3DCoat 2024 development thread

[Oleg Shapov]

6 minutes ago, Henry Townshend said:

I will in future stick to email then and avoid using the forums.

Errors that you point out are immediately reported to the main developer. But he decides to correct them himself urgently or postpone them until later. Thanks for the work!

[AbnRanger]

21 hours ago, Elemeno said:

imagine it like this .. 3DC piles lots of great features but once they are added they arent perfected .. for example the mesh to nurbs or nurbs modeller thing that nobody uses or will ever use was added ... but thats all its done ... the photogrammetry was added and no work will be done ... theres tons of modelling fixes we need .. tons of paint room features and bugs that need adding and fixing .. a ui that needs updating and simplifying .. sculpting bugs that weve had for many years .. but silver lining is they do fix it and do perfect some things .. they are a small team that currently work at home and they are providing a great product so stick with them ... they are trying

I agree to some extent. Sometimes a tool is worked on for a while and Andrew thinks it is done. That is why it is important for us users to mention our request while he is actively working on a given feature, such as the VDM brush maker (Pick & Paste tool). I mentioned some issues I ran into. He did fix some, but there is still some improvement needed (ie., if the height of the object being copied is more than a nose or ear, it doesn't accurately capture it. A small or large horn as an example, won't be correctly captured). It seems Andrew has already moved on from it, which is a bit disappointing, because it is far less useful than it could be, in a production environment.

Nevertheless, the Mesh to NURBS is something other users have asked for, and just because you or I may not see a need for it in our personal workflow, that doesn't mean others do not. It and the modeling tools are being worked on simultaneously. There are a lot of improvements in the modeling tools lately, including the Align Vertices tool and Smart Extrude. I recently asked Andrew about a small, but helpful change in the Retopo/Modeling workspace, and that is to make the UX/UI a bit more intuitive and familiar regarding Selections. Namely to remove the SELECT tool and just make selection active anytime a user clicks on the sub-object modes (faces, verts and edges). I also mentioned how there needs to be an OBJECT mode, making the selection of entire objects/meshes easier and familiar. He agreed this needs to be done, and gradual improvements like this are coming.

Until we post a tutorial in English, you can enable English subtitles on the video, and follow along, where Alexander made a number of improvements to the Smart Extrude tool, which you can see in both of the videos.

 

[poeboi]

Thank you for recent updates 3dcoat team, as always!

I have some questions, maybe suggestion for CoreAPI

Recently I tried in various to implement a script, class inheriting from PopupWindows, and the idea is to store some ui commands in it for simple access. Like the 'Presets' window except for only most used ui commands

But I suspect maybe calling coat::ui::cmd or other commands like that is not supported in this context

here is what I am trying to do, from popup window have ui commands like "invert freeze" etc

 

the script in it's simplest form:

#include <CoreAPI.h>
#include <coat\PopupWindows.h>

class CmdPanel :public PopupWindow {
public:

	CmdPanel() {
		this->AutoShow();
	}

	virtual const char* GetWindowID() override {
		return "Command Panel";
	}
	
	void Button1() {
		coat::ui::cmd("$MENU_INVERT_FREEZE");
	}
	void Button2() {
		coat::ui::cmd("$InvertHide");
	}
	// etc...

	SERIALIZE() {
		{
			UI_LAYOUT("1");

			FUNCTION_CALL(Button1,"Invert Freeze");
			FUNCTION_CALL(Button2,"Invert Hidden");
			// etc...
		}
	}
};

EXPORT
int main() {
	CmdPanel p;

	return 0;
}

but it does not work
if it is possible to do it, I would be very thankful for an example implementation or how I should register the functions to accomplish it

so this would be coat::ui::cmd() but also very handy would be if core::io::executeScript and ::exec was accessible in this way too

thank you for your time and any consideration, wish you the best

[thinkinmonkey]

Thank you for the "Live union" feature.
I'm sure you already know this, as Live booleans is still in beta, but when I turn off the booleans feature for a layer, the voxels in that layers are still hidden, like the boolean operation is still going, so I have to convert that layer to Surface, in order to see the geometry, and then back Voxels. I hope it will be fixed.

As now we have 5 menu items about Live Booleans, when pressing right click mouse, I was wondering if it would be better to have just one menu, "Live Booleans", and putting under that all the operations, same name but minus "Live" text, as it's already in the main menu. I know for you devs that means more clicks, but I was just wondering for the future.

Wondering if the ghost mode is planned to be used with Live Booleans, I mean, it could allow us to see the all voxels but in ghost way, while boolean operation is going. At the moment, live booleans layers hide voxels and it leads to a guessing game, when working on those voxels, like, for example, a transformation.

Thanks

Edited October 29, 2023 by thinkinmonkey

[Ascensi]

After working on a model in paint room and realized I need to have it cloned.  Is it possible to Duplicate the mesh while in paint, tweak, or modeling room and bring it back to paint? I need to create duplicates but share one UV

[Oleg Shapov]

5 hours ago, Ascensi said:

I need to create duplicates but share one UV

Export your model and then import as many duplicates as needed via the File menu.

 

[Ascensi]

7 hours ago, Oleg_Shapo said:

Export your model and then import as many duplicates as needed via the File menu.

 

Thanks, I've understood this for a while but I'm looking to do it within 3DCoat because if I did import the model, how would I get it to share the same material/layers rather than try to import more textures or show blank?     I was also trying to figure out how to copy and paste the UV from the original to the clone, simple concepts like selecting the surface material of one in paint room, right click and copying then select the other surface material to paste doesn't seem to exist.

 

Edited November 1, 2023 by Ascensi

[Oleg Shapov]

2 hours ago, Ascensi said:

how would I get it to share the same material/layers rather than try to import more textures or show blank?

Maybe I don't fully understand your problem, but this is how I do it -

 

ScreenCaptureProject1001.mkv

[poeboi]

2023.32 
there is a small typo on line 498 in the COREAPI\include\coat\mc\VolumeObjects.h which prevents scripts from building
type says `cVec3` but change to 'cVec3i` its OK

[Ascensi]

4 hours ago, Oleg_Shapo said:

Maybe I don't fully understand your problem, but this is how I do it -

 

ScreenCaptureProject1001.mkv 14.46 MB · 1 download

I found the process so you don't have to reimport textures or reapply subdivision or create extra layers that need to be merged.

1.Go in sculpt room and make an instance by choosing "clone instance" in the sculpt tree and it creates a new layer, although it wont be visible yet move it out of the way of the original with the transform. On the Left vertical menu, choose "import" (make sure "import to separate instances" is selected) then choose "select mesh" it will allow you to import the .3B project file.  

 

Example:

 

 

I don't know why this kind of tutorial doesn't exist, I have been looking for a while.  In other programs it's simple, just use the transform + control or alt to drag out an instance, there maybe too many menu options/steps to do a simple task. Ptex options for example should not even be displayed in the paint room unless using Ptex or are wanting to convert to it unless the paint room is able to handle many different types of paint projects in a single session.

 

@Andrew Shpagin maybe you can make the transform tool in the rooms have the option to duplicate the model while holding down control? So thankful at least that I was able to make copies in a complete state.

Edited November 1, 2023 by Ascensi
added a note for Andrew

[Andrew Shpagin]

On 10/28/2023 at 3:23 PM, poeboi said:

Thank you for recent updates 3dcoat team, as always!

I have some questions, maybe suggestion for CoreAPI

Recently I tried in various to implement a script, class inheriting from PopupWindows, and the idea is to store some ui commands in it for simple access. Like the 'Presets' window except for only most used ui commands

But I suspect maybe calling coat::ui::cmd or other commands like that is not supported in this context

here is what I am trying to do, from popup window have ui commands like "invert freeze" etc

the script in it's simplest form:

#include <CoreAPI.h>
#include <coat\PopupWindows.h>

class CmdPanel :public PopupWindow {
public:

	CmdPanel() {
		this->AutoShow();
	}

	virtual const char* GetWindowID() override {
		return "Command Panel";
	}
	
	void Button1() {
		coat::ui::cmd("$MENU_INVERT_FREEZE");
	}
	void Button2() {
		coat::ui::cmd("$InvertHide");
	}
	// etc...

	SERIALIZE() {
		{
			UI_LAYOUT("1");

			FUNCTION_CALL(Button1,"Invert Freeze");
			FUNCTION_CALL(Button2,"Invert Hidden");
			// etc...
		}
	}
};

EXPORT
int main() {
	CmdPanel p;

	return 0;
}

The source of problems is that script ends and class CmdPanel does not exist anymore after the end of the script. The correct script is below. The key is the registering the proxy tool that forces the script to keep being in memory. Pay attention you need to show the window manually using Windows->Palels->Command panel. In 2023.23 this last action no longer needed, and the proxy tool will not appear as well.

#include <CoreAPI.h>
#include <coat\PopupWindows.h>

class CmdPanel :public PopupWindow {
public:

	CmdPanel() {
	}

	virtual const char* GetWindowID() override {
		return "Command Panel";
	}

	void Button1() {
		coat::ui::cmd("$MENU_INVERT_FREEZE");
	}
	void Button2() {
		coat::ui::cmd("$InvertHide");
	}
	// etc...

	SERIALIZE() {
		{
			UI_LAYOUT("1");

			FUNCTION_CALL(Button1, "Invert Freeze");
			FUNCTION_CALL(Button2, "Invert Hidden");
			// etc...
		}
	}
};

class Keeper :public VoxelExtension
{
public:
	CmdPanel* panel;
	Keeper() {
		panel = new CmdPanel();
		PopupWindow::Register(panel);
		panel->Show();
	}
	~Keeper() {
		delete panel;
	}
};

EXPORT
int main() {
	VoxelExtension::Register(new Keeper);
	return 0;
}

 

[poeboi]

2 hours ago, Andrew Shpagin said:

The source of problems is that script ends and class CmdPanel does not exist anymore after the end of the script. The correct script is below. The key is the registering the proxy tool that forces the script to keep being in memory. Pay attention you need to show the window manually using Windows->Palels->Command panel. In 2023.23 this last action no longer needed, and the proxy tool will not appear as well.

 

Fantastic! Thank you so much for your time and help @Andrew Shpagin! 
 

 

What the panel solves for me is the menus present me with many options, too many to reasonably keybind and sometimes difficult to navigate to each time, but now I can be presented with only the commands I know I most often use via the panel which is very handy! 

[Mihu83]

Ok, guys, I have some issues with brush/camera behaviour and it's there for quite some time...

Chceck out the video - when there is one object visible, everything is smooth, no lags, etc. When second object appears, cursor gets stuck/hangs with every camera move/cursor placement change.

Don't know what's the issue, but it really screws up the whole sculpting experience and that happens with every tool.

Other thing, is there any option to not store camera shortcuts(Render Tool) in Presets panel? That just make a mess in Presets. I would suggest separate panel for saved cameras, as this would be more comfortable and logical to use.

 

Edited November 4, 2023 by Mihu83

[Ascensi]

***Smart materials emergency*** - it wont install material backups

I have since uninstalled, deleted the folders under users and programs, reinstalled as admin with anti-virus disabled.

When I try to install materials backups that are a couple Gb in size, after only a few seconds it immediately asks me to restart and when I do, nothing has been installed. What's going on? I've tried several recent versions ie; 2023.32   29, 26 etc. 

Using Win 11,  RTX 4090, 32 GB host ram -392 GB free. Windows 11 has latest updates.

 

I think the coding should be locked/secured when features work and if you guys create anything new either it works or the other code prevents it from working due to a compatibility issue -if possible, just to guarantee known/common features to work.  

Edited November 5, 2023 by Ascensi
pc info

[Mihu83]

14 hours ago, Ascensi said:

***Smart materials emergency*** - it wont install material backups

I have since uninstalled, deleted the folders under users and programs, reinstalled as admin with anti-virus disabled.

When I try to install materials backups that are a couple Gb in size, after only a few seconds it immediately asks me to restart and when I do, nothing has been installed. What's going on? I've tried several recent versions ie; 2023.32   29, 26 etc. 

Using Win 11,  RTX 4090, 32 GB host ram -392 GB free. Windows 11 has latest updates.

 

I think the coding should be locked/secured when features work and if you guys create anything new either it works or the other code prevents it from working due to a compatibility issue -if possible, just to guarantee known/common features to work.  

I've had similar issue and that's not operating system nor hardware thing, definitely something with 3DC.

I've solved this with manually copying shader and smart materials folders from V4 directory, which I still use as main 3DCoat version, to the 2023 directory... so, my suggestion is, find 3DC version that will install your packages, then install newest 3DC to separate directory and copy the folders. Another suggestion is to keep your backups in form of copied folders and as a packages... just in case.

Edited November 5, 2023 by Mihu83

[Ascensi]

6 hours ago, Mihu83 said:

I've had similar issue and that's not operating system nor hardware thing, definitely something with 3DC.

I've solved this with manually copying shader and smart materials folders from V4 directory, which I still use as main 3DCoat version, to the 2023 directory... so, my suggestion is, find 3DC version that will install your packages, then install newest 3DC to separate directory and copy the folders. Another suggestion is to keep your backups in form of copied folders and as a packages... just in case.

i would have done that but I'm mobile and all i have are the backup files from my other computer. I'll probably do that next time with just copying the folders. My computer at home also has a new install also using Win 11, so I'll see if it's a problem there when I get back.  Also thanks for your suggestion about installing using an older version that works, makes sense, good strategy.

 

Edited November 5, 2023 by Ascensi

[Carlosan]

You can also use Migration master

Or convert old materials to newer versions

[Ascensi]

4 hours ago, Carlosan said:

You can also use Migration master

Or convert old materials to newer versions

is there a video showing how to "convert older materials (pre 4.5) ? it doesn't allow me to select folders or files and if it only work when using the "install extension" it doesn't work.  I've tried with both older mat options check marked and even individually, it doesn't change anything in the installation process. Also choosing the migrate process, I don't have any folders to migrate from at this time, only .3dcpack's that I need to restore! 

 

Edited November 5, 2023 by Ascensi

[Carlosan]

*.3dcpack's are zippped files, you can open it using 7zip or winrar

[Ascensi]

2 hours ago, Carlosan said:

*.3dcpack's are zippped files, you can open it using 7zip or winrar

awesome, thanks! I'll give that a shot! update:

Everything works again! thanks for your help.

Edited November 6, 2023 by Ascensi

[Boozer]

Even Anton and Fuad rarely uses 3DCoat anymore  ...There is only 1 person left that I know and he is only using a few vox tools and renders in Keyshot

A very misleading AD on Youtube popped up yesterday so I had to stop by here and see whats up

[Ctc_nick]

Hello.

I hope everybody is doing well!! 

I would like to ask why is the standalone Python in 3Dcoats Userfolder 32Bit, but the inbuild Python from Coat.exe works in 64Bit. Would it not be better to use only 64Bit Python?

I would gladly appreciate any information.

"DLL load failed while importing _ctypes: %1 is not a valid Win32-Application"

Python tries to load a 32 Bit DLL in a 64Bit Python environment, but claims that it is not 32 Bit? .

I already removed other Pythons from System Path. I will now try reinstall 3dcoat.

Thank you, and all the Best!

 

Edited November 8, 2023 by Ctc_nick
shortened text

[Metin Seven]

Just installed 3DC again (version 2023.33 on Windows), but I can't select anything beneath Relax Standard as a Shift or Control + Shift option from the dropdowns.

When I try to select Smart Pinch or Super Relax, I keep getting Relax Standard.

─ Edit: Restarted, and now it works. Maybe it was caused after restoring my custom workspace.

Edited November 8, 2023 by Metin Seven
Solved

[Andrew Shpagin]

On 11/8/2023 at 11:16 AM, Ctc_nick said:

Hello.

I hope everybody is doing well!! 

I would like to ask why is the standalone Python in 3Dcoats Userfolder 32Bit, but the inbuild Python from Coat.exe works in 64Bit. Would it not be better to use only 64Bit Python?

I would gladly appreciate any information.

"DLL load failed while importing _ctypes: %1 is not a valid Win32-Application"

Python tries to load a 32 Bit DLL in a 64Bit Python environment, but claims that it is not 32 Bit? .

I already removed other Pythons from System Path. I will now try reinstall 3dcoat.

Thank you, and all the Best!

 

I am working on all those Python problems. It will be solved, for sure. Not only this is an issue.

The 3.8.10 was chosen because it is the last version compatible with Win 7. If we use a later version of Python, we should cancel Win 7 support.

[Andrew Shpagin]

17 hours ago, Andrew Shpagin said:

I am working on all those Python problems. It will be solved, for sure. Not only this is an issue.

The 3.8.10 was chosen because it is the last version compatible with Win 7. If we use a later version of Python, we should cancel Win 7 support.

Solved it, now all packages like numpy, cv2, pytorch work correctly.  Of course, need install it using Scripts->Install python packages

[Ctc_nick]

12 hours ago, Andrew Shpagin said:

Solved it, now all packages like numpy, cv2 work correctly.  Of course, need install it using Scripts->Install python packages

Thats so cool. Cant wait to try! 

[Ctc_nick]

@Andrew Shpagin It works! Now lets see how far we can get with can get with this.

Thank you!

[Metin Seven]

I'm working with 3D-Coat again, after being away for a while, and I just want to state how much I love it. The program itself is a work of art. So many useful tools and options, the possibilities are virtually limitless. And the freedom of voxel sculpting is a delight. 

[Ascensi]

In v 2023.33 using PPP mode with subdivisions and no smoothing seems to smooth when subdividing anyway..  I'm trying to use a surface plane to paint but the corners get physically smoothed, is this a bug or does it only apply to UV smoothing?

I've also tried creating a project without using subdivision like Andrew suggested to me long ago and that I've requested to use it to paint before that but it doesn't displace any detail, it does displace the low poly verts only.   I thought if I could paint with just using high tessellation with show displacement, I'd get amazing performance like a game and I know this is possible in Unity - no subdivisions needed. So are some of these functions now broken? ie 1. no smoothing still causes physical smoothing 2. Painting with Displacement smart materials doesn't displace with any detail when using tessellation but at least it doesn't smooth/round the corners  of a plane.

 

Would anyone have any insights to this? 

 

 

Edited November 15, 2023 by Ascensi

[Carlosan]

@Ascensi please take a look at the manual, it is explained there

https://3dcoat.com/documentation/manual/workspaces-rooms/paint/importing-into-the-paint-room/import-initial-subdivision/

In 3DCoat, when you “import a model for pixel painting”, you can select “Initial subdivision (number of polygons)” in the import settings screen, which seems to correspond to the subdivision ratio when using Catmull-Clark subdivision (CC).

This seems to correspond to the subdivision ratio when using the Catmull-Clark subdivision (CC).

 2- I was testing show displ+tesell (5) and got this result

 

Will be nice if you drop a mail to Andrew asking for this request, I asked him if it is possible to have real time CC subdivision when we work painting with depth.
Also if the palette of sculpt tool will be improved on Paint Room for Microvertex painting.