Modelling question: Merge Selected faces?

Headwax

Hya, been forced to do some modelling lateley (mesh not pinup)
and have situations where I want to merge some polys to clean up the mesh etc

I see we have a merge coplanar tool, but nothing else?

this tool appears to merge all coplanar polys

I guess I could merge all verticie on the polys - any quicker way?

any work flow tips appreciated -

I even went looking and found Carrara 6 manual on line ;)

http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/artzone/pub/software/carrara/06_six/09_vertex_modeling

TangoAlpha

I have to admit I do it the long-winded way - deleting and adjusting individual edges and vertices. But if there's an easier, more automated workflow, I'd love to know more about it. :)

Headwax

thanks Tim :) yes me too !

Roygee

Standard modelling answer..that all depends on what you have and what you want to accomplish:)

You have lots of coplanar? Naughty, naughty!

Merge adjacent faces? Edge-loop select, backspace - gone!

What else, specifically?

maybe some piccies will help?

Cheers:)

Headwax

fantastic, that's the answer Roy thank you

select the polys and hit backspace!
where did you learn that ?

:)

evilproducer

Just so I can tell my pet monkey when I have him use the VM to make my models by randomly pounding on the keyboard and mashing feces into the screen, what is a coplanar poly or facet or whatever? And why should my Carrara monkey avoid them?

Design Acrobat

head wax said:

fantastic, that's the answer Roy thank you

select the polys and hit backspace!
where did you learn that ?

:)

I'm not Roy, and you probably already know the answer, but I believe one of the features brought from Hexagon into Carrara when they made extensive changes in the model room.

backspace = dissolve on the Edit menu

Headwax

evilproducer said:

Just so I can tell my pet monkey when I have him use the VM to make my models by randomly pounding on the keyboard and mashing feces into the screen, what is a coplanar poly or facet or whatever? And why should my Carrara monkey avoid them?

ha ha very funny :) I cant get my pet monkey to do anything but drive me home from the pub ....

coplanar polygons - oh imagine making a flat mesh plane in the vm room and leaving it as is - then you'll have 16 ? polygons all on the same plane -

unless you are going to use them then I guess it is bad because your mesh is more complicated than it needs to be

that said, unless you know where you are going with your box modelling then sometimes it's good to leave a few more than you need
- because you usually need them - if carrara had a knife tool then you could cut and slice to your heart's desire later :)

Headwax

Design Acrobat said:

head wax said:

fantastic, that's the answer Roy thank you

select the polys and hit backspace!
where did you learn that ?

:)

I'm not Roy, and you probably already know the answer, but I believe one of the features brought from Hexagon into Carrara when they made extensive changes in the model room.

backspace = dissolve on the Edit menu

thanks, yes I guessed hexagon, but I didn't know about the dissolve command!!

see what you learn when you ask :)

edit- found it in the manual thank you

You can also delete a vertex by selecting it and using the Dissolve tool from the Edit menu or by hitting the Backspace key.

To delete an edge:

Click the Delete tool.
Click the edge you want to remove.
Removing an edge does not remove the vertices that it connected.

You can also delete an edge by selecting it and using the Dissolve tool from the Edit menu or by hitting the Backspace key.

To delete a polygon:

Click the Delete tool.
Click the polygon you want to remove.
Removing a polygon does not remove the edges around it.
Deleting a polygon is the same as emptying it (with the Model menu > Empty polygons).
You can also delete a polygon by selecting it and using the Dissolve tool from the Edit menu or by hitting the Backspace key.

Roygee

My, you guys have been busy chattering away while I was in the land of nod :)

Amazing what you can find out by RTFM!

After your pet monkey - or anyone else's pet monkey for that matter - has pounded away and created a mess, take it (not the monkey) into Meshlab and tell it to restructure into whatever you want it to be!

Happy modelling :)

Headwax

heh, meshlab, oh what a feeling :)
everytime I use meshlab I have to read the manual - that's a right PITA :)

actualy I am quite pleasantly surprised by what you can easily make by using the polyline drawing thing - so thanks for that tip too

Roygee

Heh, polyline and surfaces is where it's all at! Pity Carrara doesn't have the Hex feature of giving the polyine thickness - that would make it a lot more flexible.

BTW - there are two things in the VM which totally puzzle me.

Firstly, there's a function named "Organic" under the Construct menu that sound interesting - anyone know what that does and how it works?

Secondly, how to get replications to replicate aligned edge-to-edge so that they can be welded seamlessly?

Headwax

ahh the organic is good for making 3dee blobs, you draw the lines and hit enter or similar - is good for making rocks etc - you need to add a displacement map to get it convincing usually (sorry cant remember exact steps have no carrara at work :) )

from memory the manual just fades out when it comes to organic thing - andy made a post about it on the old ? forum explaining how it worked

heres what the FM says about it :)

Creating Organic Models
Complex models can be created very simply by using flat polygons and applying Organic functions to them.

To create organic models:

Create a closed polyline using the polyline tool and select it.
In the Construct menu, choose the Organic item.

not sue about the second question sorry

the real PITA for me in the VM room is the atrocious lag with the shortcut key views - I'm always forgetting and hitting them and then having to twiddle my fingers - and also hitting ctrl accidentally and realigning the working plane

ahh maybe that's the answer to your second question - realigning the working plane ? (probably not :)

Headwax

ah for the organic blob you have to fill the polygon first! that's the twick :)

Roygee

Aha - clever lad :)

The replicate thing has really taxed my aged brain in how to calculate the offset! No need to mess with the working box or plane - simply select the item and go edit -> Replicate, choose a method and an offset. The offset simply makes no logical sense - one would think that to get the replications to align edge-to-edge it had to be either the size of the item, or half the size - but this doesn't work.

The closest I could get to getting the replications to align edge-to-edge on a 1m square object was to offset to 0.083m - which bears no relation to anything I can think of.

Clearly a cold, windy, slow day here in Cape Town :)

EDIT : GOTCHA!

Take the size of the object along the axis you want to replicate along and multiply by 0.0834 - weird number, but it does work consistently!

Told you it was a slow day here :)

Time to stop fooling around and get back to making my latest mech warrior!

Design Acrobat

Roygee said:

Heh, polyline and surfaces is where it's all at! Pity Carrara doesn't have the Hex feature of giving the polyine thickness - that would make it a lot more flexible.

BTW - there are two things in the VM which totally puzzle me.

Firstly, there's a function named "Organic" under the Construct menu that sound interesting - anyone know what that does and how it works?

Secondly, how to get replications to replicate aligned edge-to-edge so that they can be welded seamlessly?

Copy on Support in Hexagon I would like to see in Carrara. Very useful for making anything from jewelry to mechanical parts.

de3an

Roygee said:

The closest I could get to getting the replications to align edge-to-edge on a 1m square object was to offset to 0.083m - which bears no relation to anything I can think of.

Take the size of the object along the axis you want to replicate along and multiply by 0.0834 - weird number, but it does work consistently!

Or take the size of the object and divide it by 12. Same number, but easier to remember. (The reciprocal of 12 being 0.083333333333)
I think the replicator is somehow trying to do its calculations using feet and inches (12 inches to 1 foot), but I can't figure out how it's actually being applied.

Came across this issue a while back in a Mobius strip tutorial written by "Steve athome" in the old forum that DAZ took offline.

Headwax

well, see what you learn :)

Roygee

Now he tells us! :)

Good to have this confirmed.

Yes, I got to that number after measuring the distances between replications and found they were a consistent 12X further apart than what was input. Me, being decimilised since 1961, just happened to prefer decimal numbers :)

Another thing which is stuck on inches is the motion path - regardless of what unit of measurement you have as default, the motion path is always in inches.

Which is all very strange, the originators of Carrara being French and all, who have been decimilised since way back when :)

evilproducer

Roygee said:

Now he tells us! :)

Good to have this confirmed.

Yes, I got to that number after measuring the distances between replications and found they were a consistent 12X further apart than what was input. Me, being decimilised since 1961, just happened to prefer decimal numbers :)

Another thing which is stuck on inches is the motion path - regardless of what unit of measurement you have as default, the motion path is always in inches.

Which is all very strange, the originators of Carrara being French and all, who have been decimilised since way back when :)

At first I was going to to say that since Carrara was based on Raydream and Amapi, that could be a legacy, but then I remembered that some of the people that developed Carrara where the ones that developed Raydream....

Design Acrobat

evilproducer said:

Roygee said:

Now he tells us! :)

Good to have this confirmed.

Yes, I got to that number after measuring the distances between replications and found they were a consistent 12X further apart than what was input. Me, being decimilised since 1961, just happened to prefer decimal numbers :)

Another thing which is stuck on inches is the motion path - regardless of what unit of measurement you have as default, the motion path is always in inches.

Which is all very strange, the originators of Carrara being French and all, who have been decimilised since way back when :)

At first I was going to to say that since Carrara was based on Raydream and Amapi, that could be a legacy, but then I remembered that some of the people that developed Carrara where the ones that developed Raydream....

Thomas Roussel was software creator that worked with ZBrush, 3DSMax, Modo, Amapi Hexagon, Carrara as consultant, creator, developer, etc. etc. (polyloop forums) and as a consultant to DAZ when they first got Carrara and Hexagon. I remember seeing Thomas name in the forums (rarely) - until he went more or less full time with Zbrush. Thomas's contact with DAZ may have been the reason that Zbrush was sold in the DAZ store for such a deep discount and I bought it right away. Thomas Roussel is a software genius.