Selections Groups (How many)

[Ramjet]

I am testing Wings 3D 2.2.3

Normally I use only stable release (1.5.4 and 2.17) and the selections groups were not saved in the Wings File and when you stop and restart your computer all the Selection Groups were lost!

Now with the 2.2.3 release, it works correctly and the Selection groups are correctly saved, and can be reloaded after a stop. And this reloaded file can be used with older stable versions.

I make a try with 13 Selection Groups and it works correctly. then I push to 48 and it still works fine.

My question is : How many Selection Groups I can use in one file?

I need now 100 or more.

So, if there is some limitation, I must know it before finishing the completion of my Selections Groups, because I can change of strategy when making them.

Again and again, Thank you for this last version.

[micheus]

Normally I use only stable release (1.5.4 and 2.17) and the selections groups were not saved in the Wings File and when you stop and restart your computer all the Selection Groups were lost!

That was happening for groups keeping selections from hidden/locked objects, which was fixed in v2.2.2. Only empty groups may be removed.

I make a try with 13 Selection Groups and it works correctly. then I push to 48 and it still works fine.

My question is : How many Selection Groups I can use in one file?
I need now 100 or more.

Ramjet, there is not intentional limitation, but it's sure there is at least the memory available in the system.
You can safely store your 100 or 1000 groups.

[Ramjet]

Thank you very much Micheus, for your fast and precise answer.

With my 4 Go ram and my Wings file of 500 ko, the limitation is far away!

[Ramjet]

Hi Micheus,

I make a new test with 1.5.4 and 2.1.3 the stable releases:

Normally I lock all my objects at the end of each session.

But, following your advice, I make few Selection Groups on a simple object.
Then Deselect all and Save my object unlocked.
Stop and restart my PC.
Reload my simple Object and obviously, I find all my previous Selection Groups!

By the way, I reach 70 selection groups without a significant progress of the size of the file.

I use that Selection Groups to master my UV maps in a cumulative way, and to pose very low poly characters efficiently.

Thanks Micheus for the Tip.

[goliard]

"I use that Selection Groups to master my UV maps in a cumulative way, and to pose very low poly characters efficiently."
Is it possible for you to share how you do this?

[Ramjet]

Hi Goliar

Selection Groups help UV Map in the way that you can UVmap step by step your Object. An if there is a very difficult part, it is more easy to isolate this part in order to make a fair UV map.
Micheus had made a complete answer recently in "Materials to faces and UVmaps". The two techniques are very good.

Very low poly characters and Posing.
In Wings 3D there is no working plug-in to built a skeleton with bones etc.. like in Poser.
My very low poly character is about 1400 vertices and it is a little bit more than a Play Mobil.
As it is use in a flight simulator and part of other static objects you must refrain the number of Vertices to avoid a low frame rate during the simulation.
Each Arms are composed of: a grouped phalanges, a thumb, hand, wrist, a fore-arm, an elbow, an arm.
You can make a selection group for each articulated part, from the nails to the end of the shoulder.
Idem for each legs.
The trunk can be also decomposed from the belly to the neck and the head.
Understand that I make cumulative groups that is for the hand: grouped phalanges thumbs and the hand until the wrist, and the Arm group begin from nails to the arm.
The main difficulties remain in the choice of each axis of rotation, and to maintain of the constant length (length of the hand, length of the fore_arm etc...).
Sometime I put vertices do define axes and I store in selection groups some of them.
I make always short rotation of maximum 15° then I correct the model by tweaking.
The great advantage of creating Selection Groups is that you always select the same faces even if few faces are sometime hidden.
To build your own character, the best way is to use your own body, to make measurement and understand how work the articulations and there limits.


Hope that these short explanations will be useful for you.

[Ramjet]

Some illustrations of my last post with my little low poly Play Mobil and the intensive use of Selection Groups.

The starting Character:



2 hours later it becomes a pilot :



But it can be also this kind of sketch (with an older version of my Play Mobil) :



Have fun

[goliard]

@ramjet - Thanks for the quick response! I'm an absolute noob at Wings, so this is going to take me some time to assimilate! Your illustrations are a good compromise between complexity and level of detail.