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More 'Stroke Mode' shapes (rounded rectangle, for instance)


Mighty Pea
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I use the Stroke Mode shapes quite a lot for panelling and the like, and find myself wishing for a rounded rectangle shape with adjustable corner size.

Here's an example of what I do with it (I use different brush curve profiles to get the more complex shape, and to get beveling etc.)

The second example shows what I'm currently doing with brushes (with depthmaps made in Photoshop).

There are many downsides to doing it in a brush versus doing it in a stroke mode:

-You need to make a new brush for every small change in size

-It's not resolution-independant.

-You can't set the size of the slope with Border Width

-You can't adjust the curve of the slope with the brush's curve profile.

 

For those who are familiar with it, this is a great way to do minor paneling and scifi greeble stuff inside of 3dcoat, similar to how for instance NDO2 would do it.

 

3DC_Shapes%20%281%29.png

3DC_Shapes%20%282%29.png

Edited by Mighty Pea
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Actually...don't you guys think it would be best to just upgrade the Stroke Modes to be like a CAD "sketch" tool? The Stroke Modes in 3D-Coat are already similar to CAD sketch tools, but not quite as good. CAD sketch tools include exact measurement of lines and circle radius, exact angle-snapping, snapping to other edges and points, bevel/chamfer/fillet of corners, boolean subtraction of areas within the sketch, etc. Pretty much all CAD software has sketch tools now (AutoCAD, Rhino, Inventor, Fusion 360, etc.) There is even a free one made by Autodesk called 123D Design that has decent sketch tools.

If we had a CAD-style sketch option in 3D-Coat's Stroke Mode panel, just think of the amazing precision we would suddenly have!

In case you don't know what I am talking about, here is a brief 2-minute video which demonstrates the speed and power of CAD-style sketch tools:

http://youtu.be/BdGbSw-rmuA

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Just to clarify for those who are saying 'would like to be able to make such normal maps' and 'would like an interactive bevel profile':

you already can! If there's enough interest in it, I can make a video to show this off.

 

Instead, what I'm asking for is a new curve shape that easily does rounded corners, ideally with variable size per corner (and a few different shapes, as in gravit.io).

 

This is a shape that's used often, but hard to make in 3dCoat at the moment. You're forced to go into external software to either make a depthmap, or the spline shape itself, and import it.

If you're interested in that as well, please vote!

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Instead, what I'm asking for is a new curve shape that easily does rounded corners, ideally with variable size per corner (and a few different shapes, as in gravit.io).

You mean CAD sketch tools like in Autodesk's free program "123D Design". You draw the rectangular shape and then round the corners as desired. Then that drawn shape can be used to extrude/Boolean 3D forms:

http://youtu.be/YaIVFiYxtEs

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(and a few different shapes, as in gravit.io).

I just checked out the gravit.io program that you mentioned.

It is nice, but emulating a CAD program like 123D Design would be even better because it allows you to type in exact measurements and angles. (Being able to type in exact dimensions would also be great for 3D printing from 3D-Coat.)

3D-Coat is already very close. We can already draw on the 2D grid with snapping turned on, we can draw splines or b-splines, we can make spline points sharp or smooth. It is ALMOST like CAD sketch already, Andrew just needs to add a bit more, and it will be there.

Imagine being able to draw like this in 3D-Coat (the whole thing is great, but you can see him create a rounded rectangle starting at 4:07):

http://youtu.be/vOfKQugba00

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