| Text Tips main page Text Tips. (No particular order - might get sorted when / if there's more) Keeping Spikes true Joining extracted faces Selecting a face that's edgeways on to the screen. Selection mode 'jumping' and using +/- keys Correcting a distorted Mirror face Selecting the border edge around an area of faces Forming boundary edges / insetting / bevelling Zero input operations For multi-replication workarounds (say rotate) Extrude Radial cludge (with another zero input command) Dropping objects onto a surface / floor Seeing true shapes of faces. Geometry integrity after a weld. Flattening edgeloops using scale. Confining random selections Cutting edges Info displays Rotating separate (face / edge / body) selections around a single axis. Rotating many objects around a single axis. Rotating an object after Put On Using Put On without the faces touching Using +/- keys to grow / shrink Keeping Spikes true If you try doing successive vert extrudes on a sphere, the normals shift off axis (except for equator/poles) - and you end up with 'curved' spikes. However, if after doing first vert extrude, select vert at tip, bevel 0.001 (or similar, not zero), keep the end face selected (and/or store) and use bump on this - the spike stays true. As usual, use +/- for adjusting new loop positions. Joining extracted faces Since Weld/Bridge will only work with faces, you have to create some (zero thickness?) ones. Select faces Face | Extrude -> Normal -> zero Then select the appropriate zero thickness faces (ztf) and join. Since it's quite difficult to select (and see) a ztf, you have to select appropriate surrounding geometry, use a suitable 'geometry spreader' like + or pressing a selection mode hkey (again) Eg To remove an intermediate edge between two ztf - select the vert at the end f the edge (to be removed) press E - this selects the required (invisible) edge + other (visible) edges. Deselect unwanted edges (leaving wanted), press F to select the 2 ztf, dissolve removes the unwanted edge and leaves you with the bridge face selected. Store this selection for later use. (After Bridge, use Object | Cleanup) (If you want to do other similar ops on ztf - try it out first on a visible version (to get an idea of the workflow) and do the same with the ztf stuff.) Selecting a face that's edgeways on to the screen. Select a (visible) vert or edge associated with the face, press F and delete unwanted stuff. (useful if working in one ortho view and want to select stuff that's edgeways on and you don't want to tumble model etc). This also works with obscured edges (end on to view - select end vert, press E and delete unwanted stuff) Eyeball info display to keep track of situation and faces that have zero thickness (say after Face | Extrude -> zero) Selection mode 'jumping' and using +/- keys You can often get interesting (and useful) results by selecting elements in one mode, then changing selection mode by pressing the appropriate hotkey. Eg: To select a ring of faces, sandwiched between a pair of edgeloops Select both edgeloops (select single edge in both, press L) Press F to change to faces Press - (minus) to get the middle faces. Or Select the edgering (select one edge of the ring, press G) Press F The above two examples (of many) give slightly different results depending on the geometry. Also worth noting that repeat pressing of +/- keys produces different results from repeatedly selecting the same mode icon / hotkey. Well worth experimenting with. (Bay's written about how he uses 'selection jumping' techniques - far more interesting and useful comments than my boring example above - as you'd expect from someone that knows what they're doing:)) Correcting a distorted Mirror face If you've somehow managed to distort a central edgeloop (and its associated mirror /VM plane / face) Use either Vert or Face | Flatten along the relevant axis. If you want to flatten the geometry to a particular location along the axis, use RMB option and choose a point through which you want the plane to pass. (Can also use Edge | Scale -> XYZ (or vector) RMB, to a point as there's no Edge | Flatten,and drag to 0%) If the mirror face geometry no longer lies on the same plane, don't use Face | Flatten -> Normal, because the resultant (mirror) face will no longer be parallel to an XYZ plane - you'll get a 'leaning tower of Pisa look'. Selecting the border edge around an area of faces Select the faces, press L. Forming boundary edges / insetting / bevelling Select a group of faces that you want to inset (as a region) Invert the selection Apply Face | Bump, constrain to zero and use +/- key to move boundary edges. If you want boundary edges inside and outside of a face selection - Press L to get selection edges Edge | Extrude -> Normal -> zero (use +/- to grow / shrink boundaries) OR Press L Edge | Bevel -> zero Face | Bump -> zero (use + / - to grow /shrink) Select object and cleanup (to get rid of the extra geom created during the bevel zero op.) (Could just bevel, of course - if you don't want to keep the original edges.) Zero input operations This might sound daft - but it has some good uses. Bevel zero on edges to keep them sharper during a smooth op. Select a face and extrude normal -> 0 Using a remote axis, you can now do a vector rotate on the new top face and finish up with the first 'wedge' for a lathed object with a through hole. (Use Mirror / Weld etc to complete the 'pseudo- lathing' op) Select an edgeloop, bevel -> 0 then apply Bump, constraining height to zero, but 'spreading' new boundary edges with +/- keys. (Also useful as an 'Inset Region' workaround if you dump the extra edges - don't forget cleanup after) For multi-replication workarounds (say rotate) Make a single chunk of geometry Duplicate it 'n' times on the spot (zero move?) (dupe once, use D, repeat last command) Select one object and rotate, then repeat using Shift D Extrude Radial cludge (with another zero input command) Try this: Create default sphere Select the four faces centred on the +X axis, repeat for -X, +Z, -Z (16 faces in all, 4 square selections, centered on 4 equi-spaced 'equator' points) Face | Extrude Region Normal -> 0 Face | Move Region (drag to suit) Note how the extrusion cross section stays constant (cart wheels, space station rings….) Dropping objects onto a surface / floor Select the floor and use Tools | Save as Bounding Box Select whatever feature on the (bottom of the) object you want to touch the floor (v/e/f) and use Tools | Move to saved Bounding Box -> Y (assuming you are 'dropping') (use similar procedure if you want to 'push stuff up against a wall') Face | Put On 'might' beok for some simple situations - but beware the selection centre positions - using BB commands are much better for this, imo. Seeing true shapes of faces. Select the face in question and apply View | Align to Selection. Wings will orientate the model so the selected face lies parallel to the monitor screen. View Ortho and use Move Free or Tweak to move things around without (greatly) distorting the face. Best used if the face is flat, otherwise the view is based on an averaged normal. Geometry integrity after a weld. If you've just done a complex weld op (or similar) and want to be absolutely certain that all is ok. Do a smooth op, eyeball mesh for problems, switch to wireframe and repeat - keeping an eye open for hidden internal geometry (this won't show on an unsmoothed model) Doing a smooth usually highlights discontinuities / anomolies anyway (uncleaned floating verts for instance) Flattening edgeloops using scale. An alternative to selecting the eloop, changing to vert mode and using Vert | Flatten. Select the eloop and apply Edge | Scale -> 0% (use RMB option and select the loop again to define a vector that is a normal to the plane of the loop) Confining random selections Using Select | By -> Random -> 10% …90% operates over the whole model - sometimes this is not what's required, because you want to confine the random selection to a particular area. Select the area you want to confine the random op to and store this using Select | New Group (name the selection (S1)) Use whatever selection mode considered best for the job. Apply Select | By -> Random -> N% (This selects geometry over the whole model) Apply Select | Intersect Group and choose the selection first made (S1) Wings will now display only geometry that lies in the S1 area. Cutting edges Using number keys 2 to 0 cuts any selected edge(s) into 2 to 10 equal portions, without having to use the RMB menu. Note that using the RMB for Cut -> 2, however lets you slide the new vert to any position along the edge, rather than having to accept the default mid point. (Using Vert | Connect will then join the verts to form new edges.) Info displays Regularly check the contents of the main info (help) line at the bottom of the main window. It contains useful details about the options available at any given time for the tool / command currently in use - as well as general navigation help. Checking the on-screen info readout (top left corner) provides useful details like v/e/f count. Clicking on a single face then changing mode to vert or edge tells you how many vert / edges that face has. If you're bridging between complex faces with many edges, this can help to ensure the counts match. Wings will also display the length of a single selected edge or the distance between 2 selected verts here - as well as details about location. Rotating separate (face / edge / body) selections around a single axis. If you want to rotate several (separate) selections around one (common) axis, rather than each around their own - either convert the selection to verts or apply a vector rotate on them. Using the vert method will work, but Wings will locate the selected rotation axis through the selection's centre - which may not be what's required. Better, imo, is to do a vector rotate as this gives group rotation - and - lets the user specify a specific 'local' origin for the chosen rotate axis to pass through. (Use RMB option to pick a point) Rotating many objects around a single axis. A couple of methods 1). Select all objects to be rotated and apply Object | Combine Rotate the objects and then use Object | Separate 2). Select all objects Apply Rotate (RMB option) and select a suitable feature to define where the rotate axis will pass through. Rotate objects and de-select I prefer (2) because the names of the objects don't get changed and the vector rotate allows me to choose the rotate origin - not wings:) Rotating an object after Put On Select the face (on the object to be moved) as usual, but store the selection before using Put On. After Put On, you can then recall the selected face for defining an axis for a vector rotate op. (Or to move along to create an 'air-space' between objects) Using Put On without the faces touching Select the face of the object to be moved during the Put On command. Extrude by the amount of 'air gap' that you need. Apply Put On op. LoopCut around the extra extrusion and delete it. Using +/- keys to grow / shrink. These have many uses: Selections - there's a difference between pressing + and repeat pressing of v/e/f keys. Vert / Edge | Extrude Normal - Grows / shrinks the 'boundary edge' around the selected elements. Bump - as above Tweak magnet radius - increase / decrease (press 1 when in Tweak Mode to get the 'blue circle of mystery' magnet influence area) Standard magnet mode - altering rad. |