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Purpose of retopo virtual mirror mode?


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I'm trying to figure out a good reason why I would want to use virtual mirror mode instead of just plain old symmetry when doing retopo for a model. What's the practical benefit? It seems like it should be pretty similar to regular symmetry mode. The docs don't even mention this feature.

I was doing a retopo with virtual mirror mode enabled (not intentionally) and somehow managed to lose some retopo work when I turned it off. I think it might be because I didn't "Apply symmetry" before doing something else. So now I'm a bit hesitant to use the virtual mirror mode and I'd like to understand this better.

Thanks for any comments

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Carlosan
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Basically Virtual Mirror Mode is useful because it allows you to work exclusively on one side of your mesh while viewing a virtual preview for the other side. It is a nondestructive method of working, which I really like. It also allows you to snap the edges of polygons along the symmetry line using "mirror snapping". It is a nondestructive method of working, allowing for quick and easy changes to symmetrical models. I prefer to always leave it on during retopo, but it does have one slightly annoying bug: It doesn't work with the strokes tool. The workaround is to turn symmetry off temporarily and delete the unwanted faces it has created. This isn't a big deal, but I will report this bug when I get around to it.

FYI, here are two threads about this same exact topic that will probably answer any other questions you might have:

http://3d-coat.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=9674&st=0&p=74468&hl=+virtual%20+mirror&fromsearch=1entry74468

and:

http://3d-coat.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=9673&st=0&p=74485&hl=+virtual%20+mirror&fromsearch=1entry74485

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FYI I've been using virtual mirror mode and the strokes tool together without any problems (3.7.09, 3.7.10, and 3.7.10A). It allowed me get some tube like structures started, which I then continued working on manually with the other tools. One thing I was doing was turning symmetry off temporarily to gain better visibility, then turning it back on immediately afterwards. Not sure if that would makes a difference but I thought I should report it just in case (Edit: After re-reading the post above, I see it does).

One thing I still don't know is what happens if you import a retopo mesh started in another app that already has both sides physically created, then work with VMM turned on. Would this result in overlapping geometry or does VMM automatically delete one side? I had some problems with this at first because it was defaulted to on when I imported my full retopo mesh. In the end I took it to 3ds Max and deleted one side just to be safe and I'm still uncertain whether I needed to do that or not. I'm also uncertain whether turning VMM off and on several times during the project, instead of symmetry (which I now do instead), has a negative effect or not.

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