Extract issue..

[Kagehi]

OK, while useful, this thing has driven me nuts in some ways. So, here is what I tried to do. First, I took a sphere, smoothed it, then fixed some of the geometry. Note - Circularize seems to do some odd things, I had to rotate the "fixed" part back in line, because it "warped" the geometry. I then added one extra side, and again.. We need a "spherize" command, or something. It took me a while to fix everything so it was round again, and actually centered.

But, I needed to do this so I could make three, equally spaced, panels from the sphere, and make sure that, after UV mapping, they would have the same exact "texture" as the sphere's surface. I then selected those three bits and used "extract" to get the panels.

Now, I have a problem though. Extraction creates a blank face on the back side. So.. how the heck do you then "match" the back to the front, to get a uniform "panel", with the same curve on both sides?

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Ah.. OK, figured out I can extrude, then extract... But, then I end up left with the bits I added which I still need to get rid of.. Got to be a better way to do this. After all, the point here was to "not" change the geometry of the original, at all, while working, but to just make a new part, which exactly matched the texture... :p

[studiof]

Do a shell extract. that will create a separate object that you can move.

[micheus]

studiof, I think you would mean Extract only, otherwise you was talking about Shell Extrude.

In reference to your comment the Circularize, I'm not sure what are you talking about. A sample image would be nice.

As you said smoothed the geometry I thing that it was in that region you had used to extract the faces. If so, that seems to be a little irregular and maybe you have used Circularize to smooth it. For that case, I would recommend you to use Flow Connect. That would be the result:


After the extraction, for the rest of process - taking in account what you said to have made before, I would suggest you to use Intrude to create the inner faces. A small value for thickness would be nice for render (but you can leave it zero):

In the image above I used Extract [RMB], then I Inverted the selection [CTRL]+[SHIFT]+[i] and used Intrude with a thicknes (D) of 0.001.

I think that is what you were looking for.

[Kagehi]

Hmm. Yeah. That seems to be what I wanted. Mind, I will have to redo the thing anyway. Turned out.. I can't import what I came up with. Somehow, the "panels", when added up ended up being something like 117 LI. (Basically, in terms of what this means... most "building" wouldn't even take up this much server resources.) I have no bloody clue why it freaks on them. lol

So, going to have to find a different solution anyway. Sometimes I can't comprehend what the logic is with their calculations... :p

Oh, and the "smoothing" what to get a more curved edges on the panel.

[Kagehi]

Hmm. Ok. Think I found why I have a problem with the import. I just realized that what I ended up with was a literal "shell". Your extract, invert, etc. does the same thing. I need it to not just be a flat surface, but a solid. And, that is where the problem comes up. How do you get, once you have the extraction, from a "flat" single surface, back to a solid object, with the same curvature on both sides?

Finally worked out a way. Had to extract "twice", along normals, once out to 0.2, a second time out to 0.19. I inverted the second one, then selected the "blank" sides (i.e., the parts missing geometry), and bridged them. Really which bridge worked, somehow, with multiple faces some times. Also.. Maybe someone can come up with an "extract solid", which adds some set "thickness" to a resulting solid object, instead of just extracting a surface. Wings isn't exactly a surface modeller, so.. in some ways its actually kind of ironic that, in the case of this one command, you end up with a surface (which then becomes damned hard to do anything useful with... lol).

Oh, found a way around the "twisting" effect of circularize too - just make a sphere that is the right number of sides to begin with (duh!). Completely forgot that setting was even there.

But, for the sake of understanding what I meant with twisting (adding extra cuts, then edge loop + circularize on each of the new circumferences), I will post an image. Note: This does not happen if you only add "one" extra slice to the sphere (I tried that first, to see what the result was, and nothing got twisted). It only takes place if you add two, or I assume more, of them. Somehow, it seems to be able to keep things lined up with one, but when you stick two in there, it no longer keeps each of the loops the same.

[micheus]

How do you get, once you have the extraction, from a "flat" single surface, back to a solid object, with the same curvature on both sides?

Finally worked out a way. Had to extract "twice", along normals, once out to 0.2, a second time out to 0.19. I inverted the second one, then selected the "blank" sides (i.e., the parts missing geometry), and bridged them.

Oh God, what are you doing?
Use the steps I show you in the image and you will get this easily.

Oh, found a way around the "twisting" effect of circularize too - just make a sphere that is the right number of sides to begin with (duh!).

But, for the sake of understanding what I meant with twisting (adding extra cuts, then edge loop + circularize on each of the new circumferences), I will post an image.

You really seems to like the hard way.
Select the edges loops you want to twist, then change to vertex mode [V] and in the context menu look for Deform->Twist!

[Kagehi]

What I did gave me what I needed. What you did.. Looks, in the last image, like what I ended up with "last time", which didn't import, because a) I didn't realize it wasn't a solid (exactly), and b) wasn't what I actually wanted. This is the final result, in world.



As to the twisting... Sigh.. You're missing my point. I ***don't want them to twist***. If you add extra sections to a sphere, like I showed in the image, then you try to "even out" the spacing (i.e., make it so that all sections of the result are the same size again), by using circularize, i.e., turn a sphere that is 16 sections, by 8, into an 18 by 8, for example wings does very strange things with the resulting circles. Ok, here is another example, which is more in line with what someone "might" want to do. I created a box that is 4x2x2, and cut into 10 sections. I then wanted to transition from a square shape on the bottom, to a round one on top, so I edge looped the top 3 sections and circularized them. So far, so good.

Next step was, "OK, I actually need, for what ever reason, for the round part to have 42 sides, instead of 40." So I picked two places, on the rounded bits, to cut, then connect, so I had 42 sides on them. I then edge looped each of these sections again, and circularized, to get 42 equal sized faces, around the edge. Each part has the same size circle, each part also was circularized with the same settings. Even though its not possible to have them all line up with the "original" box these sections where created from, it **should be*** consistent. I.e., I would not expect all the lines on the round bits to "line up, with the bottom lines, on the square part. I do expect them to all line up with each other though. But, as you can see in the highlighted part, Wings ends up circularizing each one differently, so that there is a huge discrepancy between where the top circles vertices are, in relation to the other two.

This imho, shouldn't happen. If its the same number of lines, then circularize "should" produce a result where the top, second, bottom parts, of the round bit, "line up" with each other, in straight lines, right? Why wouldn't they? And, on something like a sphere, when it happens, you can't attribute this to it being the "top" of the object, like with this box.

[micheus]

Ok, I got your point for the Circularise. Yeah, the [LMB] option doesn't use any reference as start point, so it thinks about each edge ring. It's easy look to a sphere and think "why it do that so complicated?", but the code doesn't have eyes.
That is why you need to know that must of the Wings3d commands have a different action for each of the three mouse's button (LMB, MMB and RMB). Always check the Information line to know about them.

So, you still can use Circularise, but you need to use the [MMB] option and then you can set references for the command be applied. It's very flexible in this case:
- pick the center point [1];
- pick a plane which the rotation axis will lay [2];
- pick the reference point that define the stable ray [3];
Please, for each edge ring you will pick its respective vertex shown in the third image [3].

For the UFO, I still think you could just use Extract/Inverse/Intrude for the extracted piece (mainly because you did that using normal direction) and - still using the initial selection - use Extrude in negative direction, but using the same D value (thickness) you used for Intrude.
Of course, you must store the initial selection and that way this workflow make you get this shape without to need select anything else by hand - it's like a all-at-once action to get it done:

Doesn't it look similar to your UFO? (I hate this emoji)

[Kagehi]

Huh. Yeah. Guess both ways work. I must not have quite got what you meant. lol And, yeah, sometimes I miss which thing does what with different buttons. Mind, sometimes.. no bloody button seems to do what you want at all... lol Need an ebook on how all this stuff works, with real examples at some point, or something, so you can reference wtf you want to do, without having to hunt forums or video tutorials looking for it.

Its not always clear what exactly the options do differently. :p

[micheus]

Guess both ways work. I must not have quite got what you meant.

Don't guess! You need to try them. That is the best way to learn about the commands and discover which combination is better and/or faster.
I alway try to use the selection groups as many as possible, since it's something that uses to speed up some processes.

Its not always clear what exactly the options do differently. :p

That is true, but is hard to explain some of them in a few words.

Circularise is one interest command. Google for Wings3d circularise. You will find at least four videos about it.