. @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.
@Justo Shrink wrap projects to the surface of the target so if I have a sub-dived cube and use a sphere as a target I'll get a quad sphere.If I have detail I want to preserve and combine it with the target mesh,in my example in the bottom row I just duplicated the detail and joined it to the target,shrinkwrap will try to match it.
In a case like the spike example limiting shrinkwrap to vertex groups like Raphael posted would be the easiest way.
@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...
>Create a lattice and align it to your screw head mesh
>Adjust the segments in the Lattice Object Data tab
>Add a Lattice mod to your mesh and pick the Lattice object
>Add a Simple Deform mod set to bend to the Lattice and rotate in a suitable axis and increase the bend degrees
>Add another Simple Deform mod to the stack and chose the perpendicular axis and bend by the same amount as the 1st mod
- this last step is the same as stacking to Bend mods in Max and rotating the gizmo. The difference is that in Blender we're applying the bend to the Lattice and passing the effect to the mesh, rather than working directly on the mesh(you can apply directly to the mesh, but you still need 2 empties and I just find this way with the Lattice a bit less hassle)
Note - the workflow for this in Blender is pretty shit compared to Max
@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.
Yes, that would be great. It's working better for me today, but the click-hold even at the shortest time allowable is terrible, and then you have to deal with accidentally executing a different action if you drag too fast. Just this Swiftloop-like tool alone as an addon would be fantastic to have in Blender.
@RaphaelBarros Thanks for the tip, I didn't know the Hook modifier could be used in this way. Am I right to say the Hook modifier would be literally the same as editing the mesh with Proportional Edit toggled on, only that using this modifier keeps things non-destructible? There doesn't seem to be anything the Hook modifier can do that Proportiona Edit cannot, right?
@musashidan Yeah, seems a bit complicated. Thanks anyway for showing this method
@TangDao I see...I just looked into vertex groups, they seem useful. Specially for rigging. Thanks!
@RaphaelBarros Thanks for the tip, I didn't know the Hook modifier could be used in this way. Am I right to say the Hook modifier would be literally the same as editing the mesh with Proportional Edit toggled on, only that using this modifier keeps things non-destructible? There doesn't seem to be anything the Hook modifier can do that Proportiona Edit cannot, right?
Alright, slowly getting the hang of it...I'm still super slow, but I'm not stressing over it. I'm using the modal keys for XYZ constraints during the move too - it's slow atm but it is definitely worth getting used to...
Some doubts that came up:
1-Not possible to toggle face centers off during XRay mode? 2-Any easy quick action I can assign to a shortcut that will let me delete edges while keeping the vertices they were connected to? 3-Is this behaviour of face selections normal? I toggle XRay on to be able to select backfaces, select half my model, yet some faces are still not selected. I don't know the exact reason for this: I think my drag cursor simply needs to cover "most of" the face to select it? I need to be a lot more precise during selections, like the second selection I make during the gif below, to correctly do it...Is there not a preferences option I can toggle to just select faces no matter how much space I cover with my mouse?
Thank for answers about pie menus in blender - pie menu editor is great! Now I have another issue. In standard blender 2.8 keymap the "set 3d cursor" is bound to shift+rmb. Works perfectly. But when I change global keymap to Industry standard it goes away and there is nothing with shift+rmb assigned. So I copied settings from blender keymap to industry standard, assigned my hotkey - shift+rmb and it works... kind off. In blender standard config when you hold this shortcut the 3d cursor will follow mouse movement. When I copied it to industry standard it set 3d cursor to new position but refuses to follow mouse movement. Do anybody understood my half broken English post and know any possible solution?
EDIT: ok, my friend helped me with this, I had to add this(screenshot):
@Justo I am not sure of what you need for the question 2, but i think that is ''Dissolve Selection'', you can map it to a hotkey and it will let you delete edges and vertices without messing with the topology.
For the last question, te selection hast to go beyond the center of the face, notice that your selection stops before it in some faces, i guess this answers your first question too.
1-Not possible to toggle face centers off during XRay mode?
There is a setting to disable this in viewport overlays, but it doesn't work. As a hack you can got to user prefs>themes>3D view>change face dot size to 1 pixel.
2-Any easy quick action I can assign to a shortcut that will let me delete edges while keeping the vertices they were connected to?
Dissolve is similar to Max's remove edges(I mostly use Maxivz Smart Delete for this with X as the hotkey) A useful trick in Blender(and a different way of solving the problem) is instead to select the faces that the edge is connected to and hit F.
3-Is this behaviour of face selections normal? I toggle XRay on to be able to select backfaces, select half my model, yet some faces are still not selected. I don't know the exact reason for this: I think my drag cursor simply needs to cover "most of" the face to select it? I need to be a lot more precise during selections, like the second selection I make during the gif below, to correctly do it...Is there not a preferences option I can toggle to just select faces no matter how much space I cover with my mouse?
Unfortunately, this isn't like Max in that you can't just touch a face to select it. You have to go across the face dot(or half of the face)
2-Any easy quick action I can assign to a shortcut that will let me delete edges while keeping the vertices they were connected to?
I think the command bpy.ops.mesh.delete(type='EDGE_FACE') works (I suppose that's what you want, sinc eyou can't keep faces and vertices without faces).
About it being slow: sadly Blender 2.8 edit mode is pretty slow compared to 2.79, but I guess that's something they have as a priority to fix.
2. In the X menu (delete) You can select "Only edges / faces" this will delete the edge but keep loose verts. Be sure you are in vert selection mode or else you won't see them.
Thanks guys, you got them all. I'll be rolling too with the 1px face centers too for now, and see how work is affected by this. It's a shame though that Blender hand-holds users into having to go over this center to select the face while in XRay. I think it should trust in the user's ability to be able to make selections knowing that if the drag goes over a face, no matter how much space is being covered, is because the user intends to select it.
It's a different mindset for sure, and I admit I see some benefits to it that the other systems do not offer. Time to practice more modeling now.
Thanks guys, you got them all. I'll be rolling too with the 1px face centers too for now, and see how work is affected by this. It's a shame though that Blender hand-holds users into having to go over this center to select the face while in XRay. I think it should trust in the user's ability to be able to make selections knowing that if the drag goes over a face, no matter how much space is being covered, is because the user intends to select it.
It's a different mindset for sure, and I admit I see some benefits to it that the other systems do not offer. Time to practice more modeling now.
I don't really see a big difference in usage here, if you drag your selection until you cover a part of a face or drag it a bit further to cover its center, is pretty much the same. I often have to select underlying faces and find the selection by center very useful in that case, don't remember how it is handled in other programs.
TBH I don't think the Wireframe mode behavior is fully intentional... Not just the "select the dot" thing, but even the detection algorithm for face proximity is completely broken, as it seems obvious that it should favor front-facing faces, but it doesn't. Of course as mentioned above the dot is handy in order to select some hard to reach faces otherwise requiring to rotate the whole view ... but yeah, there really should be some way to toggle between the two behaviors : a wireframe mode with special dot selection, and another wireframe mode behaving more like other 3d programs.
Probably the kind of stuff not immediately apparent to devs testing things out on simple models, so maybe it's just a matter of bringing it up to them. Although it probably already has been...
@justo so after some further investigation it seems that in Xray mode(show whole scene transparent) that you have to cross the face dot to include the face in the selection. Non-xray behaves like Max(depending on window/crossing mode) in that you just need to touch any part, although turning face dot display off/on in non-xray has no apparent effect. I suspect it's as Pior says, it's a broken feature.
@Justo Check out this video I made at 1:06, it may address your selection problem. Side of active also can work based on different axis, not only the X one to apply a mirror. The Hard Ops addon by masterxeon also has a build-in way to mirror your assets that (IMO) is the fastest one implemented by humankind so far. Lol
For those of you working with Zbrush 2019, I reviewed the new ported GoB (GoZ) addon for Blender 2.8, I must say its simply amazing, and I never want to go back into exporting and importing FBXs between them anymore in my life. The installation process can be more self explanatory but it's definitely worth the setup when you get things going. Here's how powerfull it is:
Hey guys, with the 2.8rc release I wanted to finally seriously try blender too (coming mostly from max, a little bit from Maya/Modo). Playing with it for a week or so I can't complain, I especially love some of the add-ons (though it's becoming a bit of a mess ) BUT! I guess I'm doing something very wrong here, but the scale is incorrect in blender. It says that it now works in meters, but anything modeled in real world scale in other modeling packages imported to blender is 100x bigger - as if the units (when set to meters) are actually centimeters, not meters. I guess I could just import objs at 0.01scale and export at 100 scale, that would make it consistent with other modeling packages (and CLIENTS! ), but it means I can't use stuff like GoZ (GoB?) because then objs are one size, models in blender scene and zbrush - another size and I can't freely mix between them. Are my settings in blender wrong? I searched forums for a little bit but didn't find anything. Surely if it was a real problem, not just me, there would be many threads about it
(EDIT!) Seems like it's just an obj Import problem. FBX works correctly.
@armians when you install GoB you need to first set a file inside the Zapps folder in zbrush that comes with the addon. That file contains all the conversion handling between Zbrush and Blender, including the Axis transform settings and scale.
@LuisCherubini thanks, but I don't see any scale settings, just axis. But anyway, it's not GoB problem, GoB works as expected and everything is fine. The problem is that GoB is using .obj too (well.. at least I'm guessing so), and in my case .objs are broken for some reason. Lets say I create 2 20cm cubes in Max, I export one using fbx, another using obj. I import both of them to Maya and both are the same 20cm cubes. But when import both to Blender - fbx is correct 20cm cube, but the .obj one is now 20m - 100x bigger (I can't find any obj import scale settings in Blender). If no one else is having such problem, I guess I just broke my blender I'll have to install everything from scratch and see what happens x] Anyway, thanks for the thought!
musashidan , thanks a lot for those blender videos! Went through all of them and they helped a lot! ^^
"fbx is correct 20cm cube, but the .obj one is now 20m - 100x bigger"
To be fair, the fact that this sort of stuff works as expected or not in various programs is not so much because of a given importer/exporter being broken or not ; but rather, a matter of said importers/exporters manipulating data which may or may not have a notion of real world units and scale to begin with.
For instance, FBX has flags for units, meaning that a file can hold data like : "this edge is one virtual unit long, and the user stated that a virtual unit should be equal to 5 inches". On import an FBX importer can work with that, applying scaling to the object if needed to match scene settings and so on.
Whereas as far as I understand it OBJ only contains raw, unit-less data ("this edge is a given number of virtual units long"). Meaning that on import it will just be imported without rescaling, accordingly to the virtual units used in the scene.
More practically speaking : considering that GoB/GoZ relies on OBJ (unit-less dimensions), and considering that Zbrush doesn't have any way of dealing with units and scaling properly, your best bet for smooth GoB use it to embrace what Zbrush natively expects for highpoly work. That is to say, dimensions working well with the Zbrush brush engine (if you feel like your object is gigantic or microscopic in Zbrush compared to the brush radius after GoB export, then you might want to feed it with much smaller or much bigger objects)
Sometimes stars align, and the scaling of a scene for a given project just happens to be what Zbrush naturally expects. But if it's not the case, then you might have to use some creative solutions. Just don't let Zbrush dictate anything technical regarding your final ingame model, as that is usually a recipe for serious trouble.
The funny thing is that the 100x difference in Blender, related to Max means that the native scale works perfectly in Zbrush, because ZB is also 100x off with Max.
Bottom line is the GoB scale works perfectly with ZB, and thankfully(for us Max users) Max .obj importer/exporter is the only one that allows you to create presets and change the scale.
@musashidan@pior I completely get what you guys are saying, I understand possible scale issues and all that stuff, that's not what i'm saying though.. Let's ignore GoB, ZBrush and stuff - that's not the point, they work as expected. I know how to correctly work with zbrush and it's scale.
The issue is - Let's say if you're working in Blender and export some models via obj, some models via fbx, some maybe through alembic or whatever else format (who knows what you might need in a big project). Wouldn't you expect all those files to be imported to other programs at the same scale? Even to Marmoset Toolbag or Substance Painter? NO other program that I've worked with in my life had this kind of issue (not Even Zbrush ). That's why I think it's either a bug in blender's obj exporter/importer (somewhere there is a "1" instead of "100" or vice versa), or I somehow managed to brake it with some add-ons or something.
Even if you export obj AND fbx from zbrush - it will be the same scale imported to other programs. The ONLY exception that I've ever seen up until now (and I've worked with a looot of different programs) is Blender, which would make it very annoying in any kind of real project where a lot of artists/programmers are working with different programs.
Anyway, sorry for any disturbance, I'll try some other things and read a bit more on the matter. Thanks! x]
"Wouldn't you expect all those files to be imported to other programs at the same scale?"
I personally wouldn't at all because it all depends on what the data actually says, and what the importers do or don't do with it. Let's say you have a simple plane, with verts placed at -1 -1 0 -1 1 0 1 -1 0 1 1 0 (And all transforms reset for the sake of simplicity)
If this plane was saved as OBJ with an exporter doing exactly what the (admittedly very simple) OBJ format specs dictates, all the vertex position data saved to the OBJ will be the table shown above - no more no less. Hence no extra flag saying "1 unit is supposed to mean one inch", and no flag saying "this should be multiplied by (insert random number here) on import" either.
Whereas (if I am not mistaken) the FBX has a metada flag storing intended units, and very likely an option to specify a scale factor to be applied on import too. Very useful stuff in some cases of course ... but also kind of dangerous when relied on without precaution. For instance, if the Blender scene was set to "one virtual unit = one inch", then the FBX vertex data of the plane above would be the same numbers, but there would likely also be a flag specifying "please multiply the scale by 2.54 (= inches to cm ratio) on import unless specified otherwise". Or something of the kind.
If anything the only thing that the Blender OBJ exporter/importer needs to be concerned about is the fact that an OBJ model gets exported/imported consistently out of Blender and back in according to the virtual unitless numbers of the OBJ format. Everything else (that is to say : what other programs or exporters do with the data, and which assumptions they are making) is pretty much irrelevant.
Now all that said ... the Blender OBJ exporter does have a scale multiplier option anyways so manual exports can be compensated if needed, which is cool.
Bottom line : I would only expect OBJs and FBXs coming from Blender to import at the exact the same in other programs if you are working with a source Blender scene set to a unitless system, and the importer on the other side is set to not rescale anything on import. In every other cases, imports would be different because of the interpretation of FBX metadata.
musashidan , thanks a lot for those blender videos! Went through all of them and they helped a lot! ^^
Thanks mate, glad they were useful.
There is only a scale option when you export .obj from Blender, not on import.
It's as Pior says, it is written into Blender's .obj importer. Most DCC use the original old-school Wavefront file type. Max uses the Guruware version which is much, much better. It comes with presets for almost every 3D program and each preset can be fully customised, and the best thing is(and none of the other DCCs can do this) you can set the import/export scale separately for every single preset.
As I mentioned above, Blender an Zbrush have an identical 100x scale factor in comparison to Max. I use either preset when importing/exporting to/from Max, with import set to scale=100 and export set to scale=0.01
Setting it like this will always give you a 100% scale transfer between Blender/Max/Zbrush. It's just the way it is. It works so I don't question it too much. Remember, .obj has been around since the 1990's.
It's wonderful seeing an open source project like Blender get this kind of attention. The industry treated it as a joke for so long, and now everyone is jumping on board. Hope they can keep this kind of momentum up after 2.8 is officially launched.
Wow, Ubisoft too. It really feels like we're on the brink of a big new change.
I've been putting more time into Blender myself and I'm glad to say I'm really liking it so far. Blender feels responsive, easily customizable and stupidly fast. The shortcut editor is probably my favorite comparing it to Max' and Maya's, since in this one you can even modify the operators you call within the very interface, much like you can tweak Substance textures with exported parameters...I also just purchased HardOps, and though it is huge and I haven't even gotten to exploring its boolean tools since I am still using the traditional ways, I'm loving the speed and UI of the Mirroring options.
Modeling-wise, I feel like I have almost all of the tools I used in other apps already covered (and I haven't even scratched the surface of what's out there yet!). Now all that's left is practice, learn new stuff and replace outdated methods.
Here are a few questions I haven't figured out yet, if anyone could share their opinion:
1-Having difficulty with some pivot operations. Say I rotate a cylinder, freeze transforms (thus losing its local transform). I delete half of it, and wish to extrude it. How can I do so in the axis of the hole's normal? If I select the border edges and switch my Transform Orientation to Normal (FigA), the Z (blue) axis is correctly aligned with the direction I want to extrude it to. However if I extrude ("Extrude and Move on Normals" op), and constraint it to the Z axis (FigB), the XYZ constraint hotkeys now seem to be aligned to Global axis, meaning I lose my normal's direction. I also tried quickly extruding and then clicking, thinking I can just extrude the thing without moving, and then move it using the Normal Orientation, but for some reason now the pivot changes its normal orientation (FigC), again to Global axis.
2-Similar situation: The cubes (separate meshes belonging to 1 object) are rotated, and let's say we don't have the local axis anymore. How can the faces selected be scaled in their normal direction in Blender?
3-Is there any operation in Blender that allows me to subdivide an object, respecting its sharp edges/beveled edges? Same as if in Max I'd apply a Turbosmooth with "Separate by: TurboSmooth" on.
4-Blend1 files. Do people use these as backups? Do you not prefer to turn off this feature somehow, and manually incremental save your work?
5-Is it possible to alter primitive mesh parameters after performing basic move/rotate/scale operations, or must they be done in the popup lower-left window in order to be able to modify sides/depth after the action?
1. Just close the face and then extrude? If the edges have different lengths then... you will have to use hacky ways of doing it. Wondering how it works in other softwares in this last case.
2. You can use the cursor for that, just snap it on a face then you will be able to scale it to the cursor, just make sure that your cursor orientation is set to geometry in preferences. (again if the edges have different lenghts you will run in the same problems mentioned for the first case).
3. Don't think that there is one, when i need that i usually just use a subdivision with edge crease.
4. I don't trust myselft for that, so i let blender do it.
5. Not by default, there was an addon called wonder mesh for that, don't know if it still exists.
1. You can cycle through different transformation orientations by pressing the desired axis more than once.
2. Setting up a custom transformation orientation can help you moving, scaling and rotating things consistently in arbitrary angles of the object.
3. With creasing parts of the mesh it can be achieved, yes.
5. Never really cared for the .blend1's use. I usually just delete it for saving space if the original .blend gets heavy, 'cos .blend1 is the same size as the .blend. And what comes to saving in general, I usually have one .blend file for the whole project I keep overwriting. Never had a situation in 6+ years where .blend files could get corrupted, ever. Such a trusty file format for Blender.
6. Yeah, unfortunately it's destructive when moving on from the initial setup of the primitive. But you'll get used to it eventually.
1. You can cycle through different transformation orientations by pressing the desired axis more than once.
...
The problem is that the normal orientation is using the normals of the extruded edges, therefore a face is needed as Udjani wrote. Cycling to global wont help here.
2. You can use the cursor for that, just snap it on a face then you will be able to scale it to the cursor, just make sure that your cursor orientation is set to geometry in preferences. (again if the edges have different lenghts you will run in the same problems mentioned for the first case).
In addidtion you might have to set the "cursor to selected" if you want to scale to the median point of both faces. Unfortunately we cannot get rotation by "cursor to selected", at least last time I checked it. Would be useful imho.
4-Blend1 files. Do people use these as backups? Do you not prefer to turn off this feature somehow, and manually incremental save your work?
I think people answered most of them, so I'll add my take on this automatic backup files: it has saved my life a couple of times when I stupidly incremented a save I wasn't supposed to. You can always delete them later.
Thanks for the answers guys. Qs 3-5 are clear, but 1-2 still have some points I'm not clear on.
About 1-
@Udjani Closing the face and then extruding is exactly the solution, thanks. However let's move on to a more complex situation, and like you suggested, assume the edges are not even. In other softwares (Maya/Max) we would set a temporary pivot and extrude like so:
Is there any way to replicate this?
@FourtyNights I admit I did not know the axis could be cycled pressing the same keys - however correct me if I'm wrong, but this does not help in this situation - none of the axis align with the normal, whether the edges are even or not.
"just snap it on a face then you will be able to scale it to the cursor"
But that wouldn't help here afaik. That would just allow me to scale things towards that face. I need the median point/center of selection of both faces.
"just make sure that your cursor orientation is set to geometry in preferences"
You mean Edit>Preferences? I'm looking for an option to set the 3D Cursor to Geometry there, but I'm not seeing any checkbox or dropdown menu like that...
Wow, this seems to be solution. However, afaik I MUST create a new transform orientation each time I want to do this, right? Since their normal orientation is stuck to the selection they were created for. In other words, if I need to constantly use this, it might be worth looking into making a script out of this feature.
@Justo 1) You can temporarily fill a face on the half-cylinder and either create a transform orientation from it or place the cursor on it and use the cursor transform orientation. I think the cursor orientation setting that Udjani mentioned is found in the tool settings header (right-click the header in the 3D view > header > show tool settings). However, it doesn't seem to make a difference what you set the orientation setting to in 2.80. The cursor always seems to orient itself to the view if not placed over geometry and always orients itself to geo when placed over it.
But that wouldn't help here afaik. That would just allow me to scale things towards that face. I need the median point/center of selection of both faces.
@Justo I tried to explain this in my previous post. You can get the correct rotation by snapping the cursor onto the face but have to place it at the median point afterwards, selecting both faces and use "cursor to selected", because the latter doesn't affect cursor rotation.
@Udjani Closing the face and then extruding is exactly the solution, thanks. However let's move on to a more complex situation, and like you suggested, assume the edges are not even. In other softwares (Maya/Max) we would set a temporary pivot and extrude like so:
Is there any way to replicate this?
For this you would have to add a face first as well and either use a custom orientation, as described somewhere above, or use active element as pivot point.
..However, afaik I MUST create a new transform orientation each time I want to do this, right? Since their normal orientation is stuck to the selection they were created for. In other words, if I need to constantly use this, it might be worth looking into making a script out of this feature.
This menu appears at the bottom of the viewport when you create a transform:
The field data seems to stay populated between calls and there's an option to overwrite an existing transform there.
So I suppose all you'd need to do is select your source geometry and then press ctrl + alt + spacebar.
As FinseStasjon already suggested, you have to set the custom orientation from the Transform Orientation pop-down(?) menu, or, if you install HEAVYPOLY's free scripts, you can easily set the pivot orientation by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+SPACEBAR and select "Pivot Custom" form the pie menu:
With "," you can call the Orientation Pie and change it back to Local or Global.
HP scripts also adds other nice features, like TAB as Subdivision Surface toggle and a very fast way to move from the various selection modes, like in Maya:
@Justo Yes, is in edit > preferences > input > 3d cursor, and you will then have to change the transform orientation to 3d cursor when you want to scale things toward each other. But like i said, you will need a face to snap it so the 3d cursor will align its normal with the face.
Replies
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):
@musashidan Yeah, seems a bit complicated. Thanks anyway for showing this method
@TangDao I see...I just looked into vertex groups, they seem useful. Specially for rigging. Thanks!
Speedflow Basics - 05 - Rope
In this video, we will see how to make a fully editable rope with only one vertex!
Alright, slowly getting the hang of it...I'm still super slow, but I'm not stressing over it. I'm using the modal keys for XYZ constraints during the move too - it's slow atm but it is definitely worth getting used to...
Some doubts that came up:
1-Not possible to toggle face centers off during XRay mode?
2-Any easy quick action I can assign to a shortcut that will let me delete edges while keeping the vertices they were connected to?
3-Is this behaviour of face selections normal? I toggle XRay on to be able to select backfaces, select half my model, yet some faces are still not selected. I don't know the exact reason for this: I think my drag cursor simply needs to cover "most of" the face to select it? I need to be a lot more precise during selections, like the second selection I make during the gif below, to correctly do it...Is there not a preferences option I can toggle to just select faces no matter how much space I cover with my mouse?
EDIT: ok, my friend helped me with this, I had to add this(screenshot):
For the last question, te selection hast to go beyond the center of the face, notice that your selection stops before it in some faces, i guess this answers your first question too.
About it being slow: sadly Blender 2.8 edit mode is pretty slow compared to 2.79, but I guess that's something they have as a priority to fix.
I saw your other questions already got answered.
2.
In the X menu (delete) You can select "Only edges / faces" this will delete the edge but keep loose verts. Be sure you are in vert selection mode or else you won't see them.
It's a different mindset for sure, and I admit I see some benefits to it that the other systems do not offer. Time to practice more modeling now.
I often have to select underlying faces and find the selection by center very useful in that case, don't remember how it is handled in other programs.
Probably the kind of stuff not immediately apparent to devs testing things out on simple models, so maybe it's just a matter of bringing it up to them. Although it probably already has been...
For those of you working with Zbrush 2019, I reviewed the new ported GoB (GoZ) addon for Blender 2.8,
I must say its simply amazing, and I never want to go back into exporting and importing FBXs between them anymore in my life. The installation process can be more self explanatory but it's definitely worth the setup when you get things going. Here's how powerfull it is:
BUT!
I guess I'm doing something very wrong here, but the scale is incorrect in blender. It says that it now works in meters, but anything modeled in real world scale in other modeling packages imported to blender is 100x bigger - as if the units (when set to meters) are actually centimeters, not meters.
I guess I could just import objs at 0.01scale and export at 100 scale, that would make it consistent with other modeling packages (and CLIENTS!
but it means I can't use stuff like GoZ (GoB?) because then objs are one size, models in blender scene and zbrush - another size and I can't freely mix between them.
Are my settings in blender wrong? I searched forums for a little bit but didn't find anything. Surely if it was a real problem, not just me, there would be many threads about it
(EDIT!)
Seems like it's just an obj Import problem. FBX works correctly.
when you install GoB you need to first set a file inside the Zapps folder in zbrush that comes with the addon. That file contains all the conversion handling between Zbrush and Blender, including the Axis transform settings and scale.
Lets say I create 2 20cm cubes in Max, I export one using fbx, another using obj. I import both of them to Maya and both are the same 20cm cubes. But when import both to Blender - fbx is correct 20cm cube, but the .obj one is now 20m - 100x bigger (I can't find any obj import scale settings in Blender).
If no one else is having such problem, I guess I just broke my blender
musashidan , thanks a lot for those blender videos! Went through all of them and they helped a lot! ^^
To be fair, the fact that this sort of stuff works as expected or not in various programs is not so much because of a given importer/exporter being broken or not ; but rather, a matter of said importers/exporters manipulating data which may or may not have a notion of real world units and scale to begin with.
For instance, FBX has flags for units, meaning that a file can hold data like : "this edge is one virtual unit long, and the user stated that a virtual unit should be equal to 5 inches". On import an FBX importer can work with that, applying scaling to the object if needed to match scene settings and so on.
Whereas as far as I understand it OBJ only contains raw, unit-less data ("this edge is a given number of virtual units long"). Meaning that on import it will just be imported without rescaling, accordingly to the virtual units used in the scene.
More practically speaking : considering that GoB/GoZ relies on OBJ (unit-less dimensions), and considering that Zbrush doesn't have any way of dealing with units and scaling properly, your best bet for smooth GoB use it to embrace what Zbrush natively expects for highpoly work. That is to say, dimensions working well with the Zbrush brush engine (if you feel like your object is gigantic or microscopic in Zbrush compared to the brush radius after GoB export, then you might want to feed it with much smaller or much bigger objects)
Sometimes stars align, and the scaling of a scene for a given project just happens to be what Zbrush naturally expects. But if it's not the case, then you might have to use some creative solutions. Just don't let Zbrush dictate anything technical regarding your final ingame model, as that is usually a recipe for serious trouble.
Bottom line is the GoB scale works perfectly with ZB, and thankfully(for us Max users) Max .obj importer/exporter is the only one that allows you to create presets and change the scale.
The issue is - Let's say if you're working in Blender and export some models via obj, some models via fbx, some maybe through alembic or whatever else format (who knows what you might need in a big project). Wouldn't you expect all those files to be imported to other programs at the same scale? Even to Marmoset Toolbag or Substance Painter? NO other program that I've worked with in my life had this kind of issue (not Even Zbrush
Even if you export obj AND fbx from zbrush - it will be the same scale imported to other programs. The ONLY exception that I've ever seen up until now (and I've worked with a looot of different programs) is Blender, which would make it very annoying in any kind of real project where a lot of artists/programmers are working with different programs.
Anyway, sorry for any disturbance, I'll try some other things and read a bit more on the matter.
Thanks! x]
I personally wouldn't at all because it all depends on what the data actually says, and what the importers do or don't do with it. Let's say you have a simple plane, with verts placed at
-1 -1 0
-1 1 0
1 -1 0
1 1 0
(And all transforms reset for the sake of simplicity)
If this plane was saved as OBJ with an exporter doing exactly what the (admittedly very simple) OBJ format specs dictates, all the vertex position data saved to the OBJ will be the table shown above - no more no less. Hence no extra flag saying "1 unit is supposed to mean one inch", and no flag saying "this should be multiplied by (insert random number here) on import" either.
Whereas (if I am not mistaken) the FBX has a metada flag storing intended units, and very likely an option to specify a scale factor to be applied on import too. Very useful stuff in some cases of course ... but also kind of dangerous when relied on without precaution. For instance, if the Blender scene was set to "one virtual unit = one inch", then the FBX vertex data of the plane above would be the same numbers, but there would likely also be a flag specifying "please multiply the scale by 2.54 (= inches to cm ratio) on import unless specified otherwise". Or something of the kind.
If anything the only thing that the Blender OBJ exporter/importer needs to be concerned about is the fact that an OBJ model gets exported/imported consistently out of Blender and back in according to the virtual unitless numbers of the OBJ format. Everything else (that is to say : what other programs or exporters do with the data, and which assumptions they are making) is pretty much irrelevant.
Now all that said ... the Blender OBJ exporter does have a scale multiplier option anyways so manual exports can be compensated if needed, which is cool.
Bottom line : I would only expect OBJs and FBXs coming from Blender to import at the exact the same in other programs if you are working with a source Blender scene set to a unitless system, and the importer on the other side is set to not rescale anything on import. In every other cases, imports would be different because of the interpretation of FBX metadata.
I've been putting more time into Blender myself and I'm glad to say I'm really liking it so far. Blender feels responsive, easily customizable and stupidly fast. The shortcut editor is probably my favorite comparing it to Max' and Maya's, since in this one you can even modify the operators you call within the very interface, much like you can tweak Substance textures with exported parameters...I also just purchased HardOps, and though it is huge and I haven't even gotten to exploring its boolean tools since I am still using the traditional ways, I'm loving the speed and UI of the Mirroring options.
Modeling-wise, I feel like I have almost all of the tools I used in other apps already covered (and I haven't even scratched the surface of what's out there yet!). Now all that's left is practice, learn new stuff and replace outdated methods.
Here are a few questions I haven't figured out yet, if anyone could share their opinion:
1-Having difficulty with some pivot operations. Say I rotate a cylinder, freeze transforms (thus losing its local transform). I delete half of it, and wish to extrude it. How can I do so in the axis of the hole's normal? If I select the border edges and switch my Transform Orientation to Normal (FigA), the Z (blue) axis is correctly aligned with the direction I want to extrude it to. However if I extrude ("Extrude and Move on Normals" op), and constraint it to the Z axis (FigB), the XYZ constraint hotkeys now seem to be aligned to Global axis, meaning I lose my normal's direction. I also tried quickly extruding and then clicking, thinking I can just extrude the thing without moving, and then move it using the Normal Orientation, but for some reason now the pivot changes its normal orientation (FigC), again to Global axis.
2-Similar situation: The cubes (separate meshes belonging to 1 object) are rotated, and let's say we don't have the local axis anymore. How can the faces selected be scaled in their normal direction in Blender?
3-Is there any operation in Blender that allows me to subdivide an object, respecting its sharp edges/beveled edges? Same as if in Max I'd apply a Turbosmooth with "Separate by: TurboSmooth" on.
4-Blend1 files. Do people use these as backups? Do you not prefer to turn off this feature somehow, and manually incremental save your work?
5-Is it possible to alter primitive mesh parameters after performing basic move/rotate/scale operations, or must they be done in the popup lower-left window in order to be able to modify sides/depth after the action?
1. Just close the face and then extrude? If the edges have different lengths then... you will have to use hacky ways of doing it. Wondering how it works in other softwares in this last case.
2. You can use the cursor for that, just snap it on a face then you will be able to scale it to the cursor, just make sure that your cursor orientation is set to geometry in preferences. (again if the edges have different lenghts you will run in the same problems mentioned for the first case).
3. Don't think that there is one, when i need that i usually just use a subdivision with edge crease.
4. I don't trust myselft for that, so i let blender do it.
5. Not by default, there was an addon called wonder mesh for that, don't know if it still exists.
In addidtion you might have to set the "cursor to selected" if you want to scale to the median point of both faces. Unfortunately we cannot get rotation by "cursor to selected", at least last time I checked it. Would be useful imho.
Turns out it's the tiny plus sign in the popup menu (or ctrl + alt + spacebar)
About 1-
@Udjani Closing the face and then extruding is exactly the solution, thanks. However let's move on to a more complex situation, and like you suggested, assume the edges are not even. In other softwares (Maya/Max) we would set a temporary pivot and extrude like so:
Is there any way to replicate this?
@FourtyNights I admit I did not know the axis could be cycled pressing the same keys - however correct me if I'm wrong, but this does not help in this situation - none of the axis align with the normal, whether the edges are even or not.
About 2-
@Udjani
@FourtyNights
&
@FinseStasjon
Wow, this seems to be solution. However, afaik I MUST create a new transform orientation each time I want to do this, right? Since their normal orientation is stuck to the selection they were created for. In other words, if I need to constantly use this, it might be worth looking into making a script out of this feature.
For this you would have to add a face first as well and either use a custom orientation, as described somewhere above, or use active element as pivot point.