Retopology questions/tipps

[Findus]

I'm currently doing retopology and wonder if there's a solution or a better way to achieve the following:

I'm using mostly "Points to Polygons" as the gives me the control I need. (I'm aware of Smart Retopo, but want to set each point individually, work with plenty of triangles etc.)

I set the Ctrl key to Collapse. This seems to collapse whole edge rings which is great most of the time, but is there an option to directly collapse just a single edge?
I know I can switch to the select tool and then to collapse or I can drag one point of the edge to the other and then reposition the point, but having an option key to just collapse a single edge would be much quicker.

Likewise, is there a way of directly turning an edge (having it connect other vertices in a polygon) without selecting it first? The quickest workaround I see right now is to cut a new edge in the desired direction and merge the resulting middlepoint to a corner.

Lastly, I've set the Add/Split tool to Ctrl+Shift in the Points to Polygons tool. This will remember the last point I selected / used with that tool previously, having the operation start at that point. This might be helpful if I want to continue there, but is undesirable most of the time as it prevents me from starting directly where I want. When using the tool directly, I can get out of this previous selection by hitting the Escape Key. But if I use the tool as a Ctrl+Shift option, that's obviously not possible as that combination is taken by Windows (Ctrl+Esc, too). I can click on the previous point to remove it, which is a bit cumbersome (if it is visible on the screen at the moment at all), or I can hit Backspace. That's ok, but requires me to use my right hand and let go of the mouse. I wonder if there's an option to not have the Add/Split tool remember the previous/last vertex used with it, which would be overall much more convenient in my case.

[Oleg Shapov]

57 minutes ago, Findus said:

I set the Ctrl key to Collapse.

Use a different hotkey for the Collapse tool. Pressing ctrl will allow you to select a loop of edges instead of just one.

 

[Findus]

Thanks a lot! That makes sense. Is there a way to reassing the ring switch/option of the Collapse tool to something else than Ctrl? I could assign a hotkey for the Collapse tool (and thankfully the hotkeys switch back to the previous tool when hit twice) but didn't find an option to affect the behavior options, which would be even better.

 

Edit: This seems to be a general problem. Tools like Points ot Polygons allow to temporally switch to other tools with Ctrl or Ctrl+Shift, but many of those tools are then hampered by the fact that they have options for Ctrl (and perhaps Shift) themselves.

Edited July 17, 2023 by Findus

[AbnRanger]

5 hours ago, Findus said:

Thanks a lot! That makes sense. Is there a way to reassing the ring switch/option of the Collapse tool to something else than Ctrl? I could assign a hotkey for the Collapse tool (and thankfully the hotkeys switch back to the previous tool when hit twice) but didn't find an option to affect the behavior options, which would be even better.

 

Edit: This seems to be a general problem. Tools like Points ot Polygons allow to temporally switch to other tools with Ctrl or Ctrl+Shift, but many of those tools are then hampered by the fact that they have options for Ctrl (and perhaps Shift) themselves.

This is true, and that is why it is worth checking out the HMC Voice Command software for 3DCoat...which is in Beta, now, and a 30 day trial. It really shines in situations like this, because you don't even have to think about hotkeys. Just say what you want or need when you want it. Not trying to sell anything (it's only like $10/yr, anyway), but when I tried it I was super impressed, because I don't have to worry about what hotkey is assigned to what tool. You can see how helpful it is, in the Retopo & Sculpt Workspace, in this video.

 

[Findus]

Thanks a lot, I'll take a look!

[Findus]

I think for now I'll go with setting keyboard shortcuts for the individual tools and ignoring the Ctrl/Ctrl+Shift toggle for the Points to Polygons tool because of the aformentioned conflicts.

The voice commands seem interesting and I'll probably give them a try one day if I have more time, but I can't really see myself using them. I might change my opinion after spending some time with them, of course, but it doesn't seem faster than keyboard shortcuts (while it would be a possible solution for my problem). Like said in the video, one area where the voice commands shine is probably when there are a lot of different commands to remember, but doing retopology, I'll only ever use a handful of tools regularly and switching to other tools every now and then doesn't really matter that much. And I'd have to test how well voice commands would work for me while listing to podcasts etc. But I guess that's all moot until I really try them.

Keyboard shortcuts have the problem of remembering them after a while, but for me, they usually tend to transfer to muscle memory pretty quickly (going so far that I sometimes can execute them basically instantly, but if I try to consciously remember what they are exactly, especially for more complicated combinations, I can't). So there might be some initial delay when revisiting a software after a while, but then they work great.

Edited July 18, 2023 by Findus

[AbnRanger]

19 hours ago, Findus said:

Thanks a lot, I'll take a look!

You are very welcome, and I hope you like it.