How do I get curves to remain strictly vertical, and how to extrude from curve points?

[CognizanCe]

When creating a curve, it's not constrained to the 0 x+z axis.
It may look a little straight, but rotating around it shows how crooked it can be.

Also, how do I select the new curve points to extrude from?
Left or middle click gives me a weird gizmo.

[TimmyZDesign]

You can snap to the 2D or 3D Grid (turn them on in the View menu). In order to make it work properly though, you need to make a large flat voxel object (like a cube on the symmetry plane) in the background on a separate layer which will serve as your drawing plane. Without that object, then the snapping doesn't work.
For example go to an orthographic view, turn on the 2D grid snapping, then hover your cursor near grid intersections and it will snap there (only if the large flat voxel object is visible in the background), then place your point. It is possible also to increase or decrease the number of grid intersections and also possible to move the grid to where you need it. This way you can make very straight curves.
Also you can save camera positions in the camera menu (at the top of the viewport) so that your grid will remain locked to certain camera views.
The 2D and 3D grids also work for many other tools (Cutoff used with a spline drawing mode for example) and are very useful for making exact hard surface models.

 

EDIT: I just tested some of my suggestions in 3D-Coat (to make sure they work) and I discovered some issues, so I edited my post so it would be more accurate.

[TimmyZDesign]

Also look at the options in the Tool Options panel. There are options there which control extrude and editing functionality.
Left-click AND drag on a curve point to move it (in Move mode). Left-click and drag will commence a new extrude from that point (in Extrude mode). Right-click and drag changes the radius of the point. Unfortunately the 2D grid-snapping will only work for initial creation of points, but doesn't seem to work accurately for moving points into position after they have been created. (This is one of several things that Andrew should improve in the tool).

It seems to me that a long left-click will bring up the move gizmo, and a quick left-click and drag will allow you to move the point (as long as you are in move mode in the Tool panel).
Also, if you seem to be "locked" onto a certain point that you no longer wish to edit, then you can drop the Curve tool by pressing the Esc key. This will get you out of your current edit so you can move onto a different point. The Esc ("escape") key also works with many other tools in 3D-Coat.

 

Edit: I also tested my original suggestions in this post and found some other issues, so I updated my post to reflect those issues. As far as I know, the OP has not yet read these posts, so I think all will be ok!

[TimmyZDesign]

And here is a screenshot of what I was describing. Here you can see the voxel cube in the background which serves as the "drawing plane" and the curve points are snapping to the grid:

[TimmyZDesign]

A side view:

[AbnRanger]

You can snap to the 2D or 3D Grid (turn them on in the View menu). In order to make it work properly though, you need to make a large flat voxel object (like a cube on the symmetry plane) in the background on a separate layer which will serve as your drawing plane. Without that object, then the snapping doesn't work.

For example go to an orthographic view, turn on the 2D grid snapping, then hover your cursor near grid intersections and it will snap there (only if the large flat voxel object is visible in the background), then place your point. It is possible also to increase or decrease the number of grid intersections and also possible to move the grid to where you need it. This way you can make very straight curves.

Also you can save camera positions in the camera menu (at the top of the viewport) so that your grid will remain locked to certain camera views.

The 2D and 3D grids also work for many other tools (Cutoff used with a spline drawing mode for example) and are very useful for making exact hard surface models.

 

EDIT: I just tested some of my suggestions in 3D-Coat (to make sure they work) and I discovered some issues, so I edited my post so it would be more accurate.

You should be able to turn on a vertical workplane and use that to snap (to 3D Grid) to.

 

[TimmyZDesign]

Hi AbnRanger, did you try snapping the Curve tool points to the grid? I find it doesn't work unless you have a big flat voxel object in the background (on a separate layer). It's so strange, the curve points just won't snap to the grid unless that object is there in the background (see my images above). Also the curve points will only snap when initially created, but will not snap correctly if moved into position after they have been created. This drawback can be worked around, but it is still a drawback. Do you experience the same problem when you use the Curve Tool? I'm just curious if I am somehow just doing it wrong, or maybe that behavior is just a bug or limitation of the tool.

[Gary Dave]

Yeah there's something weird going on for sure.

 

2d grid snapping doesn't work with Curves at all.

 

3d grid snapping (with auto-placement for grid) doesn't work when placing, and half works when moving curves after you've made them. By which I mean It does snap... to something, but it's not the grid points.

[TimmyZDesign]

Well actually it does work, but like I said, you need to place a large flat voxel object behind the area where you want to create the curve. If you do that, then both the 2D and 3D grid snapping works. But that is a strange way to work, it shouldn't be like that. The snapping should work regardless if you have a background object to snap onto or not.

[Gary Dave]

Well actually it does work, but like I said, you need to place a large flat voxel object behind the area where you want to create the curv

 

Sure, I would consider this very much to be a "not working" scenario though, having a workaround is nice n'all, but I grow tried of 3dc's workarounds. I love it n'all, but it is incredibly slow going from time to time.

[TimmyZDesign]

Agreed.

[TimmyZDesign]

I recently discovered in the latest beta 4.5.34, that there is a check box above the viewport that says "on plane". If you turn that on, and also turn on grid snapping, and also in the Tool Options menu next to "Type of Surface" select "ZX, XY, or YZ", then finally you will get proper snapping to work. You won't need a background object on a separate layer anymore.

So basically with those options enabled snapping for curve points works, but unfortunately moving the points after they are created, still does not work. If you turn on "(W)Move" mode, then you will see the points will snap, but not exactly to the grid intersections. They only snap nearby. If Andrew would fix this small bug, then Curves Tool snapping would work perfectly.