[Official and Training YouTube Channel]

Thanks AbnRanger!

[V4.5 BETA (experimental)]

I'm just using the base primitives that ship with 3DC. I'll try uninstalling and reinstalling.

Edit: Okay, it looks like the primitive is centred but I wasn't flattening the brush depth. However, the placement seems odd, where the model doesn't apply at a tangent to the surface, or you have to be very picky about where you position the camera (and I mean very picky). I'm sure it used to be much easier than this, but I may be wrong. The transparent Alpha cursor is massive, though. Is it even necessary to have that visible while applying models?

Did you try adjusting the settings in the Tool Options panel? There are a lot of settings there which will help you orient the model's rotation, offset, etc. for "On Brush". Also you can turn off view of the brush alpha in the User Preferences. Not sure if you tried all of that already or not, but I thought I'd mention it just in case...

[importing]

Can you post a Mantis link? I have a similar bug already reported, so it would be a good idea to mark both of them as related.

Ajz3d, please post a link to your Mantis report. I can't find it. Andrew and Carlos are researching these bugs and can't reproduce them.

Also, where is the thread that you were discussing this bug with another user? Was that you, or some other users? I remember it from a while ago, but I am having trouble finding it again now.

EDIT: Ok I found it! The problems you were having are related to the Pose Tool. The discussion is here:

http://3dcoat.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=19116

And the Mantis report is here:

http://3dcoat.com/mantis/view.php?id=2095

[importing]

While that's a valid point, I have to ask why the model is split in such an odd location? I can't work out any logical workflow that would require this.

I think that's a 3D-Coat bug. If a part of the model is below the "floor" when imported, then it gets split at the floor. This bug has been mentioned by several other users. However, I don't think an official bug report has been created on Mantis.

The workaround is to raise the model above the floor and the split no longer occurs when importing.

[V4.5 BETA (experimental)]

As a sidenote, is there any way to get my user account upgraded to "he wont hurt us" level or something? I cant copy and paste links or quote other users etc.. Have to manually type everything..... Painful being a neophyte.. Maybe make me numbnuts or something slightly higher!

You should probably PM one of the mods (Carlosan, Javis, etc.). I don't know how strict they are with the rules, maybe they will accommodate your request.

[V4.5 BETA (experimental)]

Hey TimmyZ, could you share the model you're using? I'll give it a whirl. Could start a new thread somewhere and we'll see what's what.

So I did some more tests with a bunch of different OBJs, and some seem to work and some don't. I'll send Andrew an OBJ that doesn't work at some point. Maybe those files are corrupted or maybe there is a difference depending on where the OBJ was generated, or perhaps there is something else special about them. Anyways, I don't want to troubleshoot it anymore, so I'll just be using the Retopo Room import workaround. That's good enough for me for now.

But thank you so much Gary for offering to help! People like you make this community great!

[V4.5 BETA (experimental)]

I think it has to do with Andrew moving to the newest CUDA toolkit. The older cards, even with CUDA, don't support the newer toolkit version. Its not computing power. It will have to do with the CUDA version supported on the card.

So I updated the driver for my Quadro k4000, and now CUDA works in 3D-Coat again! The update info said it was now using CUDA 7, so I guess that means 3D-Coat is using CUDA 7 too (since it is working again).

Thanks for the help everyone!

[Smooth subdividing to make a high res mesh?]

Thanks for your help Carlosan! It still doesn't work for me. I'm trying to figure out why...

[V4.5 BETA (experimental)]

I checked, it works as expected. It may not work if imported mesh has sharp edges.

Still doesn't work for me. I wonder why? Can anyone else confirm please?

[Settings for importing a low poly mesh for subdivision painting]

Just FYI, I discovered a bug in the Import Tool. The "Subdivide" button is currently not working correctly. It is supposed to subdivide AND smooth, but it is only subdividing right now. The button "Flat Subdivision" is for only subdividing without smoothing. Unfortunately the "Subdivide" button is doing the same thing as the "Flat Subdivision" button right now. I reported this bug to Andrew and hopefully he will fix it soon.

 

In the meantime there is a workaround. You can first import your mesh into the Retopo Room, then go to the Sculpt Room, click on the Import Tool, and choose "Pick From Retopo". If you use that method, then the "Subdivide" button will work correctly. Strangely, it doesn't work with the "Select Mesh" button right now.

[V4.5 BETA (experimental)]

Bug Report:

 

The "Subdivide" button in the Tool Options of the Sculpt Room Import Tool is not working correctly. Currently it acts the same as the "Flat Subdivision" button. The "Subdivide" button should subdivide AND smooth, not just subdivide.

 

This button works correctly if the "Pick From Retopo" button is used, but it does not work if the "Select Mesh" button is used.

 

Please fix this. Thank you!

[Smooth subdividing to make a high res mesh?]

Ok, so I just tested out the Import Tool to make sure about this, and it is not working correctly. There is a bug in there somewhere, and we need to report it to Andrew!

 

The "Subdivide" button in the Tool Options is SUPPOSED TO use Catmull Clark subdivision, in other words, it is supposed to subdivide AND smooth. The button called "Flat Subdivision" is supposed to subdivide WITHOUT smoothing.

 

I know this is a bug because the tool works correctly if you use the "Pick From Retopo" button. For example, if you import your mesh into the Retopo Room first, then go to the Sculpt Room, use the Import Tool there, and click on "Subdivide" in the Tool Options you will see that it is subdividing AND smoothing. If you use the "Select Mesh" button instead, then you will see that the "Subdivide" button stops working correctly. It is definitely a bug.

[Settings for importing a low poly mesh for subdivision painting]

If you import it to the sculpt room you'll lose your UV's, since you just want to paint on an existing UV'd object I would advise against this workflow.

How about:

First import the subdivided high poly into the Sculpt Room, paint on it with the vertex paint method, then Import the low poly (with its UVs) to the Retopo Room, then Bake the vertex paint to the low poly, which will send the low poly to the Paint Room (with its UVs), and then finish up painting any last things on the low poly in the Paint Room. Finally export the low poly with texture maps.

[Smooth subdividing to make a high res mesh?]

Yes, as Candy-floss said, there is a button in the Tool Options panel "Import Without Voxelization" which will import the mesh as a surface, not as voxels. Don't forget to also click on the "subdivide" button to get the smoothed subdivision level you want. Each time you click it, it will subdivide and smooth more.

[Smooth subdividing to make a high res mesh?]

Did you try the Import Tool in the Sculpt Room? There is a tool there in the toolbar called "Import". In the Tool Options of that tool there is a "Select Mesh" button. Click on that to choose your model. If you don't see your model, then use the transform gizmo to scale it up until you see it in the viewport. There is a "subdivide" button there in the Tool Options too. The subdivision used there actually smooths the mesh in addition to subdividing it. When using that tool you will see a preview before importing. Click on the "Apply" button to commit the import, then switch to a different tool to get rid of the preview. Then you can go to the Retopo Room and perform retopo on it. I don't know if that is the workflow you are looking for, but you can try it out if you want.

[Settings for importing a low poly mesh for subdivision painting]

You can also try to import the model in the Sculpt Room. There is a tool there in the toolbar called "Import". In the Tool Options of that tool there is a "Select Mesh" button. Click on that to choose your model. If you don't see your model, then use the transform gizmo to scale it up until you see it in the viewport. There is a "subdivide" button there in the Tool Options too. The subdivision used there actually smooths the mesh in addition to subdividing it. When using that tool you will see a preview before importing. Click on the "Apply" button to commit the import, then switch to a different tool to get rid of the preview. Then you can go to the Paint Room and vertex paint it if you want. I don't know if that is the workflow you are looking for, but you can try it out if you want.

[V4.5 BETA (experimental)]

Ok, I'll check the Quadro drivers. Maybe a newer or older driver will fix it. Thanks Michael!

[V4.5 BETA (experimental)]

Yes its enough as i was working on a gtx 470 2.1 i think and now on a gtx 980 5.2

But those are both GTX. Maybe CUDA is not working for Quadro cards?

[V4.5 BETA (experimental)]

""""""""""Is there a list of cards?"""""""""""""""""""""

I think it's the version of CUDA your card has built into it?

You can look here:

https://developer.nvidia.com/cuda-gpus

If you don't see your card here, then there is a link for "legacy cards".... If you fall into legacy cards, you probably wont support the new cuda toolkit...

Thank you! That's exactly what I was looking for!

It says there that each card has a "CUDA compute capability" number. All the legacy cards have 2.0 or lower.

Actually now I remember that I used to have a Quadro FX 3800 that didn't work with Blender Cycles GPU because the compute capability was too low. I got rid of that card a long time ago...

Anyways, my Quadro k4000 has a 3.0 compute capability. It's not listed as legacy, but it still doesn't work with the latest 3D-Coat CUDA betas. I wonder how much compute capability 3D-Coat CUDA is requiring now? Shouldn't 3.0 be enough?

[better handle gripping]

Yeah this was also a problem in Maya. They finally extended the pick range on the manipulator handles by a few extra pixels in Maya 2016 Extension 2 (just announced last week). It's amazing that this was such a long standing problem in an expensive professional program like Maya! Lol!

Anyways it'd be nice if we got this in 3D-Coat too!

[V4.5 BETA (experimental)]

"""""""""For quadro try GL"""""""""""""""""

 

Thanks Carlosan,

    I run 3dc pretty good. Its just that the CUDA quit working awhile back when Andrew upgraded what CUDA toolkit he was using. So I have to use "Non Cuda"...... The new unified build was set to autodetect CUDA and it chose that I have a CUDA Card. I just didn't know about the tick selection to turn it off in the geometry menu. So the new builds weren't working for me, until I read the post about the menu option to turn it back off again.....

 

Just to be clear, CUDA for me means Voxels don't work..... So I got it turned off and am back on the newest builds again....

 

Thanks.

Is there a list somewhere saying which graphics cards and drivers are no longer supported? I've noticed some newer Quadros don't work with Cuda 3D-Coat, while other cards do...

[Retopo mesh/Reference mesh change color?]

Thanks Timmy,

 

I'm in retopo mode but when I go to sculpt mode my reference mesh disappears. When I try to open the shader panel from retopo mode it doesn't allow me to select a shader.

How do I make the reference mesh appear again in Sculpt mode?

 

Hi alan f,

 

There is a better way to import your model instead of using the "perform retopo" option on the intro menu. I have experienced bugs with several of those options, and also some of those options limit the funcionality of 3D-Coat, so I don't use them.

 

 

Step 1: When first opening 3D-Coat, and you see that initial intro menu, just close it.

 

Step 2:

1) Go to the Sculpt Room.

2) Select the Import Tool.

3) Turn on "Import without Voxelization".

4) Select your mesh with the file browser.

5) A preview of your mesh will be generated. If you can't see the mesh, most likely you will need to scale it up with the Transform Gizmo. As you scale it up you will see the "Estimated Poly Count" go up (shown in the middle of the Tool Options panel), but that number doesn't mean anything if you are importing without voxelization. Therefore in this case you can safely ignore the "Estimated Poly Count".

6) Once your mesh fits into the viewport nicely, then click on Apply and your mesh will finally be imported into 3D-Coat. The import preview however still remains, so you need to switch to a different tool to get rid of the preview.

 

Step 3: Choose any other tool to get rid of the import preview.

 

Step 4: Now you can finally see your reference mesh in both the Sculpt Room and the Retopo Room. If your mesh does NOT have any vertex color data associated with it (known as "polypaint" in Zbrush), then you can now change the color of your reference mesh by changing its shader.

 

Step 5: If however there is in fact vertex color data on your mesh, then changing the shader will have no effect. You will need to go to the Paint Room, turn off visibility of the vertex color (by clicking on the "eye" icon next to the vertex color layer), which will make the shader visible underneath. Then you will finally be able to change the look of the shader in the Retopo Room.

[Retopo mesh/Reference mesh change color?]

To change the reference mesh color:

 

Step 1: Go to the Sculpt Room.

 

2. Pick a different shader with a color that you prefer.

 

3. Or if none of the default shaders are ok, then you can create a new shader with any color you like. Simply right-click on any shader and choose "Construct New Shader".

 

4. Give the new shader a name.

 

5. Change the colors to whatever you want.

 

6. Now you have a new shader in the Shader Panel.

 

7. Apply the shader to your reference mesh and return to the Retopo Room.

 

8. Just for clarification, all you really need to access is the Shader Panel (which is available from the Windows menu). The Sculpt Room has the Shader Panel open by default, so it is slightly easier to just go there for quick access (instead of opening the Shader Panel in the Retopo Room).

[Where is my shaders?]

Most likely the person who made the instructional video just created a bunch of his/her own custom shaders. Those custom shaders are probably the ones you see in the video.

 

Step 1: Right-click on any shader and choose "Construct New Shader"

 

Step 2: Give the new shader a name.

 

Step 3: Change the settings.

 

Step 4: Now you have a new shader in the Shader Panel.

[Farsthary update channel]

Thanks Farsthary! This looks like it could be good! I like how the user can delete points and it recalculates the mesh instantly. This used in combination with the new QuadStrips, RFill, and the other existing tools could probably add up to some major time-saving! I'm hoping that it will end up being more efficient to work with this instead of messing with the fully automatic retopo routine. I can't wait to try it out!