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A new modeling tool released

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  • BeatKitano
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    BeatKitano polycounter lvl 16
    I think he wants to be able to able to move the axis to wherever he wants and still maintain the same mesh topology (not mirroring changes when axis is moved only work on local symetry)
    Am I wrong Philem ?

    @Istonia: I don't know what to say except "are you sure you'v confirmed your mail ?"
  • philem
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    ghib wrote: »
    Philem, I'm also a bit confused as to why you would want to have symmetry turned on but not work on a symmetrical mesh. Could you maybe post a vid showing how Hexagon symmetry works or screencaptures. They really help.

    cheers.

    Hi ghib, I am not sure I understand what you are asking when you talk about having Symmetry turned on but not work on a Symmetrical mesh, I am thinking that you mean that I work on the model, then click on the Symmetry axis and the work gets mirrored.

    I am wanting to turn on Symmetry then do the work, for example I have modeled my spaceship in VW and now want to work on the sides, that's why I want the Symmetry tool, so I can work on the sides then change the axis to work on the top and bottom.
    But as I mentioned in an earlier reply to IStonia that I may have stumbled on this problem by mistake.

    The images I have attached show the Symmetry tool in Hexagon, it shows the X Axis selected - then I do a little work to the mesh - then select the Y Axis (it shows that it doesn't mirror the work), I do a little work again on the mesh - I next select the Z Axis (again it doesn't mirror the previous work) this allows separate work to be carried out in different Symmetry Axis without mirroring (I originally thought that this is what the mirror tool was for)

    But as I said in an earlier post it is no biggy, I still have a lot more to learn with the program.
    Sorry if the pics are to big, struggled to attach them.

    hexsym.jpg

    hexsym1.jpg

    hexsym2.jpg

    hexsym3.jpg
  • ghib
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    Thanks Philem I understand now. Yes it works slightly differently than Hexagon. In Voidworld you can calculate symmetry on a mesh that will keep the vertex position and vertex count. I made a quick vid to show how you do this.

    http://vimeo.com/25816588

    Anyone know if you can embed Vimeo videos?
  • storm3
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    Hey, I Created a New Account IStonia, thanks for Asking for me though.. I Appreciate it, but for some reason this new account is working and the old storm36969, would NOT work ??!!?? Hmm.. Not sure.. Anyways.. I'm Here, and I love this application IStonia, your doing a great job, nice fast updates, and already a powerful toolset.. Keep up the good work..
  • philem
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    ghib wrote: »
    Thanks Philem I understand now. Yes it works slightly differently than Hexagon. In Voidworld you can calculate symmetry on a mesh that will keep the vertex position and vertex count. I made a quick vid to show how you do this.

    http://vimeo.com/25816588

    Anyone know if you can embed Vimeo videos?

    Hey ghib, thanks for the video, made a lot of sense and is something that I am after, going off to have a play with it now :)
    What is Re Symmetry? but I am off to the help file to see what it is as well,,

    BeatKitano, No I don't think you are wrong, I want to be able to change the Symmetry axis without mirroring effects.
  • IStonia
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    philem: The 'Resymmetry' tool's description in help book has not been updated properly.
    There is another way. Press down 'End' key, then open and click 'Modify > Resymmetry' to open the hotkey eidtor. You should be able to see the help text for this command at top of the editor.
  • ghib
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    philem- also if you look at the video I posted on Vimeo around 51secs in you can see the Resymmetry tool in action.

    If you watch the vid you can see I've calculated symmetry on an asymmetrical mesh (this doesn't actually make the mesh symmetrical yet, only calculates the topology.)
    Then at the 55sec mark I ran the Resymmetry tool on the selected Verts. This makes the opposite (corresponding) verts symmetrical.
  • IStonia
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    new update.
    http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/VoidWorld-july-2-11.rar

    Summary of changes:
    * Some polygon tools are added. See Help > Contents > Modeling > Polygon Section > Polygon Commands.
    * One bug in unversal manipulator scaling is fixed. In previous update, if you uniformly scale an object with universal manipulator then undo, you will see the object won't restore back to its previous size.
    Thanks!
  • nabeelaejaz
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    nabeelaejaz polycounter lvl 9
    Man, you are on a roll! :thumbup::thumbup: 2 Thumbs Up! Softwares Rocking Big Time.
  • philem
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    ghib wrote: »
    philem- also if you look at the video I posted on Vimeo around 51secs in you can see the Resymmetry tool in action.

    If you watch the vid you can see I've calculated symmetry on an asymmetrical mesh (this doesn't actually make the mesh symmetrical yet, only calculates the topology.)
    Then at the 55sec mark I ran the Resymmetry tool on the selected Verts. This makes the opposite (corresponding) verts symmetrical.


    Hey Istonia,
    Followed your advice and saw the help text, and watching ghib's video all made sense..

    Thanks for the new update again, this is going to be one hell of a programme :)

    Hey ghib,
    I watched the vid again and took notice of the times you gave me, I saw it in more detail this time and saw the Resymmetry in action, it made sense this time, and explained what happened when I clicked on Resymmetry on my model.

    PS: Been playing with this, all makes sense now, now onto the next operation :poly136:
  • mald
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    Hi IStonia

    I suspect I may have come to the polygon limit of VoidWorld with my current truck model. At the moment the model has about 580,000 polys and whenever I try to add more detail I get a message "Fatal Error has occurred" and the application needs to be closed. I also can't save the model as an .obj file.

    My current configuration is Core I7 processors(dual), 8gb RAM, GTX560 TI 1GB graphics card. Do you think this is the likely reason with this configuration?

    Is it possible to convert some duplicated objects to instances to get around this problem?

    Cheers
    Mal
  • IStonia
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    mald: It looks like a bug. Can you post over a pic of the error message and specify what action you have done?
  • mald
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    IStonia

    After the fatal error window I received another message stating "Unhandled exception has occurred in a component in your application. If you click continue, the application will ignore this error and attempt to continue. Not enough storage is available to process this command." I then managed to copy a detailed error message and save it in WordPad

    BTW, before I was able to get this message I also tried unsuccessfully to load a few different versions of the file with a message received "Failed to load file for unknown reason." Finally I got a file to load with result as described in paragraph 1.

    Cheers
    Mal

    Error Message:
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  • PolyHertz
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    PolyHertz polycount lvl 666
    IStonia: You know the top menu bar would look a lot less cluttered if you just used drop down menus for each group of buttons instead of having every one of them lined up next to each other. Even on my screen at 1680x1050 an icon or two is cut off with the default setup. You've even got the code for it already implemented with the 'remove button' drop down menus.
  • IStonia
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    Mald: It seems like a memory issue. You can try to reduce the undo level to reduce memory consumption, Edit > Options > Set Undo Level.
    Can you do this: After loading your model, right click your window's taskbar to bring up a context menu, choose 'Start Task Manager', in the 'Windows Task Manager' look for VoidWorld memory consumption and please let me know the amount.
    I will try to optimize things a bit these few days.

    PolyHertz: I don't have the code for 'remove button' drop-down. It is a third party software. But I can do something like the 3D-Coat pop up buttons. It doesn't seem like a good idea to make every bar items into drop-down style as it may slow things down, so can you do a mockup so I can know which one can be grouped into drop-down?
  • PolyHertz
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    PolyHertz polycount lvl 666
    You'd just want to group into drop down menus those functions that affect all meshs when used, as opposed to specific selected meshs. Snap, selection marquee type, and cull would make sense, and just those three groupings cut the bar roughly in half. I'd also remove the save/open buttons, the ones in the File menu and their shortcuts are enough by themselves.

    vwToolbar.jpg
  • mald
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    Thanks for the reply IStonia. I managed to load one of the recent file versions and the Task Manager listed VoidWorld memory consumption as 1,438,452K.

    I have since reduced the undo levels from 40 to 20 and have removed some duplicated items which I will replace with instances. Hopefully, this will allow further progress with the model.

    Thanks again for your help.

    Cheers
    Mal
  • passerby
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    passerby polycounter lvl 12
    ya @mald, i got similar problems when i use VW for sub-d work, it really starts eating the memory when i get around 300k ish faces.

    got a bit better when i reduced my undo level a bit, which isnt a bad trade off if you make use of the incremental save to save out major changes as new version numbers.

    personally for me i find the 2 weakest points are performance and memory usage and the UV editor, which isn't that bad since i can work around performance and mem usage by spilling large things into multiple files, and im fine with doing uv's in silo or maya for now.

    bit of jumping around between apps but worth it since VW is a dream to do both LP modeling and sub-d modeling in.
  • passerby
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    passerby polycounter lvl 12
    also got a other feature request, i wish there was a way to face, vert, edge, and tri counts for the whole scene similar to how it is done in maya
  • storm3
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    IStonia, Are you coding VW in CSharp Dot net or VB dot Net, or are you coding in straight Visual C++ ?? The reason I'm asking is maybe if it is in C# or VB, maybe it is because the auto garbage collection isn't firing soon enough or at all for some reason during SubD work, you can manually force it to clean up stuff, thats if it is C# or VB, if it's Visual C++, we have to do some profiling to find a leak or something, i'm not sure if it is a leak, or the fact that he has sooo many subD's, how many polys does the model have, etc..?? Might have to look at the way the data is being stored in memory, figure out some way to lower consumption.. lowering undo levels helps but how much data is stored in each undo? I'm just trying to help you think of things to look at..

    Hope this helps,

    Ciao' 4 Now,

    StOrM3
  • Quack!
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    Quack! polycounter lvl 17
    Downloading now to give it a go! The constant updates and using user feedback is pretty impressive. Good stuff.
  • polyxo
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    Hi IStonia, All,
    while I like probably everybody greatly enjoy the speed of VW's Development I feel that it already looks and feels quite a bit larger and complex as it had to be...

    I see one of the main reasons for this in the way the Menu-System works.
    While I typically do not use the Menu a lot I do it in Voidworld.
    Reason being:
    • I really can not stand Radial Menus (hope for an alternative Context Menu at some point which is not tied to RMB)
    • RMB is conflicting with my Navigation-Scheme (so I can not use the RM anyway)
    • Further newsly added functionality is likely found easiest in the Menu

    In Contrast to the Visual Tools Docker and the Radial Menu however the Main Menu shows each single Command at all time - here causing the need for numerous Submenus.
    I believe this doesnt make sense. Why does one have to look at Edge-Commands when one currently is in Face-Mode? It would be much more straightforward only to get served the stuff which could be useful in the current Context.
    The great Advantage would be that one could see all relevant commands at Top Level - there would not be a need for hidden Sub-Menus!

    Again - looking at Silo shows the difference. When in Face Mode one only gets the stuff to see which can be done with a Face-Selection.

    Sorry the Images look a bit washed out but I guess they get my point across.

    screenshot11js.jpg
    screenshot12pd.jpg
  • passerby
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    passerby polycounter lvl 12
    @storm3, im not using a huge amount of subd's most of my work is between 300k and 500k and i never go above subd level 2.

    it has to be the data handling since other apps like silo and maya handle it fine
  • IStonia
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    Hi guys, I am currently changing data storage pattern. It'll take quite a while, could be a couple of weeks or more.

    PolyHertz: Thanks for the mockup!

    passerby: Can you provide a screen shot?

    storm3: Thanks for your helping mind!

    chaosquack: I hope you won't hate it that much. There is no such thing as perfect software.

    polyxo: Thanks for the contextual context menu suggestion. I also consider to create shortcut key controlled Radial Menu style.
  • passerby
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    passerby polycounter lvl 12
    ya sure what im referring to is just the HUD in maya or the scene info panel in silo.

    mayahud.jpg
    silo%20scene%20info.jpg


    i find it very useful to see this info for the whole scene as i make models for game engines, and it is very useful to have both the face count and the face count in tris.

    also being able to show it for just the selection to would be nice.

    to save screen space you could also take the blender approach, where it shows it in the status bar and is context sensitive to what component selection type your in.

    blenderstatus.jpg

    currently the olny way to figure it out is to go into the scene explorer and add up the face counts of all the objects in it, and try making a guess at what triangulation UV's, smoothing will do to the count.
  • philem
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    Hi guys,
    Another noob question.

    I am working on a space ship, from a ref image I originally did in Hexagon. I am about to to one of the windows. I will post a couple of small progress pics.
    In Hex you draw a circle with 6 sides, extrude it out a little, then extrude inwards a couple of times to create the frame, then a little bit of extruding the edges gives thickness to the frame.

    At the moment I cannot seem to find the Draw / Create circle in VW.
    2 Questions if I may :)

    1/ Is the draw circle ( with edge choice options) in VW ?
    if it is,
    2/ Where would I find it? (I have had a fairly good look in the programme and in the help file)

    As always any help is always appreciated
    thanks
  • IStonia
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    philem: There is no equivalent tool in VW. But there is an alternative way.
    1. In object mode, create a N-Polygon with 3 sides setting.
    2. In polygon mode, select all the polgons then S+RMB to inset inwards. Hit Delete key to remove those center polygons.
    3. In Edge mode, select all the outer edges then A+RMB to extrude outwards.
  • philem
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    IStonia wrote: »
    philem: There is no equivalent tool in VW. But there is an alternative way.
    1. In object mode, create a N-Polygon with 3 sides setting.
    2. In polygon mode, select all the polgons then S+RMB to inset inwards. Hit Delete key to remove those center polygons.
    3. In Edge mode, select all the outer edges then A+RMB to extrude outwards.

    Hi IStonia,
    That pretty much got me what I wanted, almost an exact match to the one I did in Hex..

    Thanks again

    But I really do need to learn the shortcuts :poly121:
  • philem
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    Hey guys,

    I am following a small Blender tut but using VW as a way to learn VW, in the tut the object is bent following another objects shape, is there an option like that in VW ?

    Also
    I have noticed that the programme is starting to slow down and chug a little,
    I have 2 objects in the scene
    These are the stats of the 2 objects

    .Faces . Verts . Meshes
    1/ .131072 .69632 .256
    2/ .246 .131 .1

    Is there anything I can do to increase performance?
    I have a little more work to do once the first question has been answered, and at the moment it looks like the programme will come to a stop if I had to many more objects to the scene.:poly136:
  • IStonia
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    philem: There is a vertex visual tool 'Align' with the 'Surface Alignment' feature. Hope this can do the same thing you want.
    I am currently working on the performance issue, about half way down. Before that, you can try using instance to replace duplicated objects. For example, if it is symmetrical, cut off one half and replace it with a symmetry instance.
  • philem
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    IStonia wrote: »
    philem: There is a vertex visual tool 'Align' with the 'Surface Alignment' feature. Hope this can do the same thing you want.
    I am currently working on the performance issue, about half way down. Before that, you can try using instance to replace duplicated objects. For example, if it is symmetrical, cut off one half and replace it with a symmetry instance.


    I will give the instancing a go with a copy of that heavy scene.

    I looked at the Align tool but have no idea how to use it, I opened a new scene to try it out, I looked at the tutorials, the help file and anything else I could find and there is no description on how to actually apply the Align tool,
    Any help would be appreciated.

    Thanks to all..
  • IStonia
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    philem: Looks like the verte Surface Aling tool is not going to be the one you mentioned. If not, please provide a screen shot of the bend tool.
    Anyway, you can try this to test the Surface Align tool.
    1. Create a sphere.
    2. Create a 8x8 plane.
    3. Sale the plane to about half size of the sphere.
    4. Move and rotate the plane so it is some how facing the sphere.
    5. Select some or all the plane's vertices.
    6. Turn on the vertex 'Align' tool.
    7. Turn on the 'Along vertex normals' option.
    8. Click the Apply button.
    You should see the selected vertices snap onto the sphere.
  • philem
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    IStonia wrote: »
    philem: Looks like the verte Surface Aling tool is not going to be the one you mentioned. If not, please provide a screen shot of the bend tool.
    Anyway, you can try this to test the Surface Align tool.
    1. Create a sphere.
    2. Create a 8x8 plane.
    3. Sale the plane to about half size of the sphere.
    4. Move and rotate the plane so it is some how facing the sphere.
    5. Select some or all the plane's vertices.
    6. Turn on the vertex 'Align' tool.
    7. Turn on the 'Along vertex normals' option.
    8. Click the Apply button.
    You should see the selected vertices snap onto the sphere.

    Hi IStonia,

    I followed your instructions and the plane did align to the sphere, I then tried the same again with a Cylinder and it also worked, and it is the cool that I want, but I think the other scene that I originally wanted this action is too busy, too many meshes, following the instructions above nothing happens.

    I will redo the scene again and try the use of instances.
  • IStonia
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    philem: When you try to use the Surface Align tool, if too many objects in the scene, It's better to hide those unrelated objects. This tool is potentially heavy in memory consumption. It creates temporary optimizing data for all the unselected visilbe objects.
  • passerby
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    passerby polycounter lvl 12
    what are the requirements for VW, i had to reinstall windows, and now it crashes on start so i assuming im missing some library or runtime.
  • philem
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    IStonia wrote: »
    philem: When you try to use the Surface Align tool, if too many objects in the scene, It's better to hide those unrelated objects. This tool is potentially heavy in memory consumption. It creates temporary optimizing data for all the unselected visilbe objects.

    IStonia,

    My plane was to highlight 1/2 of the mesh I want to bend to the cylinder, except for the middle row (keeping the original mesh) then use the Instance tool to bring it back to full size again, then, delete the other 1/2 again leaving the middle row and using the Instance tool again to recreate the mesh, I found out that, that cannot be done as the instance is basically a duplicate of the first mesh, but fir the moment I can live with that.

    But I am having trouble, Welding, Grouping, joining or what ever it takes to get it back to 1 mesh so I can try the Surface Align Tool.
    I am having trouble selecting both 1/2's to "join" them, what am I missing.
    I looked in the help file but mostly it only tells you what the tools do but not how to use them.

    Again any help is much appreciated.
  • IStonia
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    passerby: VW needs dotnet 1.1 and dotnet 2.0. Also dx9.0b or newer except dx10 since dx10 not compatible with dx9.
    You can google 'dotnet version checker' and 'directx version on my computer'.

    philem: An instance object does not have any geometry itself. It is rendered out by using the source object's geometry. You can deinstance an instance object to make it editable. Modify > Object Commands > Deinstance.
  • philem
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    IStonia wrote: »

    philem: An instance object does not have any geometry itself. It is rendered out by using the source object's geometry. You can deinstance an instance object to make it editable. Modify > Object Commands > Deinstance.

    I have to aplogize again for all the past, present, and future noobie questions, I am really struggling with this programme and I don't want to give up on it just yet.

    I have been trying to do a fairly simple Blender tutorial (see link below) using VW.

    http://manuell3d.wordpress.com/2011/07/13/tutorial-how-to-create-a-wirenet-in-blender-2-5/

    I hit a hurdle with there being too many meshes and the programme started to chug because of the large amount of poly's.

    i tried the instancing as suggested, but I ended up with 2 entities, , then I could not join, weld, or group the 2 entities into 1 again so I could follow the tutorial and bend the mesh.
    You suggested I deinstance the item again so it could be edited, my confusion (besides struggling to learn the programme) why would I now deinstance after just instancing the mesh.

    I mean these comments with the utmost respect, but I suppose its more frustration on my part and now knowing the programme.

    I would be most appreciative if someone could do the above tutorial as a tutorial using VW so I could follow along and it would help me learn.

    again sorry for all the noob questions
  • IStonia
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    philem: I think you don't have to do it exact the same way as the tut. It looks simple but it is tricky actually if you are lack of basic skills.
    My suggestion is
    1. Create a long box with 40x1x1 segs setting and make it jagged shape. This wil be used as the circular wire.
    2. Create one two-point spline. It runs from the one end of the box to the other end.
    3. Create one circular spline with open ends.
    4. Select the wire object and goto vertex mode.
    5. Use the 'Spline modify' tool to bend the wire into the shape of the second spline.
    6. Now create new circular wires by duplcate the bent wire.
    The vertical wires should be much easier to make.
  • storm3
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    IStonia,

    I Just wanted to make sure you got my email along with the video showing how the poly tool is not working properly, to select all the vertexes when making new polys trying to attach them to already added verts from other objects.. Not sure if it made it through attached or not, thanks for everything IStonia...

    Ken aka StOrM3
  • philem
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    IStonia wrote: »
    philem: I think you don't have to do it exact the same way as the tut. It looks simple but it is tricky actually if you are lack of basic skills.
    My suggestion is
    1. Create a long box with 40x1x1 segs setting and make it jagged shape. This wil be used as the circular wire.
    2. Create one two-point spline. It runs from the one end of the box to the other end.
    3. Create one circular spline with open ends.
    4. Select the wire object and goto vertex mode.
    5. Use the 'Spline modify' tool to bend the wire into the shape of the second spline.
    6. Now create new circular wires by duplcate the bent wire.
    The vertical wires should be much easier to make.

    Hi IStonia.
    Thanks for the time you have given me, but I am really struggling with this programme, I followed your instructions above and after 45 minutes I still haven't got the box to bend, I have had the help file open as well and still cannot get it to work. The images below show the stages I followed up to the actual bending.
    What am I missing?

    http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn310/pipp44/splinemod1.jpg

    http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn310/pipp44/splinemod2.jpg

    http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn310/pipp44/splinemod3.jpg

    http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn310/pipp44/splinemod4.jpg
  • IStonia
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    philem: Here is a video. Hope it helps.
    [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNroRWh3LCo[/ame]

    strorm3: Thanks for the email! But I couldn't play it. Can you convert it to .wmv instead ?
  • philem
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    IStonia wrote: »
    philem: Here is a video. Hope it helps.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNroRWh3LCo

    strorm3: Thanks for the email! But I couldn't play it. Can you convert it to .wmv instead ?

    I got it, I got it :poly124:

    Thank you so much for the video, I was about to give up on the programme, but except for a minor alignment issue before I used the "Spline Modify" tool, I pretty much have the same result as you did, and, I learnt a few other things in this one video along the way than I have in the last couple of weeks banging my head against the desk :)

    Now will practice the devil out it now till it sinks in :)

    Again thank you, and if you or any one feels like banging out some small vids for tutorials please feel free, I will as soon as I know more of the programme...

    Is there an array option or a copy on support (Hex command) I am carrying on with the original tutorial. I want to create the cross pieces of the mesh, and copy / array them along the form I have just created.
  • IStonia
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    philem: There is not object array tool at the moment. I will make one when I have time.
    One thing I want to point out. You may have noticed that I aligned the two spline ends together before bending, I did it visually so by no means it is precised. There is a tool can be used to do this precisely. Edit > Customize StreamLine Tools > Snap Selection > MMB: Differential_Snap. Hope you can figure it out how to use it.
  • storm3
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    You don't have VLC to watch movies ?? I wouldn't use anything else to watch movies.. But I'll go ahead and convert it for ya, and resend it..
  • ghib
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    Hey Istonia 2 things I think worthy of a mention;
    • Bsurfaces - Some really great ideas in there you can draw inspiration from when and if you improve retopology in VW
    • Bonzai3d - I highly recommend checking out the demo of this app. I think it has some brilliant ideas in particular how visual it is. Check out the 'Draw Guides' tool - Create guide lines to assist with snapping. This is very similar to an idea I've been cooking up for the 3rd function in the Voidworld Visual Align tool. It would be perfect for aligning and measuring between disconnected (and connected) geometry.
    Goto 5:55
    [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nO_795VX09Y&quot;]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nO_795VX09Y[/ame]
  • philem
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    IStonia wrote: »
    philem: There is not object array tool at the moment. I will make one when I have time.
    One thing I want to point out. You may have noticed that I aligned the two spline ends together before bending, I did it visually so by no means it is precised. There is a tool can be used to do this precisely. Edit > Customize StreamLine Tools > Snap Selection > MMB: Differential_Snap. Hope you can figure it out how to use it.

    Hi IStonia,

    I assume that the MMB: Differential_Snap is for snapping one object precisely onto or next to another object by either a Face - Edge - Vertice, but I have spent over an hour trying everything I know (which isn't a great deal) and still have no idea how to implement it.
    In the Streamline Tools dialogue box it says that this snap tool is under the General Tools tab, but again I am not sure where to find the General Tools option.
  • IStonia
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    ghib: Thanks!

    philem: Here is another vid.
    [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H3hEaAWp7o[/ame]
    Instead of using the default tool, I created a new streamline tool. I assigned the Differential Snap tool to its RMB. Then I assigned it a hotkey. Once done, I can just press the hot key and use it. The snapping tool works on any kind of selection or most of them. Can't remember. You can test it yourself..
  • philem
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    IStonia wrote: »
    ghib: Thanks!

    philem: Here is another vid.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H3hEaAWp7o
    Instead of using the default tool, I created a new streamline tool. I assigned the Differential Snap tool to its RMB. Then I assigned it a hotkey. Once done, I can just press the hot key and use it. The snapping tool works on any kind of selection or most of them. Can't remember. You can test it yourself..

    Brilliant.
    Thanks for the video it was a great help again and I learned a lot more about the programme.

    Again it was exactly what I was after, I gave it a good going over with a couple of Boxes, a Cylinder, a Plane, a Torus, A GeoSphere, A Sphere, and selected all of the different snapping options edge, vertices , center of polygon etc: and they all worked, I even bridged the sphere to the cylinder while I was there :)
    I used the same hot key as you but will probably change it to suit my workflow.

    I did notice one thing and was wondering if there is a fix.
    When I held down the backslash key and selected my first vertice (for example) on the box and clicked the RMB the vertice became active as it should, then by dragging to where I want to move the box, then RMB again the box moved to exactly where I wanted it,
    but,
    I noticed that if I let go of the backslash key the snapping option became disabled, which means I need to keep the backslash key (or whatever hotkey I choose) held down.

    Is it possible or is there a way that I can hit the hotkey and it stays active till the operation is complete or does the key need to always be held down?

    The reason I ask is that I wanted to put the bottom of the cylinder onto the center of one of the boxes, I picked the center of the cylinder at the bottom, but as soon as I let go of the hotkey to ALT LMB to rotate the scene so I could see the top face of the box the snapping option became disabled, it didn't allow me to do both options.
  • IStonia
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    philem: While any tool is active, you can press down '.' or',' or '/' key to rotate/pan/zoom/ the view without exiting the current tool. You can see those Auxiliary view tool hotkey instructions in the SmartTips panel. If SmartTips is not visible, Edit > Options > SmartTips Options > Visible All Time.
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