@storm3 not to fond the the 3d prefix or suffix you got on it all, rather keep it with out, also looking at other packages 3dcoat is the only one with the 3d in the name.
also when i think of software and hammer i think of valves bsp/map editor
hi guys. In relation to the name and words like hammer and anvil don't forget there is already a 3d program called Blacksmith3d which relates to those terms.
I remember ,while doing logos, that the best names are the ones like SONY.
Something that sticks in your mind and that is easy to read,visualize and remember.
Silo,Wings,Mirai,Softimage,Naya,Lightwave,Houdini,Mudbox...
don't have direct 3d modeling relation in their names,
so ANVIL fits the bill as well. Why Silo?
Maybe it could be ENVIL or N-VIL ,
as a N sided polygon,
which is common in 3d world, and it includes ANVIL (homophone) in it's name.
Also it could picture an idyllic small town made of n-gons (Enwille),of course.
I remember ,while doing logos, that the best names are the ones like SONY.
Something that sticks in your mind and that is easy to read,visualize and remember.
Silo,Wings,Mirai,Softimage,Naya,Lightwave,Houdini,Mudbox...
don't have direct 3d modeling relation in their names,
so ANVIL fits the bill as well. Why Silo?
Maybe it could be ENVIL or N-VIL ,
as a N sided polygon,
which is common in 3d world, and it includes ANVIL (homophone) in it's name.
Also it could picture an idyllic small town made of n-gons (Enwille),of course.
I Like N_VIL and a really cool icon maybe something with 3D included to go with it would be good.
Summary of changes:
* The command, View > Toggle Unselected Object Visibility, is improved. When this command is excuted, if there are any unselected objects, the program will remember them in a list and then hide them. When this command is executed again, if there is no unselected visible object, the program will only unhide those objects in the memory list so other hidden objects will still remain hidden.
* Edge Mode > Geometry > Create Opened/Closed Spline.
* Tube option is added into spline Slide tool for quick tube object creation. Help > Contents > Modeling > Vertex Section > Spline Vertex > Spline Slide > Note > Tube.
Interesting discussion. I agree on Silo - why would they pick that name? When I hear it, I think of the large, round towers you store corn in. But it still works.
Anvil or N-Vil both seem to work and I agree that it does kind-of make sense with n sided polys - though I don't particularly think it's important or necessary for a name to have any relevance to the product at all (Maya, Silo, Sumatra - XSI's name before it was XSI).
N-Vil feels a little clumsier and harder to say than Anvil, but not so much that it's unworkable. Anvil invokes the feeling of a craftsman, someone pounding and shaping iron into a work of art, etc. It connects the old with the new and feels substantial & not cheap. (which is what 3D Coat has always sounded like to me).
I must be really old, because I had to look up "Kanoed" in the Urban Dictionary. I had no idea what it was and still have no idea how you say it. I thought it must be a Scandinavian word.
How about doing a release with the orange type theme either from Silo or the one in 3D-Coat?? You know, with the dark grey / black type background, and the orange buttons etc.. The reason I'm asking is Wed. is my birthday, and I have been waiting for a version with colors etc.. similar to Glen Southern's Silo theme but for silo... Just a thought.. ;')
BTW: I love the new updates, they are awesome, I finally have a Dr. YEAH!!! Now, between hunting, doing projects with the kids, I'll finish it all up for everyone..
Also, yes I noticed 3DCoat mentioned VW, why wouldn't they, VW has turned into a totally viable app that is easy to use, and fully functional, I'm telling you, I haven't touched silo since!!!
storm3: The gui I am using some are third party product and some are ms built in. I have no idea how to make it customizable to a theme you ask for. Sorry about that!
Happy birthday! Btw, are you getting older or younger?
i don't really think we need customizable colours so much just a good light and dark theme that is easy on the eyes, and try to make everything consistent, and more polished looking.
the current UI kinda looks like you got too tool gui tool kits going, since some elements just look and act different from other ones that are for almost the exact same function.
good example of that is the spinners, some are just black up and down arrows, and they allow you to drag up and down on them to change the value, than there are other ones that look like native windows ones but don't allow you to click and drag.
should just be one or the other, preferable the first one o mentioned do to better functionality.
there are a few other cases of similar things in the UI
I agree with passerby.
UI is crucial for product placement and popularity.
Although in certain cases quality of the package dictates the above(eg. Zbrush,3dcoat).
Totally agree with you guys. Although I don't use Modo, one of the big plusses I saw when I looked at it was that you could really reconfigure the interface. I believe Silo has this ability too, right? People like the ability to make the interface look the way they want.
The other big thing for me is - consistant tools. I am always frustrated with 3DCoat because the tools are inconsistant. In some tools you can hold down on the X Y or Z key and force the tool to only work in that dimension, but in other tools that doesn't work at all. So you have to remember which one it works in and which ones it doesn't.
So, IMHO, it's very important that features work across the board, not just in one area.
Additionally, don't get bogged down with what Lightwave did - adding tool after tool after tool. Lightwave could have about 50% of it's tools merged together and it work work just fine. A move tool should work with points, polys or edges, you shouldn't need a move point tool, a move poly tool and a move edge tool. Just make a functional tool, then make sure it works no matter what mode you're in.
Sorry - I know I'm getting way off the topic of interface colors. Too much caffeine at lunch!
@ GUI: To me the current GUI framework doesn't look very much better than Visual Studio/Mfc. I wonder QT was an option too?
It is the Framework Silo uses but also large names as Maya, Maxwell and all programs of The Foundry are built with with this free and open Source Cross-Platform Framework. I can't imagine that it hasn't been proposed already but here's a link.
Concerning the Feature-Consolidation Paulrus is talking about I can only agree. While Istonia has done some great work (!)in this area already I still see really massive potential to slim the application down.
One questionable area not mentioned yet is the hierarchical approach Voidworld uses. I personally do not want to animate and to use Bones inside VW but I still have to deal with more Object-Types than neccesary for pure Modeling.
All I ever needed was access to Vertices, Edges, Faces and Objects. There's nothing more required, really. If need be several objects could be merged to a discontiguous single mesh and split up again by doing a full Face Selections+Break, pretty much the way this works inside Silo. Alternatively one could sort Objects with some sort of Outliner/Object-List.
Appart from the Object-Mode I would suggest to abolish the App caries this (pretty well hidden) internal Library-Mechanism. I would not see a reason to make use of such too.
ya think i mentioned qt before in the past, don't think it is easy or possible for him to port to it though, since i dont think it is very easy to work with qt with C# since qt seems to be aimed at c++ and python dev.
im just making assumptions here by the way, last time i worked with QT was when they were still on qt3, and i was making a app for a linux distro that runs kde3.
so with qt4.x it may have gotten better for using other languages with.
please allow me to express some comments. I've been following this thread since the very beginning (last year) *wow it's been a year of active development.
Honestly I prefer the old UI framework, it's simple and uncustomizable, but the speed was awesome. launching the app wont take as long as current. The current UI has inconsistent button and slider, I think istonia just ported it to newer Ms studio and use the new UI framework. Although we're allowed to customize the toolbar and layout, seriously a modeling app with just few tools is just enough. Luxology developed their own UI framework because they're considering scalability. Look at their first version with just few simple modeling tools. Unless VW is goin this direction, I don't see any big issue with layout customization. It's essential but it's not something we can't live for. Look at Silo as well. Where's the layout? It's just few buttons on the left, on the bottom and occasionally a properties bar on the right. And that simplicity made users get accustomed to. I've proposed istonia to use Qt but unfortunately he's not familiar with the environment. Honestly I still like the very first UI framework though, not the current 'ms office' look rite now.
The second issue here is probably the tool in the button (on the right side) and streamline modeling tool. I think istonia mixed it up and they don't share the same code. *pardon me if i'm wrong. Although I was impressed the first time its introduced, the development got slow down just because of the bug fixes and get it working rite together with the tool on the button. My suggestion is, if we can combine the streamline tool into the button or vise versa, it'll simplify down the development time. I still remember the streamline tools were just bunch of tools with hotkey next to it and few lmb mmb rmb action. And then people love it. So why the tool button is still there if ppl can access them from streamline? (because the tool button has few options). And why do we use streamline? coz its faster with lmb mmb rmb action. wouldn't this be easier if we incorporate both of them into one single tool? For example, clicking the extrude button on the right give you some options like segment and direction slider, while clicking extrude on streamline tools with hotkey give you lmb mmb rmb actions. Isn't it simpler if the button has a shortcut key beside it and once pressed or clicked, the lmb mmb rmb action work and the properties appear at the same time? And that way we don't confuse ourselves customizing the hotkey.
Slim down the app, I agree with polyxo totally. Ask any vw users rite now and see if they have any idea about the blue color bone. People see vw as modeling app now. And since it's modeling app, focus on it. I've proposed istonia early in the development to hide the animation module. But for now, let's remove it. The modeling is not mature enough there's no point to continue on animation, and besides there are more better app for animation. But for modeling, there is potential.
well I apologize if I rant too much without much contribution. This is based on my experience following this thread since last year and saw vw grew. Mostly every features have been accomplished but I still see some essential foundation needed to be reworked. I hope if vw changes its name, it's not only changing for the sake of the name.
As for the combining of viual tool with streamline tool, I remember you have made the same suggestion before. There is no one on one mapping between the two type of tools. Streamline tools are flexible rather than fixed, it is possible that you can put different tools into one streamline tool or spread similar tools into seperate streamline tools. Also if every time you activate a streamline tool a visual tool ui will appear no matter you need it or not may be anoying. But you can use streamline tool's event to open a visual tool, currently a number of streamline tools' redirect event is linked to a visual tool.
btw, many streamline tools and visual tools do share the same code.
I agree that silo is simple. But it could be too simple if you try to do hard surface modeling with it. I guess if silo has all the features that vw has, you may need two keyboards. I could be wrong since I hardly know how to use silo.
I was just playing with the Nov. 13 build and had a few observations.
When using the spline tool, if you click and put a point somewhere and try to undo it, you can't. CTRL-Z doesn't do anything.
Also, if you are creating an open curve, in a lot of applications you hit ESC to end the drawing session, but in VW hitting ESC deletes the entire curve and you can't undo the delete.
I noticed when trying to type numbers to set values, hitting TAB doesn't move you to the next box. This is really frustrating, since pretty much everything in Windows and online works this way. Also, sometimes boxes have a slider bar next to them, and sometimes they don't. It'd be nice to have a standard. I think the slider looks neat, but it's taking up space. You could just as easily do like Adobe does and have a small space between the arrows next to the box. When you click and hold on that space, your cursor becomes arrows and then you simply move your mouse up and down to slide through the values. That way you can get rid of all the slider boxes and simplify the interface.
And, speaking of splines. Is there a way to create nurbs patches from spline curves?
I also couldn't quite figure out how to easily turn on and off symmetry. Symmetry is really important. I'd almost like to see it as a permanent button right in the viewports. Just a small button with the letter S in it would do the trick. It might also be worth it to make it easy to turn on or off the visibility of the symmetry plane.
I haven't used the software to understand what you mean by streamline tools versus visual tools. But in terms of overall organization, I tend to like things to be very simplified. So, you could simply have a Create menu and a Modify menu. Create is where you're actually creating anything - geometry, spline curves, instances, etc. Modify is translate, rotate, scale, extrude, bevel, extract, and so on.
Finally - I find the SmartTips window really aggravating. It's always popping up over the tools menu. It'd be nice if it only popped up based on a key combination or drop-down menu.
Sorry for the lengthy post - hopefully this isn't a bunch of stuff that's already been discussed to death.
@paulrus for making splines use "q" instead of "esc" to end the session and create the spline object, personally i like how "escape" just kills it.
but ya the no undo in making splines is a pain in the ass.
a few updates ago tab started working for me for moving input fields, just tap shift or alt first, since find once and a while VW thinks im holding one of those keys when im not.
about splines, to nurbs, well there isn't nurbs in VW at all best you can do is use the slide tool to make 2 splines into polygons than apply subd to it, when using the slide tool you can control how tessellated the resulting mesh is.
there is a button for symmetry on the top toolbar, it looks like a circle with a line through it, and is beside the soft selection toggle, i use it so often i made my own stream line tool for toggling symmetry, and calculating symmetry on objects.
Smart tips can be disabled
edit>options>smarttip options
visual tools are the basic tools that use a UI, streamline tools are mostly the one that are bound to keys and work in a interactive way, and streamline tool can be customized by the user, or new ones can be created by combining basic tools.
Summary of changes:
* Undo/Redo works in spline creation tool.
* Some works are done on input field cycling by Tab key. paulrus, if it doesn't work please let me know.
Thanks!
OStonia: I'm still missing a way to work entirely without a manipulator. Could you make it so, if selection mode is active and I use w, e or r with the rmb (axis) option, that it goes back to selection mode afterwards? I'd still want to get the manipulator when I just press and release w, e or r, though. Even if this were a user preference, that'd be wonderful.
MightyPea: It is possible already. In the streamline W/E/R tools, use drag-drop to change the Turn-On-Manipulator tool from event "On Acitvated" to "On Taped". I put it in "On Activated" event in default setting because new user may get confused visually.
Ah, wonderful. I haven't looked into customisation much yet because things change so often. I suppose I really should, though!
edit: for the defaults, how about adding 'bridge' to the D shortcut's 'on activated'?
edit (again): How about automatically selecting the newly created mesh when you duplicate something? It's impossible to see which is the new part, and harder still to select it!
EDIT 3: The Return of the Edit.
If I choose 'workplane' in the radial menu, it pops up a little menu, but it's empty aside from the close button.
Summary of changes:
* A bug in spline Tweak tool is fixed, which may disable viewport snapping.
* E exit button is added to Spline-Lathe/Spline-Slide/Vertex-Spline-Modify tool. It makes it possible to use all available spline tools while the tool's result is still alive. for detail see Help > Contents > Modeling > Vertex Section > Spline Vertex > Spline Slide > Note: > E exit button. Misc Tools > Finalize Spline Modifer.
Thanks!
MightyPea:
The 'Bridge' is already assigned to edge D tool. In streamline tool customizing form, select the edge D tool then click the 'Reset Selected' button to bring up the default setting. 'Bridge' should be 'On Acivated' while 'Bridge Holes' is assigned to 'Redirect'.
New created objects, duplicates, instances should be selected automatically, otherwise it is a bug.
If you open the Workplane tool in a full screen mode, a tool panel will appear to indicate that the tool is opened even though the tool has no ui contents.
Yeah, I don't make the duplicated faces as selected if they are duplicated to form a new object or mesh because I thought you can just switch to object or mesh mode to select the new object or mesh. I will make the new faces as selected automatically in next update.
ya +1 on mightypea, i think the new object should be selected on duplicate too, since in most cases, your going to want to work with the new faces, or using some like shell tool right away on them, and really once that is done, and there is part of the new object not occupying the exact same space, the selection problem goes away.
Summary of changes:
* Duplicated polygons will always be selected automatically after poly duplicate operation. The same applys to polygon split operation.
* Object uniform scaling is improved. Manipulator's pivot position is considered.
Thanks!
Offtopic sort of, but how would/could you determine the bounds box of a mesh, if the pivot rotation is in a different direction?
I'm looking at 3DS Max for example, and the bounds box info is accessible and correct, but I just can't figure out now how to get a new object to align to that bounds.
If you click the viewport direction type lable on top-right viewport to bring up the viewport menu, you should be able to see the 'Show Bounding Box' option.
If you want to align an object's position and orientation to another object, you can use the a Selection-Snapping tool. It is only available in streamline tools. Do you know how to setup a streamline tool? There are two Selection-Snapping tools under Generic Tools in the basic streamline tools library, Snap_Position_Only/Snap_Position_Normal. Once you have setup a streamline tool to use these snapping tools, You can set the snapping option to 'Object' then activate that streamline tool to do the aligning.
Hopefully I understand you correctly.
Edit: There is a default streamline tool called 'Snap Selection'.
If you wondered what happened to me, I had my major computer go down, with the dual videocards, the fans went out on them and overheating issues caused a meltdown, so I am stuck on my laptop with the 9400 nvidia in it, and the tablet monitor doesn't work really good on it, only works in clone mode, sorry for the lack of updates on this, and explaining what happned to the tuts.. I will be buying a new puter after xmas, so once I snag a new I7 barebones, w/ 4-8gigs of ram, and a new solid state drive for apps and OS to make it almost instant speedwise, I will also put my old drives and burner etc.. in it, so I will have all my models and tutorials I recorded, and can then finally finish and upload them.. Sorry but they are stuck on the harddrive without video right now..
Thanks for everything IStonia, I will be back soon!!!
Summary of changes:
* In Scene Explorer, double click object name for renaming.
* For slice tools, to slice vertically/horizontally, press down Shift key. If there is any hotkey confliction that makes it impossible to use Shift key, there are two new basic streamline tools, Slice_VH, Slice(Split)_VH.
* Snappings can be used in slice tools. In this case, the slice plane will be treated as infinite.
* A bug in viewport size computation is fixed. In previous version, arranging dock windows may cause incorrect viewport size.
* 3D-Coat in memory detection is improved.
Thanks!
Are there any plans to add support for preserver UVs like Maya and Max has?
If this feature available I would be completely sold.
The only other thing that I would really like to see is some good alignment, scale, and stretch tools.
There is a script for modo that I use that allows you to select some components say just some of the verts of one cylinder and then scale/stretch another set of comments to match the selection of the first. So lets say I want to make a cylinder that exactly touches several verts with its bounds. I would just Selectric those verts, then select the polygons of my cylinder and hit a button and bam.
Also would be really nice to see a match UV ratio tool there to match the texel density between deifferent uv shells. This usually works off selection. With either the first or the last polygon/shell in a selection being scaled to the first or the last compent in the selction.
I found a repeatable crashing bug! Hopefully it's easy to fix:
This is the Cut tool, when pressing mmb. mmb 'skips the polygon point', which as you can tell in this case should result in nothing happening, but instead crashes without an error message.
edit: Updated to the latest version just to be sure, and it crashes there as well.
Summary of changes:
* A bug in mmb cut tool is fixed. It causes app crashes.
* Viewport layout arrangements are saved on app exit.
* Viewport under cursor will become the active viewport automatically.
* For visual tools, Enter key will serve as acceptance. But if there are few input fields and one of them is focused, Enter key will behave like Tab key to confirm the modified value and shift focuse onto the next input control.
* obj, dae and vws files can be merged into scene by drag-drop.
* Two new basic streamline tools, Measure_Orthagraphic and Measure_SnapPoints under Generic Tools group.
Thanks!
Replies
well a Anvil is a tool to shape metal, and vw is a tool to shape and make polygons.
there both for creating and shaping somehting.
I have worked with anvils for years. Even in the losest sense I would not see how smithing by using Anvils and SubD-Modeling have anything in common.
also when i think of software and hammer i think of valves bsp/map editor
Cheers
Mal
I remember ,while doing logos, that the best names are the ones like SONY.
Something that sticks in your mind and that is easy to read,visualize and remember.
Silo,Wings,Mirai,Softimage,Naya,Lightwave,Houdini,Mudbox...
don't have direct 3d modeling relation in their names,
so ANVIL fits the bill as well. Why Silo?
Maybe it could be ENVIL or N-VIL ,
as a N sided polygon,
which is common in 3d world, and it includes ANVIL (homophone) in it's name.
Also it could picture an idyllic small town made of n-gons (Enwille),of course.
I Like N_VIL and a really cool icon maybe something with 3D included to go with it would be good.
http://3d-coat.com/3d-coat-37/
edit: will have to make sure they know about the name change when it happens.
http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/VoidWorld-nov-13-11.rar
Summary of changes:
* The command, View > Toggle Unselected Object Visibility, is improved. When this command is excuted, if there are any unselected objects, the program will remember them in a list and then hide them. When this command is executed again, if there is no unselected visible object, the program will only unhide those objects in the memory list so other hidden objects will still remain hidden.
* Edge Mode > Geometry > Create Opened/Closed Spline.
* Tube option is added into spline Slide tool for quick tube object creation. Help > Contents > Modeling > Vertex Section > Spline Vertex > Spline Slide > Note > Tube.
Thanks!
---
VoidWorld Forums: http://voidworld.cmcproductions.co.uk/index.php
Anvil or N-Vil both seem to work and I agree that it does kind-of make sense with n sided polys - though I don't particularly think it's important or necessary for a name to have any relevance to the product at all (Maya, Silo, Sumatra - XSI's name before it was XSI).
N-Vil feels a little clumsier and harder to say than Anvil, but not so much that it's unworkable. Anvil invokes the feeling of a craftsman, someone pounding and shaping iron into a work of art, etc. It connects the old with the new and feels substantial & not cheap. (which is what 3D Coat has always sounded like to me).
Anyway, just my opinion. ;-)
Looking forward to the final release!
Paul
Kanoed
Kanoed 3d
I dont know if the meaning for the word Kanoed is totally relevant but here it is:-
"To be 'Kanoed" is when somebody else repeats back a saying or quote which you used earlier, and uses it back on you."
Kinda like Silo to VoidWorld in a software context, but then my logic is probably flawed.
[ame="
How about doing a release with the orange type theme either from Silo or the one in 3D-Coat?? You know, with the dark grey / black type background, and the orange buttons etc.. The reason I'm asking is Wed. is my birthday, and I have been waiting for a version with colors etc.. similar to Glen Southern's Silo theme but for silo... Just a thought.. ;')
BTW: I love the new updates, they are awesome, I finally have a Dr. YEAH!!! Now, between hunting, doing projects with the kids, I'll finish it all up for everyone..
Also, yes I noticed 3DCoat mentioned VW, why wouldn't they, VW has turned into a totally viable app that is easy to use, and fully functional, I'm telling you, I haven't touched silo since!!!
Ciao' 4 now,
StOrM3
Happy birthday! Btw, are you getting older or younger?
hehehe
the current UI kinda looks like you got too tool gui tool kits going, since some elements just look and act different from other ones that are for almost the exact same function.
good example of that is the spinners, some are just black up and down arrows, and they allow you to drag up and down on them to change the value, than there are other ones that look like native windows ones but don't allow you to click and drag.
should just be one or the other, preferable the first one o mentioned do to better functionality.
there are a few other cases of similar things in the UI
UI is crucial for product placement and popularity.
Although in certain cases quality of the package dictates the above(eg. Zbrush,3dcoat).
The other big thing for me is - consistant tools. I am always frustrated with 3DCoat because the tools are inconsistant. In some tools you can hold down on the X Y or Z key and force the tool to only work in that dimension, but in other tools that doesn't work at all. So you have to remember which one it works in and which ones it doesn't.
So, IMHO, it's very important that features work across the board, not just in one area.
Additionally, don't get bogged down with what Lightwave did - adding tool after tool after tool. Lightwave could have about 50% of it's tools merged together and it work work just fine. A move tool should work with points, polys or edges, you shouldn't need a move point tool, a move poly tool and a move edge tool. Just make a functional tool, then make sure it works no matter what mode you're in.
Sorry - I know I'm getting way off the topic of interface colors. Too much caffeine at lunch!
Paul
It is the Framework Silo uses but also large names as Maya, Maxwell and all programs of The Foundry are built with with this free and open Source Cross-Platform Framework. I can't imagine that it hasn't been proposed already but here's a link.
Concerning the Feature-Consolidation Paulrus is talking about I can only agree. While Istonia has done some great work (!)in this area already I still see really massive potential to slim the application down.
One questionable area not mentioned yet is the hierarchical approach Voidworld uses. I personally do not want to animate and to use Bones inside VW but I still have to deal with more Object-Types than neccesary for pure Modeling.
All I ever needed was access to Vertices, Edges, Faces and Objects. There's nothing more required, really. If need be several objects could be merged to a discontiguous single mesh and split up again by doing a full Face Selections+Break, pretty much the way this works inside Silo. Alternatively one could sort Objects with some sort of Outliner/Object-List.
Appart from the Object-Mode I would suggest to abolish the App caries this (pretty well hidden) internal Library-Mechanism. I would not see a reason to make use of such too.
im just making assumptions here by the way, last time i worked with QT was when they were still on qt3, and i was making a app for a linux distro that runs kde3.
so with qt4.x it may have gotten better for using other languages with.
Honestly I prefer the old UI framework, it's simple and uncustomizable, but the speed was awesome. launching the app wont take as long as current. The current UI has inconsistent button and slider, I think istonia just ported it to newer Ms studio and use the new UI framework. Although we're allowed to customize the toolbar and layout, seriously a modeling app with just few tools is just enough. Luxology developed their own UI framework because they're considering scalability. Look at their first version with just few simple modeling tools. Unless VW is goin this direction, I don't see any big issue with layout customization. It's essential but it's not something we can't live for. Look at Silo as well. Where's the layout? It's just few buttons on the left, on the bottom and occasionally a properties bar on the right. And that simplicity made users get accustomed to. I've proposed istonia to use Qt but unfortunately he's not familiar with the environment. Honestly I still like the very first UI framework though, not the current 'ms office' look rite now.
The second issue here is probably the tool in the button (on the right side) and streamline modeling tool. I think istonia mixed it up and they don't share the same code. *pardon me if i'm wrong. Although I was impressed the first time its introduced, the development got slow down just because of the bug fixes and get it working rite together with the tool on the button. My suggestion is, if we can combine the streamline tool into the button or vise versa, it'll simplify down the development time. I still remember the streamline tools were just bunch of tools with hotkey next to it and few lmb mmb rmb action. And then people love it. So why the tool button is still there if ppl can access them from streamline? (because the tool button has few options). And why do we use streamline? coz its faster with lmb mmb rmb action. wouldn't this be easier if we incorporate both of them into one single tool? For example, clicking the extrude button on the right give you some options like segment and direction slider, while clicking extrude on streamline tools with hotkey give you lmb mmb rmb actions. Isn't it simpler if the button has a shortcut key beside it and once pressed or clicked, the lmb mmb rmb action work and the properties appear at the same time? And that way we don't confuse ourselves customizing the hotkey.
Slim down the app, I agree with polyxo totally. Ask any vw users rite now and see if they have any idea about the blue color bone. People see vw as modeling app now. And since it's modeling app, focus on it. I've proposed istonia early in the development to hide the animation module. But for now, let's remove it. The modeling is not mature enough there's no point to continue on animation, and besides there are more better app for animation. But for modeling, there is potential.
well I apologize if I rant too much without much contribution. This is based on my experience following this thread since last year and saw vw grew. Mostly every features have been accomplished but I still see some essential foundation needed to be reworked. I hope if vw changes its name, it's not only changing for the sake of the name.
I think some one uses the bones, http://www.silo3d.com/forum/showthread.php?t=17353&page=3, in Nizar's post.
As for the combining of viual tool with streamline tool, I remember you have made the same suggestion before. There is no one on one mapping between the two type of tools. Streamline tools are flexible rather than fixed, it is possible that you can put different tools into one streamline tool or spread similar tools into seperate streamline tools. Also if every time you activate a streamline tool a visual tool ui will appear no matter you need it or not may be anoying. But you can use streamline tool's event to open a visual tool, currently a number of streamline tools' redirect event is linked to a visual tool.
btw, many streamline tools and visual tools do share the same code.
I agree that silo is simple. But it could be too simple if you try to do hard surface modeling with it. I guess if silo has all the features that vw has, you may need two keyboards. I could be wrong since I hardly know how to use silo.
When using the spline tool, if you click and put a point somewhere and try to undo it, you can't. CTRL-Z doesn't do anything.
Also, if you are creating an open curve, in a lot of applications you hit ESC to end the drawing session, but in VW hitting ESC deletes the entire curve and you can't undo the delete.
I noticed when trying to type numbers to set values, hitting TAB doesn't move you to the next box. This is really frustrating, since pretty much everything in Windows and online works this way. Also, sometimes boxes have a slider bar next to them, and sometimes they don't. It'd be nice to have a standard. I think the slider looks neat, but it's taking up space. You could just as easily do like Adobe does and have a small space between the arrows next to the box. When you click and hold on that space, your cursor becomes arrows and then you simply move your mouse up and down to slide through the values. That way you can get rid of all the slider boxes and simplify the interface.
And, speaking of splines. Is there a way to create nurbs patches from spline curves?
I also couldn't quite figure out how to easily turn on and off symmetry. Symmetry is really important. I'd almost like to see it as a permanent button right in the viewports. Just a small button with the letter S in it would do the trick. It might also be worth it to make it easy to turn on or off the visibility of the symmetry plane.
I haven't used the software to understand what you mean by streamline tools versus visual tools. But in terms of overall organization, I tend to like things to be very simplified. So, you could simply have a Create menu and a Modify menu. Create is where you're actually creating anything - geometry, spline curves, instances, etc. Modify is translate, rotate, scale, extrude, bevel, extract, and so on.
Finally - I find the SmartTips window really aggravating. It's always popping up over the tools menu. It'd be nice if it only popped up based on a key combination or drop-down menu.
Sorry for the lengthy post - hopefully this isn't a bunch of stuff that's already been discussed to death.
Paul
but ya the no undo in making splines is a pain in the ass.
a few updates ago tab started working for me for moving input fields, just tap shift or alt first, since find once and a while VW thinks im holding one of those keys when im not.
about splines, to nurbs, well there isn't nurbs in VW at all best you can do is use the slide tool to make 2 splines into polygons than apply subd to it, when using the slide tool you can control how tessellated the resulting mesh is.
there is a button for symmetry on the top toolbar, it looks like a circle with a line through it, and is beside the soft selection toggle, i use it so often i made my own stream line tool for toggling symmetry, and calculating symmetry on objects.
Smart tips can be disabled
edit>options>smarttip options
visual tools are the basic tools that use a UI, streamline tools are mostly the one that are bound to keys and work in a interactive way, and streamline tool can be customized by the user, or new ones can be created by combining basic tools.
http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/VoidWorld-nov-20-11.rar
Summary of changes:
* Undo/Redo works in spline creation tool.
* Some works are done on input field cycling by Tab key. paulrus, if it doesn't work please let me know.
Thanks!
---
VoidWorld Forums: http://voidworld.cmcproductions.co.uk/index.php
here are the links for those that dont frequent the other site.
Spline Streamline tools:
http://voidworld.cmcproductions.co.uk/index.php/topic,80.0.html
Quad-Caps:
http://voidworld.cmcproductions.co.uk/index.php/topic,81.0.html
spline modify for advanced edge manipulation:
http://voidworld.cmcproductions.co.uk/index.php/topic,82.0.html
edit: for the defaults, how about adding 'bridge' to the D shortcut's 'on activated'?
edit (again): How about automatically selecting the newly created mesh when you duplicate something? It's impossible to see which is the new part, and harder still to select it!
EDIT 3: The Return of the Edit.
If I choose 'workplane' in the radial menu, it pops up a little menu, but it's empty aside from the close button.
http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/VoidWorld-nov-28-11.rar
Summary of changes:
* A bug in spline Tweak tool is fixed, which may disable viewport snapping.
* E exit button is added to Spline-Lathe/Spline-Slide/Vertex-Spline-Modify tool. It makes it possible to use all available spline tools while the tool's result is still alive. for detail see Help > Contents > Modeling > Vertex Section > Spline Vertex > Spline Slide > Note: > E exit button. Misc Tools > Finalize Spline Modifer.
Thanks!
MightyPea:
The 'Bridge' is already assigned to edge D tool. In streamline tool customizing form, select the edge D tool then click the 'Reset Selected' button to bring up the default setting. 'Bridge' should be 'On Acivated' while 'Bridge Holes' is assigned to 'Redirect'.
New created objects, duplicates, instances should be selected automatically, otherwise it is a bug.
If you open the Workplane tool in a full screen mode, a tool panel will appear to indicate that the tool is opened even though the tool has no ui contents.
http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/VoidWorld-Dec-04-11.rar
Summary of changes:
* Duplicated polygons will always be selected automatically after poly duplicate operation. The same applys to polygon split operation.
* Object uniform scaling is improved. Manipulator's pivot position is considered.
Thanks!
Offtopic sort of, but how would/could you determine the bounds box of a mesh, if the pivot rotation is in a different direction?
I'm looking at 3DS Max for example, and the bounds box info is accessible and correct, but I just can't figure out now how to get a new object to align to that bounds.
If you click the viewport direction type lable on top-right viewport to bring up the viewport menu, you should be able to see the 'Show Bounding Box' option.
If you want to align an object's position and orientation to another object, you can use the a Selection-Snapping tool. It is only available in streamline tools. Do you know how to setup a streamline tool? There are two Selection-Snapping tools under Generic Tools in the basic streamline tools library, Snap_Position_Only/Snap_Position_Normal. Once you have setup a streamline tool to use these snapping tools, You can set the snapping option to 'Object' then activate that streamline tool to do the aligning.
Hopefully I understand you correctly.
Edit: There is a default streamline tool called 'Snap Selection'.
If you wondered what happened to me, I had my major computer go down, with the dual videocards, the fans went out on them and overheating issues caused a meltdown, so I am stuck on my laptop with the 9400 nvidia in it, and the tablet monitor doesn't work really good on it, only works in clone mode, sorry for the lack of updates on this, and explaining what happned to the tuts.. I will be buying a new puter after xmas, so once I snag a new I7 barebones, w/ 4-8gigs of ram, and a new solid state drive for apps and OS to make it almost instant speedwise, I will also put my old drives and burner etc.. in it, so I will have all my models and tutorials I recorded, and can then finally finish and upload them.. Sorry but they are stuck on the harddrive without video right now..
Thanks for everything IStonia, I will be back soon!!!
Ciao' Mano',
Ken aka StOrM3
http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/VoidWorld-Jan-03-12.rar
Summary of changes:
* In Scene Explorer, double click object name for renaming.
* For slice tools, to slice vertically/horizontally, press down Shift key. If there is any hotkey confliction that makes it impossible to use Shift key, there are two new basic streamline tools, Slice_VH, Slice(Split)_VH.
* Snappings can be used in slice tools. In this case, the slice plane will be treated as infinite.
* A bug in viewport size computation is fixed. In previous version, arranging dock windows may cause incorrect viewport size.
* 3D-Coat in memory detection is improved.
Thanks!
storm3: What a pain!
If this feature available I would be completely sold.
The only other thing that I would really like to see is some good alignment, scale, and stretch tools.
There is a script for modo that I use that allows you to select some components say just some of the verts of one cylinder and then scale/stretch another set of comments to match the selection of the first. So lets say I want to make a cylinder that exactly touches several verts with its bounds. I would just Selectric those verts, then select the polygons of my cylinder and hit a button and bam.
Also would be really nice to see a match UV ratio tool there to match the texel density between deifferent uv shells. This usually works off selection. With either the first or the last polygon/shell in a selection being scaled to the first or the last compent in the selction.
This is the Cut tool, when pressing mmb. mmb 'skips the polygon point', which as you can tell in this case should result in nothing happening, but instead crashes without an error message.
edit: Updated to the latest version just to be sure, and it crashes there as well.
http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/VoidWorld-Jan-25-12.rar
Summary of changes:
* A bug in mmb cut tool is fixed. It causes app crashes.
* Viewport layout arrangements are saved on app exit.
* Viewport under cursor will become the active viewport automatically.
* For visual tools, Enter key will serve as acceptance. But if there are few input fields and one of them is focused, Enter key will behave like Tab key to confirm the modified value and shift focuse onto the next input control.
* obj, dae and vws files can be merged into scene by drag-drop.
* Two new basic streamline tools, Measure_Orthagraphic and Measure_SnapPoints under Generic Tools group.
Thanks!
Well - it looks just like a crash. The popup says that VW has stopped working and has to close. Tell me if I should send you my Preferences.