations, specially if the mode is set to Project, though I do not know if any of them can preserve the Z height. That doesn't prevent me from using it for this case though obviously, but I'm asking so as to know for future situations in which this could be the case.
Shrinkwrap is usually used to aid in retopology. I guess you could deal with your case by adding a vertex group to the modifier and removing the one you don't need to snap to the surface from it, or even creating a second modifier to have more control (through surface offset).
Go to edit mode, select the vertices you need modified and go Ctrl+H > Hook to New Object. The modifier will be created, and you can play with the falloff type and radius in the modifiers tab.
Talking about Retopology, there's a great new addon that looks like Poly Build on steroids! It even adds an much needed new way of adding edge loops (without needing to snap to the center then move):
@RaphaelBarros Tried Polyquilt yesterday thinking my dream of a Max Swiftloop tool had come to Blender, but it just kept crashing. Also, the click+hold concept is not a good workflow imo.
Not sure, looks kinda clunky to me. I prefer RetopoFlow for this kind of stuff
I prefer it as well, but this one is a good free alternative. Couple that with Retopo MT (if it ever gets ported to 2.8) and you'd have a pretty good retopo workflow for free.
@RaphaelBarros Tried Polyquilt yesterday thinking my dream of a Max Swiftloop tool had come to Blender, but it just kept crashing. Also, the click+hold concept is not a good workflow imo.
I wonder how easy it'd be to edit the code and make just the loop cut as an active tool or shortcut driven instead of click and hold. I do agree this type of interaction is clunky.
Replies
What's the criteria Blender uses to display highlighted edges during object mode? Keeps making me think my model has different topology until I enter Edit Mode.
Also, are there any non-destructive options in blender for chamfering models based on hard edges or some form of mesh normals control?
I had seen the Bevel modifier, but your reply helped me put things together a lot better now. I think that if I wanted something that behaved like Max's chamfer modifier, or anything in which i have full control of, this Weight option would be the closest thing. Setting everything by an arbitrary angle can sometimes not be enough, and if I manage to find a way to automate this Edge Bevel Weight, the process would be just as fast.
And you were right on the mark about the wireframe haha - I had it set to 0.99!
Beveling is pretty much as @ant1fact described, with weights being the same as setting them in Max 2020(there is a slider in the N panel is you don't want to set weight as described above)
Hardops is a must have if you do a lot of non-destructive beveling. It's a lightning fast workflow.
Also, Meshmachine is a beast for non-destructive local beveling in edit mode.
I see you've started on the hard-surface challenge thread😁😁
@musashidan Yes, meshmachine is on my must-acquire list. AFAIK hardops was mainly a boolean-centered plugin? What cool things does it offer for non-destructive chamfering? In their gumroad I see some bulletpoints referring to this, neat. I will need to read through it later, though I wish they had a short video explaining this so I dont have to dig through their docs or watch 30+min showcases (example, meshmachine's fantastic video documentation). I'm seeing some cool gifs in their docs though.
Well I already made 2 scripts replicating the sharp'n'smooth behaviour of max&maya, which works with objects, edges and faces. They dont work with multiple objects yet though, I need to study bmesh...But I am happy with the tools I've got so far and it's enough to keep practising. I can already see if I master these things it will be a stupidly fast workflow.
And by the looks of your latest demos it will soon be able to operate like Maya Hardmesh, Max Smooth Booleans, and Modo Meshfusion......but with that unique Machin3 black magic...
I don't know if this be Blender RC bug or Justo being a doofus and forgetting something obvious.
For some reason, the bottom mesh refuses to chamfer like the above one with the Bevel modifier, even though AFAIK, both meshes followed the same process. Both have edges w/ beveled weights (displayed w/ blue lines on the right models), both have the same settings in their mods...I simply cannot make it behave. Does anyone know if there's any obvious steps I'm missing?
So far, my preferred Bevel options to start from a script I'm applying are:
width: 0.1 (might change this to .05)
segments: 2
profile: 1
Clamp Overlap: Off
Limit Method: Weight
Outer Miter: Arc
And the rest is as default.
https://polycount.com/discussion/201152/cant-double-click-more-than-one-loop-in-3ds#latest
The one method I can think of is to create a vert in that middle point, snap the 3D Cursor to it, and then use Pivot Point>3D Cursor, though a solution in which I dont have to create extra topology would be welcome..
I am quitting Maya because I have enough of its shit. Constant crashes, weird behaviors, tools that not work in constant manner etc. etc. I was a long time lurker but I have been following Blender updates for long time and I was talking to myselt that one day I will make the switch. Today is the day. Maya broke me. Even if it's default software at my workplace(gamedev) I don't want to have anything in common with this software. So, here I am with some questions or basically one main question specific for those who made switch from maya to blender:
Is there anywhere, free or paid, maya like pie menus? Or anybody have one that can share it with me.
I know that blender have pie menus but I am asking if someone already made those specific maya pie menus. Because I can live with other shortcuts, diffrent navigation etc. But I cannot ditch my pie menus :P This is only thing that I want to take from maya to blender. I have already bought neat addon for custom pie menus but I want to know if somebody already did maya like pie menus. I am searching the web already and anything I found was config on gumroad with just basic pie menu and I want maya like shift+rmb pie menus etc. etc.
Thanks in advance and oh boy I am so happy to make this switch from maya
Yeah, that's pretty much what the 3D Cursor is for. There is no need to ever use a parent or proxy object or to edit a pivot for that sort of stuff - as the 3D cursor takes on that role any time you want it to.
And of course you'll get it at the location you want here by "snapping it" (sending it) to selection after selecting that one vertical center edge.
Also here you have basic pivot manipulation. It should work fine in your case https://www.artstation.com/artwork/0X58Y8
Credits to Maxi Vazquez
@Udjani That's a great way of doing things too! It's nice to see other ways of achieving this without using the 3D cursor at all!
I also use active element as a pivot all the time when modeling. Such a wonderful feature.
What would you specifically need for these menus? The Pie Menu Editor (I suppose that's the one you bought) is pretty powerful, making it possible to create nested pie menus, macros, stacked keys, stick keys, custom panels and even hide most of Blender's default panels and add your own, so I think it's doable.
I think the best for people who want to modify blender is pie menu editor.
But, people should first learn blender without any addons and then after several months make their own version.
As far as I am concerned that's why I dislike using them - they are just objectively slower to interact with than old school popup dropdown lists. And that's why I end up putting all my secondary tools (that is to say : used often, but not often enough to justify a hotkey) in a regular popup (not a pie) built in ... Pie Menu Editor. The 2.8 versions of things like the snap menu (shift-S) are way less efficient (harder to read, and slower to interact with) than their pre-2.8 equivalents so I need to rebuild that too. Painful stuff.
What I am getting at is : @Fletcher , as unfortunate as that may sound you might have to let go of the hope to find a near exact equivalent to the "hold key combo and flick the mouse" behavior similar to that of Maya as I don't think that the circular Blender Pie menu system will satisfy you in that regard. Also I'd assume that some of the Maya Hotbox shortcuts (shift RMB ...) might cause straight up conflict with object selection, viewport controls, and so on. That said, a nice compact menu built in PME might be all you need.
Here's an example of a boxy menu built in PME, holding all the non-hotkeyed I need for rough sculpting and viewport shading controls.
It's compact and instantly readable, and faster to browse than any circular Blender pie. But regardless : as mentionned by @wazou , a new user shouldn't concern oneself with any of that for at least a month or so anyways.
I started with the Lattice but it is resulting in too hacky a solution I think. Use the Curve Modifier? This would imply first creating an Empty>Plain Axis, creating the Curve modifier on my object, making everything connect correctly, then repeat this process for the second axis? Or is there a shorter, simpler way of doing this?
For an destructive approaches, try proportional editing and "to sphere".
That said PME for 2.8 still needs some fine tuning (I think) as it doesn't seem to fully capture commands/properties for things stored within the new overlays (like the viewport settings here). Or rather : it does, but then the resulting python needs a bit of cleanup for it to operate on the correct context. Not hard to do of course, but certainly less error-proof than what I remember pre 2.8.
For instance the Show Cavity toggle property gets captured as :
bpy.data.screens["Layout"].shading.show_cavity
Whereas the actual functional code to call it from PME is :
C.space_data.shading.show_cavity
Pie Menu Editor is indeed context sensitive by the way, at least based on the usual contextual spaces (3D View, UV editor, various Edit modes). And while it doesn't support a quad-based layout, it does support multiple columns and nested submenus.
https://www.blender.org/press/epic-games-supports-blender-foundation-with-1-2-million-epic-megagrant/
Holy smokes!
@musashidana lattice with 2 stacked Simple Deform mods set to bend and perpendicular? Could you elaborate? I am finding it hard to picture in which exact order this should be created to do it the way you're speaking of...
@Prime8 Well, if you have any suggestions to model this already curved I'm all ears (eyes)
@TangDao Nice, I didn't know about that modifier! Am I correct to assume the ShrinkWrap modifier can only wrap flat things around other objects? Z height for example will always be destroyed? The modifier has tons of option combinations, specially if the mode is set to Project, though I do not know if any of them can preserve the Z height. That doesn't prevent me from using it for this case though obviously, but I'm asking so as to know for future situations in which this could be the case.
I don't know about the MsPan, It's not showing up in 2.79.
You can start with a section of a sphere for the screw. For symmetrical stuff like this I would use mirror and array modifier and just model that small section.
Talking about Retopology, there's a great new addon that looks like Poly Build on steroids! It even adds an much needed new way of adding edge loops (without needing to snap to the center then move):