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NVil(1.0) Released

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Replies

  • IStonia
    New Update
    http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/NVil-Mar-14-13.rar

    Summary of changes:
    * Some minor bug fixings.
    Thanks!
  • IStonia
    New Update
    http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/NVil-Mar-16-13.rar

    Summary of changes:
    * Some more functionalities are added to 'Retopo' tool.
    Help > Contents > Modeling > Edge Section > Retopo
    -Cut tool
    -Transformation tools > Transform Polygon/Slide subobjects/Soft selection tweak
    Thanks!
  • Michael Knubben
    Hey Istonia

    Could it be setup so that when the mesh is displaying as transparent, I can highlight and select all the way through it? It would really help with selecting parts of a mesh that lie inside of another mesh.

    edit: also, for portable settings, how about letting nvil look for a settings subdir in its own directory? That way I could put my whole nvil folder on dropbox, executables and all. Really that'd be my ideal setup, so I hope it's possible.
  • IStonia
    MightyPea wrote: »
    Hey Istonia

    Could it be setup so that when the mesh is displaying as transparent, I can highlight and select all the way through it? It would really help with selecting parts of a mesh that lie inside of another mesh.

    Have you tried this, Edit > Options > Igore Wired/Transparent Polygon On Selection.
    MightyPea wrote: »
    Hey Istonia

    edit: also, for portable settings, how about letting nvil look for a settings subdir in its own directory? That way I could put my whole nvil folder on dropbox, executables and all. Really that'd be my ideal setup, so I hope it's possible.

    I don't think it is a good idea as for each update you have a new executable in a new folder.
  • Michael Knubben
    That's exactly it, thanks!

    I don't understand why you think there's a new executable? I just overwrite everything when I update.
  • IStonia
    For each update, you have a new folder like 'NVil-Mar-17-13'. Do you want to move your existing setting file folder into the new update folder for every new update release?
  • Michael Knubben
    I just have a folder called Nvil that I extract the files of a new version into, overwriting all the files. The preferences would be a subfolder of that one, and I wouldn't overwrite them.
  • passerby
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    passerby polycounter lvl 12
    aren't the settings by default in the windows user folder anyways?
  • IStonia
    MightyPea wrote: »
    I just have a folder called Nvil that I extract the files of a new version into, overwriting all the files. The preferences would be a subfolder of that one, and I wouldn't overwrite them.

    Do you mean you have the whole app folder in your usb drive?

    Have you tried 'Edit > Preference > Special Options > "NVil Portable User Settings" folder search enabled'? I haven't got your feedback on this. Because you asked for it.
  • IStonia
    New Update
    http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/NVil-Mar-31-13.rar

    Summary of changes:
    * Number of user tool windows is increased from 10 to 30.
    * Some bug fixings.
    * Edit > Preference > Options > Custom/Front/Back/... View has own camera settings. If this option is On, these views will have different eye points and focus points which do not affect each other when switch between these views whthin the same viewport.
    * View > Set View Navigation Space > Set To Workplane/World Space. The viewport camera's up-vector and Front/Back/... views are defined according to the space used.
    * Edit > Preference > Sepcial Options > "User Settings" folder in application folder.
    * An option is added to camera creation command so the new camera can be aligned to current view.
    * View > Object Shading > Object Individual Shading > Show/Hide Subdivision Cage.
    Thanks!
  • Michael Knubben
    I haven't tried the usb thing, as Dropbox was always what I wanted to use for this. I've enabled the new option now, so I'll let you know when I get home if things sync and it works.
  • Michael Knubben
    Just tweaked the interface colours of my regular install's settings and the copy on dropbox, and they're both retaining their changes, so it's finding the local User Settings directory. So as long as Dropbox does its work, I think this is going to work!

    Previously I'd tried Symlinks, but those had the problem that Dropbox only saw the changes on system boot, so it didn't sync very well. This should work great, and I couldn't be happier to be able to take my settings with me everywhere without any hassle.
  • IStonia
    New Update
    http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/NVil-Apr-01-13.rar

    Summary of changes:
    * Search function is added to Hotkey Editor.
    Thanks!
  • IStonia
    New Update
    http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/NVil-Apr-02-13.rar

    Summary of changes:
    * Viewport context menu > Custom (Perspective)
    * Viewport context menu > Cycle Views Up/Down.
    Thanks!
  • Michael Knubben
    Is there any way to stop Nvil from adding hard edges all the time? I want to add those by hand, and maybe just have a shader setting with an angle treshold for during modeling.
    I've set Hard Edge treshold to 0 and 180, and neither makes a different, I keep getting hard edges all the time. For instance when bridging.

    edit: to clarify the shader setting, I'd want some 'temporary' visual settings. One where everything's always smooth (hard edges remain tagged as hard, but are displayed soft), one where everything's always hard (again, without depending on the actual hard edges, or overwriting them in the process), one with an angle treshold, where anything over a certain angle gets displayed with split normals, and finally one which shows the mesh as it really is, with user-made splits.
    I think this might already be partially (or fully) in place, and I might just be missing the right settings.
  • Michael Knubben
    And another question: I want to set subobject selection up to be more like my Silo setup. Much like now number keys select the different modes (vert/edge/face/object), but when you go into one of them it turns off multi-selection untill I press space and it deselects and turns multi-selection back on.
    It's a small change, but it would mean I don't constantly need to toggle multi-selection on and off, and to me it feels very natural.
  • IStonia
    MightyPea wrote: »
    Is there any way to stop Nvil from adding hard edges all the time? I want to add those by hand, and maybe just have a shader setting with an angle treshold for during modeling.
    I've set Hard Edge treshold to 0 and 180, and neither makes a different, I keep getting hard edges all the time. For instance when bridging.

    I need to go through all the related tools to make them take the hard edge threshold value into account. It will take quite a while to get them all done.
    MightyPea wrote: »
    edit: to clarify the shader setting, I'd want some 'temporary' visual settings. One where everything's always smooth (hard edges remain tagged as hard, but are displayed soft), one where everything's always hard (again, without depending on the actual hard edges, or overwriting them in the process), one with an angle treshold, where anything over a certain angle gets displayed with split normals, and finally one which shows the mesh as it really is, with user-made splits.

    There is an option to display all edges as hard edges already, View > Object Shading > 'Toggle Hard/Soft Edges'/'Hard Edges Style'. I will see if I can create an option to display all edges as soft edges.
    MightyPea wrote: »
    And another question: I want to set subobject selection up to be more like my Silo setup. Much like now number keys select the different modes (vert/edge/face/object), but when you go into one of them it turns off multi-selection untill I press space and it deselects and turns multi-selection back on.
    It's a small change, but it would mean I don't constantly need to toggle multi-selection on and off, and to me it feels very natural.

    If I provide an option like 'Automatically turn of subobject multi-selection when entering a subobject mode', will that solve your problem?
  • Michael Knubben
    If it turns multi-selection back on when I deselect by hotkey but not by clicking in empty space, that's perfect.
    Although I wonder if that will work nicely when going from object mode to the subobject modes.
    Right now I just hit 1 2 or 3 to go into multi-selection (which with this new option would disable multi-selection), but ideally I'd like tab to toggle between object and multi-selection subobject mode, even better then if holding down tab would give you a radial menu with all the modes.

    I'd set all of this up myself ofcourse, I'm just missing the option to have streamline tools call radial menus. I could then set up a radial menu on ... activated, I guess? Is there a way to set a delay on that? Because if I press and release it will go straight to 'on tapped', but I'm guessing it would still flash the radial menu, even if only briefly?

    Anyway, just rambling out loud, let me know if any of this is possible and what you think. I'm just trying to get the most out of a limited amount of hotkeys, and I like what Maya does with their hotbox for instance, where space does one thing when tapped(maximise viewports, I believe?), and calls a menu when held.
  • IStonia
    New Update
    http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/NVil-Apr-03-13.rar

    Summary of changes:
    * A few options for sharp/smooth/normal edges rendering. View > Object Shading > Normal/Sharp/Smooth Edge Options >... Note: 'Toggle Hard/Soft Edges' is rename to 'Toggle Sharp/Smooth Edges' and the related hotkey/RadialMenu settings are lost, you need to reassign them.
    * Edit > Options > Subobject Occlusion Selection Enabled.
    Thanks!
  • BeatKitano
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    BeatKitano polycounter lvl 16
    My compliment IStonia, I recently launched Nvil after a looong time and it has come a long way :)

    I really like the user tool panels, in fact so much I miss a few user created presets for them because they can make the app sooo much easier to grasp (especially with all those functions now).
  • IStonia
    Hi beatKitano, good to hear you again. There have been alot of changes and new features. I hope you fine them usefull rather than junk.

    Any chance we can have a glance of your user tool design?
  • IStonia
    MightyPea wrote: »
    If it turns multi-selection back on when I deselect by hotkey but not by clicking in empty space, that's perfect.
    Although I wonder if that will work nicely when going from object mode to the subobject modes.
    Right now I just hit 1 2 or 3 to go into multi-selection (which with this new option would disable multi-selection), but ideally I'd like tab to toggle between object and multi-selection subobject mode, even better then if holding down tab would give you a radial menu with all the modes.

    I'd set all of this up myself ofcourse, I'm just missing the option to have streamline tools call radial menus. I could then set up a radial menu on ... activated, I guess? Is there a way to set a delay on that? Because if I press and release it will go straight to 'on tapped', but I'm guessing it would still flash the radial menu, even if only briefly?

    Anyway, just rambling out loud, let me know if any of this is possible and what you think. I'm just trying to get the most out of a limited amount of hotkeys, and I like what Maya does with their hotbox for instance, where space does one thing when tapped(maximise viewports, I believe?), and calls a menu when held.

    If you bind a radial menu to a streamline tool's 'On Activated' event, because the nature of radial menu, once it is activated, the streamline tool must exit. So there is no difference from biding the radial menu directly to the hotkey. If you bind the radial menu to a hotkey+MouseButton, you can also bind a streamline tool to the same hotkey provided the streamline tool uses different mouse buttons.

    I am still trying to understand what really bothers you. Can you explain in steps? What is the current behaviou and what is your expected behaviour.
  • Michael Knubben
    What I'm asking for is then maybe just an extra way to call an event, in addition to On Activated and On Tapped?
    One that only activates when a key is held for a certain amount of time (in microseconds, not seconds). A way to have one hotkey be able to do one thing when tapped and another when held.
    I've got my x key set up like this right now, pressing x deletes while holding x opens a streamline tool with collapse etc, but I can see what you're saying: even tapping x very quickly still makes the little streamline tool window flash briefly.

    To make sure I'm being absolutely clear, here it is in steps, in an example tool:

    I press (press and release immediately) x, the 'delete' function is called.
    I hold x (for a set amount of time. 0.3 seconds for example), a custom radial menu pops up. Releasing x closes this menu without doing anything. It doesn't call the 'delete' function either.

    I also want to make clear that nothing bothers me, I hope my posts didn't come across like that!
    I'm trying to set nvil up to be perfectly to my liking,(while I experiment with workflow) and I really appreciate your responsiveness. It's what's made nvil take such huge strides in quality since you started posting here, you *really* listen to your users, but at the same time you don't just mindlessly add everything that's asked for, you think about it. The fact that you're asking me to describe exactly how I think this should work is a great sign.

    edit: speaking of the Maya hotbox, I'd also like it if windows (and user menus) could be called with a hotkey. Example case:
    I map a hotkey to open my user menu. I'd like the menu to be spawned at my cursor position (much like radial menus you'd make sure they're always spawned within the limits of the screen), and dissapear when my cursor leaves the spawned window. This would allow for a lot of user customisation in terms of how minimal they can make their interface without losing functionality
  • IStonia
    New Update
    http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/NVil-Apr-07-13.rar

    Summary of changes:
    * Vertex display minimum size is changed from 3 to 1. Edit > Preference > General > Vertex Size.
    * 'On Delayed' event is added to streamline tools. It will be triggered if the streamline tool is activated through hotkeys and the hotkeys is held over a specified period of time. Edit > Preference > Genteral > StreamLine delay event timing.
    * Radial menus can be activated by streamline tools.
    * A new group of windows tools is added, Edit > Customize > Tools > Hot Windows. If a window is brought up by one of these tools, the window will be placed right under the cursor and once the cursor leaves the window the window will autohide itself.
    * Some bug fixings.
    Thanks!
  • IStonia
    New Update
    http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/NVil-Apr-08-13.rar

    Summary of changes:
    * A bug introduced in previous update is fixed, which causes crash on brand new startup.
    Thanks!
  • IStonia
    New Update
    http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/NVil-Apr-11-13.rar

    Summary of changes:
    * Some bug fixings.
    * Edit > Preference > Options > Proportional subobject Slide. This can be used to set the default slide style. But during sliding, Shift/ctrl key can be used to toggle the slide style between Even/Proportional.
    * Edit > Preference > Camera Rendering Enabled.
    * Camera can be activated by dragging it from 'Scene Explorer' into the viewport.
    Thanks!
  • Michael Knubben
    The subobject occlusion option doesn't appear to do anything. Perhaps it's my settings, but could you explain how it's meant to work?

    Here's a link to my user settings, if you want to check: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/cj1ln9dek0wipcm/tejOFD0pig

    edit: the search in the tool list is a great addition, thanks!
    I'm going to try the radial menu on a hotkey thing as well, I'll let you know how it goes.

    Also, the user tool windows now show the state of buttons, that's great! I'll play around with that. Is there a way to set a different image for that?
    What would also be useful is for button highlight and checked state to optionally render a colour behind the icon (I use transparency in my icons so the background shows through) rather than an edge highlight. It's something I've been playing around with in my interface mockup.

    edit again: Could the colors tab get alpha/transparancy values for things like edge colors and highlights and such?
  • IStonia
    MightyPea wrote: »
    The subobject occlusion option doesn't appear to do anything. Perhaps it's my settings, but could you explain how it's meant to work?
    QUOTE]


    When you drag a rectangle to select subobjects that are facing the camera, some items are blocked by faces in the front so they will be excluded from the selection. But if this option is enabled, no exclusion will occure.
    MightyPea wrote: »
    Also, the user tool windows now show the state of buttons, that's great! I'll play around with that. Is there a way to set a different image for that?
    What would also be useful is for button highlight and checked state to optionally render a colour behind the icon (I use transparency in my icons so the background shows through) rather than an edge highlight. It's something I've been playing around with in my interface mockup.

    edit again: Could the colors tab get alpha/transparancy values for things like edge colors and highlights and such?

    I will look at them later.
  • IStonia
    New Update
    http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/NVil-Apr-13-13.rar

    Summary of changes:
    * View > Windows > Apperance > Auto Hide Button Fore Color.
    * Lathe tool is improved. It is possible to have rotations of floating values. By default, world space is used. If save transform is presented, it will be used. Otherwise if workplane is visible and locked, workplane space will be used.
    * 'Keep the longest spline only on creation' option is added to Retopo tool. Sometimes one draw may create multiple splines. This option can be usefull to get the expected spline created only.
    * A new basic streamline tool under subobject group, Slide Selection (Linear). Vertices will slide along one of its edges.
    * Edit > Preference > General > Spline vertex size.
    * Some bug fixings.
    Thanks!
  • Michael Knubben
    Ooh, can't wait to try that button thing. thanks!

    Came across this, there are some interesting ideas in here: http://cgcookie.com/blender/2013/03/19/tip-using-the-f2-add-on/
  • IStonia
    New Update
    http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/NVil-Apr-16-13.rar

    Summary of changes:
    * Radial menus can be activated from 'Tool Search' window and 'User Tool' windows.
    * Subobject group managing is moved to 'Scene Explorer > Object Groups'. The following tool is removed, Geommtery > Create > Subobject Group'.
    * Selection > Selection Modes > Cycle Up/Down. Edit > Preference > Filters > Selection Mode Cycle Filters.
    * Some bug fixings.
    Thanks!
  • IStonia
    New Update
    http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/NVil-Apr-17-13.rar

    Summary of changes:
    * A Win key related bug is fixed. In previous update, if Win key is pressed within NVil then leave NVil and click E key without pressing down Win key, Window Explorer will be fired up.
    Thanks!
  • IStonia
    New Update
    http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/NVil-Apr-18-13.rar

    Summary of changes:
    * Edit > Reference > Options > Track ball viewport rotation.
    * Edit > Customize > Tools > View Navigation Tools > Spin View. Together with 'Rotate View' tool, 'Spin View' tool can be useful in track-ball style navigation.
    Thanks!
  • IStonia
    New Update
    http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/NVil-Apr-19-13.rar

    Summary of changes:
    * Some bug fixings on hot box window operations.
    Thanks!
  • IStonia
    New Update
    http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/NVil-Apr-20-13.rar

    Summary of changes:
    * Polygon mode > Geometry > Make NGon. Remove edges inside selected polygons.
    Thanks!
  • Michael Knubben
    Hmm, the auto-hide button fore color wasn't what I thought it was. What is it supposed to do?
    I thought this would be what I requested about checked buttons filling in the background behind the button, showing through the icon's transparency.
  • Michael Knubben
    Ran into a problem with docking:

    vw_dockingproblem.png

    I screwed something up with my layout, so I set out to recreate it. When I dragged the soft selection window over the bottom of the docked user tool window, my viewport dissapeared almost entirely, you can just about see a sliver of it at the top.
  • IStonia
    New Update
    http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/NVil-Apr-22-13.rar

    Summary of changes:
    * Polygon mode > Geometry > Poke. Subdivide hilighted or selected polygons from the center of the polygon.
    * BackGround image setup is improved. They are visible in workplane space orthographic views.
    Thanks!


    MightyPea wrote: »
    Hmm, the auto-hide button fore color wasn't what I thought it was. What is it supposed to do?
    I thought this would be what I requested about checked buttons filling in the background behind the button, showing through the icon's transparency.

    Can you show me a sample mockup?

    MightyPea wrote: »
    Ran into a problem with docking:

    vw_dockingproblem.png

    I screwed something up with my layout, so I set out to recreate it. When I dragged the soft selection window over the bottom of the docked user tool window, my viewport dissapeared almost entirely, you can just about see a sliver of it at the top.

    Can't see the picture.
  • Michael Knubben
    Really? It's on dropbox, maybe try reloading? It might've been down when you looked.

    Either way, nevermind the previous request for checked colour, I'm just doing it with images now and that works. Bit of work to save out two states for everything, but it works fairly well.
    Could you add a toggle to the 'customise button'-dialog that sets which function decides whether the button's drawn as checked or not?
    For instance, I've got buttons for switching to vert/edge/face/etc., which very nicely display the checked image when you're in that mode. When I add extra functions to these buttons though, it stops displaying the checked image, presumably because Nvil no longer knows which function's the main one?
    If there'd be a way to specify which one determines the state of the button, that'd be great!
    Here's a sneak peek at a (messy, work-in-progress!) version of my interface right now:
    https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/17715/vw_peek.png
    That floating window's mapped to alt+5, and will eventually contain all Object-related tools, preferably with icons where it makes sense. It's just a test right now, and I don't have a lot of time to spend on it. Similarly, alt+1,2,3 and 4 will have menus for the other modes. This will be useful when working in fullscreen (like expert mode in 3dsmax), for those commands you don't use often enough to map to their own hotkey.

    edit: to get closer to my mockup design, another few things I'd like to see:
    the ability to turn off the button overlay (the outline and slight gradient/emboss) and to have buttons without a gap around them.
    This way I could create things like the subobject select element on the top right of this image:
    https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/17715/vw_UI.jpg
    It's purely eye-candy, so if you're not ready to focus on this that's fine for me.
  • IStonia
    New Update
    http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/NVil-Apr-23-13.rar

    Summary of changes:
    * User tool window context menu > Allow Button Checked State Display In Customization Mode.
    * A bug in orthographic Right-View setup is fixed.
    * Retopo mode is taken into account in brush tweak operations.
    Thanks!


    MightyPea: I couldn't reproduce the docking problem.
  • IStonia
    New Update
    http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/NVil-Apr-24-13.rar

    Summary of changes:
    * Edit > Options > Toggle Visual Tool Suspended. Once an opened visual tool is suspended, Other operations(selection, transforming, streamline tools, radial menus etc.) can be activated while the visual tool is still open. When the visual tool is closed, this flag will be turned off automatically. The 'Suspended' state will be displayed by the tool name at viewport top-left corner.
    * 'Checked State Source' option is added to user tool button. This can be usefull if the button is linked to multiple tools which have checked states.
    Thanks!
  • passerby
    Offline / Send Message
    passerby polycounter lvl 12
    @MightyPea are you planning on sharing your custom UI at any point? Think lots of people would love to have those custom tool shelfs.

    also if you do consider posting thme here as well http://voidworld.cmcproductions.co.uk/index.php/board,3.0.html

    for more nvil users there than on pc
  • Michael Knubben
    Passerby:
    I'll quickly link it here, and post on the voidworld forums once it's in a more finished state.

    https://www.dropbox.com/sh/cj1ln9dek0wipcm/tejOFD0pig (user settings)
    https://www.dropbox.com/sh/phscvtoeqrqna0g/FFpl0yedrD (nvil icons)

    Ofcourse this is in a state of development, but that applies more to the menu than hotkeys, which I'm quite fond of. Give them a go, let me know what you think.

    These links are to my actual directories on dropbox, so they're always up to date. For this reason, make sure you're on the most recent build of Nvil, as I usually am and the settings might conflict.

    Istonia: try the docking bug with my setup. It still happens!
  • passerby
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    passerby polycounter lvl 12
    nice setup actually, i would never move away from my current key setup, and marking menus, since there a hybrid of silo and maya to the 2 apps i have the most experience with.

    but your config gives me lots of ideas, especially with things like hide wires on viewport tumble.

    never knew that was a feature of nvil, since im kinda behind a little on what is available and what isn't in the app
  • Michael Knubben
    Passerby: a lot of that is stuff I requested myself, it's been nice having such a direct connection with a developer like this. I actually started going through the voidworld forum and checking your setup among others. Got some nice ideas from that as well, like having the subobject hotkeys toggle that particular type of snapping. I always liked Maya's snapping snapping hotkeys but felt they took up far too much of the precious left-hand hotkeys. Now I found out I can map (for instance) 1 to both switch to vertices selection and temporarily toggle vertex-snapping while moving/scaling/rotation :o

    Amusing how I subconsciously (?) chose the forum colours for my setup.
  • passerby
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    passerby polycounter lvl 12
    ya my config there is pretty outdataed atm, didn't want to post a new one till i had time to write some good documentation for it.

    i wouldn't say subconscioulsy, when i made the forums there, and the site i used colours from the logo that Memag made, the same logo on the splash screen.


    also thanks for the snapping hotkey idea, currently i just had shift+s for snapping and teh scroll wheel to select the type.

    but i want try to do it via asdf so tap to switch componet types, and hold to snap.

    also never knew about the options to have things tool windows disappear when the mouse leaves them, really wish that worked on things like the tool search window.
  • Michael Knubben
    One thing that would be nice for quick iteration on interface stuff is if clicking or doubleclicking a button in customisation mode would bring up the edit window, and pressing enter while in there would press 'ok'. I'm editing things now, and having to press rightclick>button>customise button all the time is quite a hassle.
  • Michael Knubben
    had a quick play around with a look for radial menus. On top is how close I got with the current system (where do I set the edge colour? I couldn't find that anywhere), bottom's my mockup:

    vw_radial.png

    Looking at it now the text is too dark, but it was just a quick test.

    edit: passerby, you can call the Tool search window like this. All the windows have now been added to the 'hot windows's sub-section of the tools. You can give them any hotkey you like :)
  • IStonia
    New Update
    http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/NVil-Apr-25-13.rar

    Summary of changes:
    * Double click the user tool button to bring up the button customize dialog striaght away.
    * 'Selection Only' option is added to polygon 'Subdivision' tool.
    * A new streamline tool option, 'Can be activated only when Retopo tool is on'. Streamline tools with this option on can share the same hotkey with other streamline tools which have this option off.
    Thanks!


    MightyPea, the docking bug is fixed.
  • Michael Knubben
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