[Solved] Bridge tool

[NLPLP]

Currently Bridge tool does not respect surrounding geometry.

is there a way to connect to the existing geometry when bridging between two edges like the picture.

Is there plans to update the existing tool if not?

 

 

 

[Oleg Shapov]

42 minutes ago, NLPLP said:

bridging between the two highlighted edges

Try this tool. Only the number of sections must be specified manually.

[Fluffy]

On 1/14/2023 at 9:41 PM, NLPLP said:

Thanks for the response.

No I want to do what Oleg showed in his response above (mostly because it adops the flowfrom the edges below), but the only problem is that the 

Loft Surface tool does not work with edges for me, only curves

I'm not that familiar with the Loft tool but I think I managed to figure out the process that Oleg is illustrating in the screenshot (it became a little clearer once I realised the selected edge shown was obscuring the third curve used in the loft operation).

It's worth noting that the order in which the two profile curves appear in the Tool Options window can have an effect on the resulting mesh.  The number of knots in the first curve in the list (in conjunction with the value set for U Spans) determines the number of polygons created and the order in which the curves appear determining the direction of the vertex normals on the resulting mesh.  Additionally if the curve which defines the edge you intend to create appears first in the list then the result when you hit apply may not align correctly with your existing mesh (without going into too much detail it seems to have something to do with how vertex normals effect the way in which 3D Coat generates the lofted surface).

Adding the Cross Section curve created in Step 3 appears to solve the issue regardless of the order the Profile curves are listed in however it can sometimes flip the vertex normals of the resulting mesh so it's a good idea to enable the Draw Normal option and then you can toggle the Reverse Normal setting if needed.

As I said I'm not that familiar with the Loft tool but this seems like a fairly reliable way to retrieve the desired result, however I personally prefer the Smart Retopo tool which can achieve very similar results using less curves.

All you need to do is create a curve for the edge you wish to generate and then activate the Smart Retopo tool, set the Mode to Quadrangulation, press the Add Profile button and select the curve and then set the required number of U Spans.  You may need to quickly tweak the position of each end of the curve to make sure it snaps to the correct vertices on the existing mesh but once both ends are correctly positioned you should see something like this...

(at first you should only see the green border, but if you hit the Apply button it will preview the results and hitting the Apply button a second time will generate the mesh).

As you can see the Smart Retopo tool is capable of filling irregular shapes which could potentially be problematic and/or time consuming using the Loft tool, but I'd still recommend learning how to use both.  As with most things in 3D Coat there are multiple ways to achieve the same results and which method works best very much depends on your personal preference and overall workflow, hopefully the above information will help you figure out which approach works best for you.  

 

 

[Oleg Shapov]

The Loft and Smart Retopo tools are currently in development. An update should be out soon. These tools are not yet very friendly, so we are waiting for an update.

//edit

tools updates are available on version 2022.58

[Gorbatovsky]

On 1/14/2023 at 1:38 AM, NLPLP said:

Currently Bridge tool does not respect surrounding geometry.

For the bridge to work, you need to select 2 chains of edges

[Carlosan]

 Could you give a step by step example of what you need to do?

[Elemeno]

 

mines currently working fine... i select the edges i wish to bridge and it does it... i cant figure out exactly what you need?

[NLPLP]

Yeah I wasnt very clear

Im attaching a new image.  Im bridging between the two highlighted edges and want to know if there s a tool that automatically welds (fills the surrounding geometry) without having to count divisions and then  input and  merge weld each individual vert.

[NLPLP]

4 hours ago, Oleg_Shapo said:

Try this tool. Only the number of sections must be specified manually.

Oleg

Yes thats the functionality that Im looking for,..........but for some reason, the tool (Loft Surface) ,asks me to select curves but there's only edges there.

Could you maybe post a small video on how to use that tool?

Thank you

[AbnRanger]

On 1/13/2023 at 11:38 PM, NLPLP said:

Currently Bridge tool does not respect surrounding geometry.

is there a way to connect to the existing geometry when bridging between two edges like the picture.

Is there plans to update the existing tool if not?

 

 

 

Are you wanting to weld those vertices together (rather than creating new geometry between them)? You can just click on the SELECT button > Vertex mode > select the vertices you would like > RMB click in the viewport to bring up the context sensitive RMB menu > click WELD VERTICES. There is a parameter in the Tool Options panel to adjust the weld radius. As you drag the weld tolerance slider, you should notice a change in color to indicate they are now in range of being welded together.

 

[NLPLP]

1 hour ago, AbnRanger said:

Are you wanting to weld those vertices together (rather than creating new geometry between them)? You can just click on the SELECT button > Vertex mode > select the vertices you would like > RMB click in the viewport to bring up the context sensitive RMB menu > click WELD VERTICES. There is a parameter in the Tool Options panel to adjust the weld radius. As you drag the weld tolerance, you should a change in color to indicate they are now in range of being welded together.

 

Thanks for the response.

No I want to do what Oleg showed in his response above (mostly because it adops the flowfrom the edges below), but the only problem is that the 

Loft Surface tool does not work with edges for me, only curves

[AbnRanger]

20 hours ago, NLPLP said:

Thanks for the response.

No I want to do what Oleg showed in his response above (mostly because it adops the flowfrom the edges below), but the only problem is that the 

Loft Surface tool does not work with edges for me, only curves

Yes, but the image you showed, indicated that the best/quickest solution there was indeed to weld the vertices of the 2 edges on one side to the 2 edges on the other. You could just select the 3 edges on each side and use the Bridge tool, but honestly, I cannot see the need for extra geometry between those edges. That is why I suggested the Weld Vertices tool. 

[Elemeno]

weld vertices has some strange out comes... why don't we have merge vertices with options like other modelling software's...

 

loft surface is so confusing lol!

compare this to just selecting one edge and pressing "F" and it creating a face for you... i just spent 5 minutes bridging a simple gap ...

i know they said they are working on the modelling etc so hopefully its one of the features for v2023...

[Fluffy]

9 minutes ago, Oleg_Shapo said:

The Loft and Smart Retopo tools are currently in development. An update should be out soon. These tools are not yet very friendly, so we are waiting for an update.

That's good news.  The current tools do take a little effort to work out but once you get the hang of them they're extremely useful.  I'm a lot more familiar with using the Sculpt room to block things out first so I'm still getting to grips with some of the newer low poly modelling tools but so far I'm enjoying them a lot!

[NLPLP]

5 hours ago, Oleg_Shapo said:

The Loft and Smart Retopo tools are currently in development. An update should be out soon. These tools are not yet very friendly, so we are waiting for an update.

That's awesome.

Coming from a strictly poly modeling/engineering CAD background, I can tell you that  there s already a lot of innovation in the existing toolset as far as functionality goes ......all we need is a bit of smoothing on the edges to make them a bit more user friendly