Jump to content
3DCoat Forums

Alternative shape for Curve tool proposal


L'Ancien Regime
 Share

Recommended Posts

  • Advanced Member

Currently when you work in Curve tool, you have these red balls that can be shrunk or expanded to set the thickness parameter of the elongated mass of voxels you're laying down.

 

But what if you could change the shape profile parameter of the Curve tool and not just its diameter in Tool Options? What if it could be a cube? a pentagon, a hexagon, a heptagon, an octagon and so forth? Well that's a bit excessive perhaps but a cube curve tool marker laying down four sided elongated topology would be very useful.  This could come in very handy in a lot of elongated shapes you're trying to model; They'd be pretty powerful in conjunction with the twist parameter set to the Q key in Curve tool. You could have a lot of control over elongated shapes this way..

http://www.cas.muohio.edu/~meicenrd/mudescd/Bot630DProjects/2003Botany630WProjects/Bones/RADIUS&ULNA.JPG

 

 

 

I wonder how hard it would be to implement that particular piece of functionality into the Curve tool?

Edited by L'Ancien Regime
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Advanced Member

+1

 

Even an oval would be useful.

 

 

oooh yeah good one.

 

 

AND imagine if the dimensions of the oval could be changed so that the oval was so elongated you were laying down broad ovoid pieces like a pectoral muscle for example??

 

Ditto for the cube...it could be adjustable to rectangular so you were laying down a broad band of rectilnear curves..

Edited by L'Ancien Regime
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Contributor

 

AND imagine if the dimensions of the oval could be changed so that the oval was so elongated you were laying down broad ovoid pieces like a pectoral muscle for example??

 

Appears to combine the Curve tool with the Muscle tool for greater control.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Contributor

But isn't this already possible by placing your own custom models into the Splines panel, and then using them with the Curve tool? Those can be used in combination with the "Profile" choices in the Curve Tool Options panel as well.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member

You can add new splines by going to the spline window and clicking on the plus sign. Follow the instructions. If you want to change folders you can click on the arrow button on the far right hand side of the spline button. You will find other spline folders and each folder has a plus sign to add more splines of your own creation. You can also create your own folder to place your new creations.

I believe Splines can be imported as .obj or .lwo (not sure about that one).

One word of warning about creating an object in anther program - 3dc tends to import objects from outside 3dc at a very small scale. So you may have to increase the size of the object be quite a bit before importing. If I import a primitive from Blender or poser I increase the scale by 1000%

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member

Great thread thanks to L'Ancien Regime  for pointing me at it.

I got a question for you guys, Find it tricky with the gizmo sometimes especially trying to rotate, is there any trick to using it, tapping the rotate option on the right panel doesnt do anything and im only stuck with scaling and rotating the whole curve? I just want to rotate that 1 particular node

 

5b0b1ed55ce5c9a99e0fee48d9e63192.png

Edited by lord_quas
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Contributor

@lord_quas:

Look at the Tool Options panel. There is a checkbox there at the bottom which says "Apply to whole curve". If that is checked, then transform/scale/rotation changes you make will affect the whole curve. If you uncheck that box, then it will only affect the selected point. Additionally it is helpful to remember that tapping the Esc key once will get you out of the transform gizmo (so you can select a different point in the curve). You can also switch your working mode from Extrude to Move, Scale, or Rotate (found at the top of the Tool Options panel). That way you can bypass the transform gizmo altogether. Unfortunately I have discovered that the transform gizmo still activates sometimes in those modes even though I don't want it to. I believe that this functionality could be improved slightly for a better user experience. At some point I will put in a Mantis request for that improvement...

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Advanced Member

I've got a question on this too.

 

I've made a shape tailored exactly to my need; a flattened slab, and it works perfectly when I lay it in a straight line. However when I put it on a curved line it flips 90degrees and I can only lay it down on edge. I can't flip  it back to lie flat.

 

http://i.imgur.com/5k4U6Gq.jpg

 

http://i.imgur.com/OkGWBw1.jpg

 


Which sort of ties into another problem I'm having with this tool; twisting the spline...ROTATE pivots the entire spline, but it doesn't twist the flow of the line on its  longtitudinal axis at individual points. Rather it turns points into hinges that bend the line. Is there a way to twist the spline on its longtitudinal axis.

 

 

 

 

 

Also one other problem...the tips of the curves I'm laying down are tapered. I don't want them tapered.

 

http://i.imgur.com/cmOvXhl.jpg

 

I can make the ends not tapered by clicking FILLED INSIDE

 

http://i.imgur.com/MPA1n8w.jpg

 

but then I get the interstices between teh points filled with the next point I click if it's a curve and not a perfectly straight line.

 

http://i.imgur.com/69QSlXo.jpg

Edited by L'Ancien Regime
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...