Modelling category

thanks goes to briggs for the ngon work and for the dudes who did tweak and the new bevel tools.

in the current svn we already have a proper tweak which is uber-sweet! now surface tweak would be an extension to the basic tweak.
i use the explanation from the gsculpt site:
surface-tweak (like tweak, but constrains movement to the surface of the model, or the surface normal)

other than that i really cant explain it or give any info on how to implement it.
(but when you just have to rearrange the verts/loops on your model without messing up the shape of your mesh this can be a big time saver)

True support for Ngons, allowing a much faster box modeling work flow for those who choose to use them. I can see possibilities of benefits for architectural modeling as well as organic modeling.

An infinite plane is a plane that spans an infinite distance. This would be very useful, especially when making landscape scenes with Blender.
After trying Bryce 5.5, I found that the infinite plane feature was the one I used the most. I would love to see something like this in Blender!

It would be great if we'd have a modifier which gives a polygon selection thickness (make a single-sided polygon a box for example) or a general extrude modifier which should also handle curves.

Useful parameters are:
- Offset (of course)
- Maximum Angle (for Make-Thicker)
- "Preserve Groups" option (for Make-Thicker)
- Direction (disabled for Make-Thicker)

That modifier would be very useful for making models like vases or leafs or something have thickness in a NON-DESTRUCTIVE way where you can change the values of the parameter EVERYTIME.

(Idea is based on the "Make Thicker Plugin" for Cinema4d: http://home7.highway.ne.jp/winter-m/plugin.html )

It would be nice to freehand draw curves in blender like in inkscape/corel-draw/illustrator etc.

The lathe and extrude along a curve tools in Blender are a bit unconventional and difficult to find. Could these be added to the modifier stack?

a bridge tool which automatically can connect two selected groups of edges or polygons would be great.

here is an example: http://www.luxology.com/training/video.aspx?id=36

Why do we need to spin an object, Undo, change values, spin, Undo...?

I propose another modifier stack (for smaller mess), in which I change Spin values in any time. That will allow me to make a small corrections in objects profile and to make the mesh more dense when I need it.
A possibility to select a spin center would be needed. That could be an object's center or [OB: ] field.

It isn't a huge waste of time just to click Apply.

I would expect the same thing for fractal subdivision and Screw.

howdy,

so i've noticed that in blender (contrary to most other poly modeling apps), the extrude function only allows you to push up or pull down along the normal of the poly(s) you are extruding.

it would be ideal if it also allowed you to extrude in or out as well (on the plane that the poly lies on, using vertex normals?).

so if you wanted to create a CRATE for example, you can grab the top face of a cube, EXTRUDE IN and then EXTRUDE DOWN to create a model that is not "paper thin".

in the above example, you can just scale of course... but if the shape is IRREGULAR (you can try it even on something like an OVAL), when you scale, you do not create an even "RIM" which is what extrude in or out allows.

Currently there are only three options to adjust the center of the object. Center New, Center Cursor, and Center.

It would be nice addition to be able to adjust the object center by simply translating it to a desired position.


[i]Edit[/i]
Also add the posibility to change scale and rotation without modification of the mesh structure in any way.

it would be a great help to be able to go into edit mode on a per object basis.

my main use for this would be modelling things, especially architectural stuff. imagine you have 10 columns and want to pull up the top row of verts on all of them...
you could just select them all and edit mode them all as opposed to doing it one at a time, or grouping them etc...

i love the way edit and object mode work now but maybe this could be added as an extra (off by default) option?

(i get this idea from maya btw)

For example, we have a mesh of complicated shape and made of evenly distributed polygons. So flat surfaces and relatively curved and sharp ones have similar polygon density, which sometimes is not rational. Flat surfaces can be drawn by less polygons and curves need to be more detailed to look smooth or properly sharp.
Idea is to make a tool, that would preserve basic shape of mesh and create new topology for it, approximately based on user defined quantity of polygons per arc angle. For example: Curve turns on 15 degrees & gets one polygon, no matter of curve's size.
So flatter surfaces get less polygons and curved surfaces & corners concentrate polygons.

There also can be an adjustment for lonely one-edged sharp corners, that would work like bevel tool. Distance to define corners as lonely must also be adjustable.


This tool, combined with vertex slide, will simplify creation of complicated shapes with rational topology.

Also it can be used dynamically with sculpt, so, for example, mesh will get new polygons when adding a big sharp bump on it, and remove unnecessary polygons when something is flattered.

When i create a detail that has a mirror modifier, then I create a "ALT + D" duplicate.

Each duplicate still maintains the mirror modifier. But when I try to "apply" the modifier on any of the duplicates, it gives me an error.

I use this often, so it becomes quite annoying at times. Basically, i have to delete the mirror modifier on all of the duplicates first. Then I have to go into edit mode and duplicate faces and mirror along the same axis. After which i can finally perform the cleanup action to reduce polys.

I have made a feature request regarding inset edge loop extrusion. See the BlenderArtists URL below for information.

http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=131181

It would be nice to be able to define the center of a Group Object.


When Importing a group form another file or for that instance even same file, center of the "grouped" object is the 0,0,0 location of the scene and not the object.

At times this is quite anoying.

Here's an idea - the cast modifier could work with more cast objects than just the Cube, sphere, and cylinder. There could be the field OB: and then you type in your existing object in your scene you want to cast to, casting that object to the object with the modifier.

It is relatively difficult and time consuming to do smooth curved surfaces if mesh has more vertexes. So it would be nice to just create curve (Bezier or NURBS) and snap vertexes to that curve. Modeling complex objects (not only) from blueprints would be easier and quicker.

this idea come from XSI modeling tools, it's simple. just hovering around your cursor and it will highlite the hotspot of vertex, edge or face.

it has several advantages :
1). increase your work speed (minimize the wrong selection even if you work on vertex, edge or face selection at the same time).
2). clean the interface (it remove the dots in vertex or face selection).

http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p79/johantri/01_vertex.jpg
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p79/johantri/02_edge.jpg
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p79/johantri/03_face.jpg

In 3DS Max, when creating something like a cube, you click to begin to drag out the x, y size, and then click to drag out the z size, and then click once more to finish. While this is being done you have a readout of the cube's size which you can change after you're finished if you want to.

It would be nice if Blender could do this with a simple additional keypress upon adding any mesh. After doing so the user is in a mode where they can create a mesh based on their exact specifications.

Maybe the Transform Properties Window could also be set to pop up and stay on-screen until the user closes it, signifying they are done with it. Allow this to be an option which can be turned on or off and set it to off by default. This way long time Blender heads wouldn't be bothered with this if they don't want it. With this enabled maybe the TPW could pop up again if the object is later scaled.

This will save some time because instead of having to add a cube at a default size and then open the TPW to change everything, the user could simply drag out the cube, pressing CTRL to snap it to the grid if they wish, until the cube is exactly the size they want. Then they could refer to the TPW to make sure the cube is exactly the size they want, and the location where they want it.

my idea is to introduce egde loops to retopo tool. Like in edit mode after hitting a shortcut loop would be created around the model aligned to view or selected axis, with number of vertices to be input by user or auto deployed for best appearance.
next loops if crossed should snap to previous vertices, to form a mesh.
also it would be cool to introduce loops floating on a surface (like when you model eyes or lips) scaled with mousewheel for example