setting depth on Grow tool when not using a pressure brush

[dbonejones]

That was the best title I could think of for this question.

Basically, I love to use the grow tool with a point picking brush rather than a pressure brush to follow contours on a background image and create the first volumes for sculpting.

My problem is, I can't figure out how to set a depth for these tools (or a height of the created voxels for that matter). I've gotten around this by starting with a really high res volume and then transform scaling that volume up or down to get the depth I need, the problem with that though is that it always ends up rounding the edges and ruining the volume for hardsurface use.

I attached a video to illustrate, it shows me creating a volume with the grow tool and pick point brush. How do I choose the depth? Why when I create a second volume is it the same depth but higher?

Any help is appreciated!

[The Candy-floss Kid]

Sadly I can't offer help but can confirm that your findings are the case - smooth, fill, clay and carve all have this voxel creation facility but the depth settings on them all has no effect on the depth of the voxels created in the workspace. It would be intuitive and useful if there was a param setting for this I must agree.

[dbonejones]

Oh, please! There must be some logic behind this function! Andrew?

What other tools do people use to accomplish this task? How do people make initial volumes for hardsurface modelling?

[Polygoon]

If I understand what you are wanting correctly, you can adjust the depth with the "Extrude %" up inthe top tool bar where depth normally is & Falloff etc. For getting them at the same hieght you can make you second draw in a new layer then use the transform tool. Select the first layer with your first draw in it and take note of its Y axis co-ordinates (middle set). Select the second layer and type in the same co-ordinates as the first layers in its Y-axis co-ordinates. Then merge your layers.

Hopefully that will help you out for now.

I don't know why the second draw is offset along the Y-axis by default or even how to make it not offset like that. Perhaps someone else knows a setting to adjust.

[dbonejones]

Unfortunately the Extrude % field doesn't work for setting a depth with the last 6 brush types in the "E" panel.

Your other tip about using the coordinates is great though, thank you.

What I want to do is be able to trace a background reference image to create my initial volumes. It's already possible with the grow tool and one of the last 6 brushes in the "E" panel, but without a usable depth setting.

This seems like the absolute easiest way to start a hardsurface model, why mess around with primitives that are not the exact shape you want when you can just draw a volume that is the right shape?

So far my best workaround is drawing the shape, cloneing it, stacking them as many times as I need, and merging.

Still hoping that someone knows the answer to this riddle, it seems inconceivable to me that there's no way to set a depth with those brushes.

Thanks

[Polygoon]

Yeh! for some reason its not working for the closed spline tools. I am thinking that it did, or is intending to be working though, other wise the option wouldn't be there. there are a few things that arn't finished in these newer builds. Andrew did mention that was the case with a few things when he released polypainting, I guess we will just have to be patient.

You can still adjust depth by setting it in the other none closed spline tools on the E panel, or at least I have been able to. When switching back to the closed spline tools it remembers the settings you put in to the Extrude % and as with other tools it has a relationship with the size of your brush.