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Retopo Room Requests for V4 (post release)


AbnRanger
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I put up a number of feature request on Mantis a few months ago, that I'd like to ask for your support on...if you feel they would help speed up/enhance your workflow in the Retopo Room, as well. If you haven't already signed up to Mantis (for Bug Reporting/Feature Requests), please do so....regardless. It's the best way to keep a systematic record/log of them and Andrew uses them to prioritize. If you just place the bug report/feature request on the forums, the percentage of probability they will get addressed is much, much lower (obviously harder to remember and keep track of) than placing them on Mantis.

At any rate, please add a note with your "+1" and check the desired level of support for the feature at the bottom of the page. When Andrew sees there are a lot of users onboard with a request, he places a higher priority on it. Thanks everyone.

Bridge Selected Edges:

http://3d-coat.com/mantis/view.php?id=1056

Shell Modifier/Tool

http://3d-coat.com/mantis/view.php?id=1030

Hotkey Edge Loop/Ring Selection & Dot Loop/Ring

http://3d-coat.com/mantis/view.php?id=1058

Soft/Gradient Selection

http://3d-coat.com/mantis/view.php?id=1060

Hold SHIFT to extrude edges on the fly, while using TRANSFORM TOOL

http://3d-coat.com/mantis/view.php?id=1057

On this last one, the EXTRUDE tool is not usable in most cases cause it goes haywire in areas where the the scale of the object is smaller than the one selected. Plus the SHIFT+Drag would also work simultaneously scaling or rotating. Very handy for building geometry around a corner (of a pipe or tube, for example), or closing a cavity with quad geometry (something CAPS tool doesn't do).

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I know others have repeatedly requested some of these features for a few years now....such as a "Shell tool/modifier," "Bridge Selected Edges," "Dot Ring/Loop selection" (which allows quick Poly Reduction in just two clicks) and "Relax Selected."

Nobody wants a hotkey for quick edgeloop selection? Nobody wants to be able to grow or shrink a loop or ring selection by hitting the + or - key? Nobody wants the ability to quickly add thickness (a shell) to a thin object? Would be helpful for tables, doors, belts, armor plates. Nobody cares if the Retopo room improves or not? If you want any of these features added, to make your job easier in the Retopo room, then adding your note with "+1" tells Andrew it's more than just one person asking. If you can't be bothered (to chime in), then Andrew won't be bothered.

Relax Selected (Vertices, Edges, Faces)

http://3d-coat.com/mantis/view.php?id=1062

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It looks like these (admirable) features are post-retopo. Better in the UV room or Tweak room where you wouldn't have a surface snapping tendency to deal with.

They are all for the Retopo room. Creating a shell is twice the work it should be...in fact you otherwise have to send your model outside of 3D Coat just to perform the shell operation, among others. Andrew said he was going to make the Retopo Room more like a full-fledged modeling app. These are just a few steps toward that goal.

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  • 4 weeks later...
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Here is a video showing how arduous and tedious it currently is to try and extrude edges, especially for tasks like closing holes (CAP Holes is not a solution here....it creates tris, which may be fine at the very last step) in cavities, closing off sharp ended protrusions/objects. The EXTRUDE tool would be fine, instead, but as you can see, as the object narrows, it gets confused and is generally unusable. It's ok if the object keeps the same shape, like along a pole, tube, etc. But toward the end, it's useless....and there is no way to change the angle orientation as you extrude.

So, this simple SHIFT drag (with the Transform tool active) to extrude on the fly, is the most versatile/efficient way to work. Believe me...after using it, you'll thank me for being such a persistent bugger about this. :D I've asked Andrew over and over and over about this and get no reply.

http://www.screencast.com/users/dnashj33/folders/Camtasia%20Studio/media/fbedb2a5-761d-46a8-8fb6-5a66d95ea5d4

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Here is a video showing how arduous and tedious it currently is to try and extrude edges, especially for tasks like closing holes (CAP Holes is not a solution here....it creates tris, which may be fine at the very last step) in cavities, closing off sharp ended protrusions/objects. The EXTRUDE tool would be fine, instead, but as you can see, as the object narrows, it gets confused and is generally unusable. It's ok if the object keeps the same shape, like along a pole, tube, etc. But toward the end, it's useless....and there is no way to change the angle orientation as you extrude.

 

So, this simple SHIFT drag (with the Transform tool active) to extrude on the fly, is the most versatile/efficient way to work. Believe me...after using it, you'll thank me for being such a persistent bugger about this. :D I've asked Andrew over and over and over about this and get no reply.

 

http://www.screencast.com/users/dnashj33/folders/Camtasia%20Studio/media/fbedb2a5-761d-46a8-8fb6-5a66d95ea5d4

 

I Agree, if Andrew read this: adding those function to the sift/ctrl+shift menu would be much appreciated too.

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The work around I employ uses the Caps tool with subsequently deleting every othe edge to make quads. I don't see how you can end with one vertice without tris, and a pointed end begs one vertice. For finger tips, with an even number of vertices at the end, I make quads.

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The work around I employ uses the Caps tool with subsequently deleting every othe edge to make quads. I don't see how you can end with one vertice without tris, and a pointed end begs one vertice. For finger tips, with an even number of vertices at the end, I make quads.

I do that often, too...but the point is that using SHIFT key to extrude while you have the Transform tool active, saves a lot of steps and is more accurate. You can extrude and rotate/scale/move at the same time and you can quickly fill in cavities in a fraction of the time, that is required now. It's simple, yet very powerful. Once people realize it's there, this will be used a lot.

 

It also would be a very powerful tool for modeling in the Retopo room without needing a voxel object to snap to.

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  • 3 months later...
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+10 for this !

Please add your +1 in the comments part of each of those requests (on their Mantis page)...so Andrew has an idea how important it is to more to the community. If he sees just one person making a request, he may postpone it for a long, long time..if not indefinitely.

Edited by AbnRanger
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  • 6 months later...
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I reckon only a few want improved modeling tools in the Retopo Room. Fair enough. Perhaps that's why these requests have gone ignored by Andrew, and why we STILL don't have a Shell/Thickness tool. Makes work on wings, text, clothes, furniture, etc. so much easier.

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Added my +1's to all your Mantis requests. Those are very important features which I also miss in 3D Coat.

Thanks. Stas (Pilgway Business Manager/Sales Director) said that one of first tasks of the new programmer would be to improve the modeling tools in the Retopo Room. I hope it includes these, but he may have been referencing their desire to add NURBS functionality to 3D Coat...so objects can be exported in Industrial type formats (IGES, STEP, etc.)

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It looks like these (admirable) features are post-retopo. Better in the UV room or Tweak room where you wouldn't have a surface snapping tendency to deal with.

By the way, you can easily turn snapping on/off at the top of the UI. Should be highlighted when it's on, I think.

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  • 1 year later...
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Old thread, but still need some of the requested features for the Retopo Room to be an adequate Poly-Modeling environment, when users prefer that option in 3D Coat. Having both a Voxel Modeling and PolyModeling environment in 3D Coat makes it very unique. The features that are still not yet implemented are:

1) Gradient (Soft) Selection

2) Bridge Selected Edges

3) Skip (Dot) Loop Selection

We also need a "Quadrify" tool to remove unecessary triangles from low-poly meshes. You sometimes get these when importing obj files or there may be occasions where you simply want to use the Boolean capabilities in the Sculpt room, so you could import the mesh as a Surface Mode object (No Subdivision) > perform Boolean operation > move object to Retopo Room for further (poly) modeling. 3D Coat creates triangles when it comes into the Sculpt Workspace...even if it remains low polygon w/ no subdivsiion at all. Was doing a video covering this topic, and it would have been nice to quadrangulate the mesh as it comes back into the Retopo room; so that they are nice clean quads.

 

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