D.R. Greenlaw

Yup, that does the trick. Be sure to delete the 3DC settings files from your Documents folder. Just uninstalling and reinstalling 3DC will not fix this problem.

Hi JstoArt, Sorry for the late reply. For the most part, I like the Surface Laptop Studio (SLS). This device is basically a tablet/laptop hybrid. The tablet part is well suited for 2D programs but unfortunately it's not ideal for 3D programs. This is mainly because the Surface Slim Pen 2 has only one finger switch and as mentioned above you can't assign it to act as a middle mouse button. As you might imagine, this is a problem for users of 3D programs like 3D Coat, Blender, Maya, etc., ... I started experimenting with the 3DC settings Calosan suggested but I soon decided I should think carefully about what I change there. So for now I'm using a XenceLabs Remote with a custom 3DC setting with a middle mouse button. So to navigate in 3DC: normal tip 'draw' for rotation, side button hover then tip 'draw' L/R for zoom, and press 'Middle Click' on the remote and hover X/Y with tip for panning. Using the XenceLabs remote with the laptop actually works well for 3D Coat once you get used to it, and assigning remote buttons is definitely helpful when I'm using Blender. I also have the less expensive Huion KeyDial remote but haven't tried it with 3DC yet. Having used it with other programs, I think it should work fine. If it matters to you, the XenceLabs remote is higher quality device though and more solidly built compared to the Huion KeyDial. As for working in tablet mode with the stylus, if I program more buttons on the Xense, I think I could work with the screen flat and the keyboard hidden. Right now though, instead of flipping the display to lay flat, I'm keeping it propped up in laptop mode, just leaning the display back a little farther than normal. The display's hinge is reasonably stiff so as long as you don't lean hard against the screen it works fine. Working this way allows me to use the keyboard, which I'm more comfortable with for now. But when I have time, I'll try working in full tablet mode (opened flat). I'll post more info about the experience then. I think the most annoying thig is the lack of a second button on the Stylus though, and probably the lack of physical buttons when in tablet mode. Years ago I had a Wacom Cintiq Companion 2, which had the standard 2-button stylus which could replicate L/M/R clicks just fine, and the buttons and sliders on the bezel could be used for modifier keys and whatever else I needed, like undo-redo, adjust brush size, etc. If the SLS only had these 'missing' features, I think it would be perfect. For everything else I use the SLS for (drawing, painting, compositing, frame-by-frame animation, music composition, and video editing,) it's been a great device.

Yup, that fixed it for the laptop too. Maybe this info will save someone else from a headache.

Hmm...I have interesting update about the incorrect orientation error I was seeing last week: 3D Coat 2022-55 is still working fine on the desktop computer I was using last week, however today I launched 2022-55 on my laptop and I'm now seeing the error on this computer. The common link between these two computers is that I had updated 3D Coat using the 'online' updater to -55 when this error appeared. I'm assuming that if I follow the same steps I took for fixing this issue for my desktop computer (uninstall, delete settings, install with the standalone installer) but for my laptop computer, that should solve the problem. BRB.

Man, that was a chore...and not exactly how I expected to spend the last day of 2022. After deleting the user files and installing every stable version of 3D Coat from 2022-29 onward, this feature is now working properly for me. It even works fine in 2022-55 beta, which is where I first started having problems. So I'm going to say the problem was caused by a corrupt config or user preference file that 3D Coat stored in the Documents folder. (This also solves the Module4 error as described in the thread linked above.) Hope this info is helpful to anyone else running into this very strange issue. Thanks to all for the suggestions...that helped me narrow this down. Happy New Year everyone!

Ok, now I'm getting somewhere: the Import Preview works correctly for me in 2022-29; I now see proper orientation in the Import Preview as well as after importing and applying the object to the Curve. Now I'll start upgrading 3DC forward from there to find when this feature broke. If it works all the way up to -55, then I'm guessing this may have been related to another problem I was having today that i just solved. Here's the thread in case anyone else needs this info...

Here's what fixed the issue: I found that 3D Coat stores user configs, crash logs, etc., in the User Documents folder. I don't normally use the Documents folder and I didn't immediately think to check there. Actually I found multiple 3D Coat folders there going back for many years in, and after I deleted them, I'm no longer seeing that Module4 error after installing 3D Coat and opening the Sculpt room. (As expected, I did have to reactivate the license.) So, if you experience any really weird issues/behaviors that nobody else seems to be having, this is a potential fix. Ok, next problem...

Hmm...still no luck. I keep seeing that Module4 error with any version I install now (so far tried -29, -34, -39, 47, -54, -55), and not only is the tools window missing in the Sculpt room, much of the Sculpt room is actually non-functional. I'm guessing the problem is deeper, probably junk in the registry that I need to clean out or corrupted configs I need find and delete manually. Ugh. Not my day I guess.

Rats...completely removed -47 and did a clean install but the error appeared again. Maybe I need to also reboot after uninstalling and deleting remaining files? Will try that to be sure, and then move on to the next earlier stable release to test my other issue. Update: nope, -47 still gives me the error after uninstalling, removing the leftovers, rebooting the computer and then installing. So weird since I've used these versions previously with no problems. Moving on to the next previous stable version now.

That's what I thought at first, although the program I exported from is Y-up, not Z-up. I don't understand why the mis-orientation is only in the import preview (where you set the spacing) and but the orientation is correct after importing and applied to the Curve. Still going through older versions with no success, but will also try exporting from a different Y-up 3D program.

Ok, so after installing -47 over -54, I started getting the error again. I'm pretty sure this is because I've been trying to overwrite the version I have installed with the older one. I'm assuming if I completely uninstall before installing the older version (which my lazy butt should have been doing anyway,) it should be ok. Again, just mentioning this in case anyone else sees this problem

Before I start installing older versions, here's what I'm seeing. When import an octopus tentacle OBJ I created elsewhere, the preview is incorrectly rotated 90-degrees on z and looks like this... FYI, this object is actually using the same orientation as the tentacle OBJ that comes installed with 3DC. When I click OK, the orientation seems fine when I apply it to a Curve. Like so... The problem is that, because the preview orientation is incorrect, I can't properly adjust the overlap setting. (Which is why it looks awful in this example.) If I orientate the geometry prior to importing so I get a correct preview orientation, the object is then applied along the Curve with an incorrect 90-degree offset orientation. From this, I gather the Curve tool is working fine but the import preview must be at fault. Just wondering if anybody else is seeing this problem in 2022-54 or -55. Going to try an older version of 3DC now and see what happens.

Thanks Carloson! I've seen most of that material so I'm guessing the orientation issue in the preview on import is a bug then. I'll try installing an older stable version to be sure. Will also review some of those tutorials to be sure I'm not missing something.

Anybody seeing this odd problem? When I import an obj to the Spline panel, it previews rotated 90 on z. When I complete the import and use the object on a curve, the orientation is correct. I could probably be okay with that except for the fact that since I can't adjust the spacing during import accurately because of the wrong orientation, I need to do this multiple times before I have the spacing reasonably correct through trial and error. I'm seeing this problem in 2022-54 and -55. If anybody knows in which past release of 3DCoat this works correctly, please let me know. Or...is there a way to adjust the spacing of the object after it's been applied to the Curve? I expected the Spacing parameter to do this but adjusting this is not doing anything. It's possible that I'm using this incorrectly, or maybe it's another thing that's not working correctly for me in -54 and -55? Thanks in advance for any helpful information or suggestions.

Ok, completely removing 3DCoat and performing a clean install seemed to fix this issue. Just responding to my own thread in case somebody else runs into this. Now I can get back to figuring out my original problem.