Vertex qs - move edge, vert, or face in direction of normal?

Mistara

i only see how to move x, y, z,  is there way to move a single selection in direction of it"s normal?

thanks.

is there something like loop edge cut? 
example, cut out and detach a chunk of a space station wall and send it off into space

MarkIsSleepy

MistyMist said:

i only see how to move x, y, z,  is there way to move a single selection in direction of it"s normal?

 

Change the manipulator from World to Selection.

MistyMist said:

is there something like loop edge cut? 
example, cut out and detach a chunk of a space station wall and send it off into space

 

I don't think there is.  When I want to do this I do one of two things depending on how complicated the object is (like if I can easily get a nice loop of edges around it and how dense the mesh is):

1. Use Extract Around and then delete the middle edge, or
2. Select the polys (doesn't always work right if you select the edges) of the entire piece I want to remove then do control-x to cut it and control-p to paste it back - it's then right in the same spot but disconnected. If you use this method you can also paste it into a different vertex object (go back to assembly room, select a different vertex object, go to modelling room and paste it there) instead so it becomes its own object which can be animated separately.

Mistara

thanks, the first part was easy  lol

Dartanbeck

For the second part, make a copy of your space ship, so you have two models.

Remove the part you want to jettison from one, and keep only that in the other. Now you can animate it easily via translation.

Another way is to select the edge all along where you want to create a separation, and I think it's Model > Detach Polygons or some similar option in there, which divides the model along that edge.

Conversely, you may also select all polygons from that section and copy, cut, paste. This will give you a second ploymesh (double-click a single polygon to grab that whole chunk), and then you may create a morph to jettison that section.

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None of those things would change the UV mapping

Mistara

sounds like detach polys is what ise lookin for,  thanks!

MarkIsSleepy

I thought that detach polygons was the right option too from memory, but when I looked I couldn't find it in the menus - I must have just looked right past it. :(

Roygee

To detach polygons you need to select the polygons, not an edge loop - the command is up at the top end of the "model" tab.  This allows you to move those polys separtely from the rerst of the model in the VM.  Also limits selection to those polys when double-clicking or using + to add to a selection.  It remains one object in the assembly room and can't be split using split object.

What is possible is to detach the polys, copy, delete, paste.  It can then be split in the assmenbly room:) 

EDIT:  From a quick test, it appears that this process doesn't destroy the UV map (which it should), but the textures had to be reloaded - so use with caution!

 

MarkIsSleepy

Roygee said:

 

EDIT:  From a quick test, it appears that this process doesn't destroy the UV map (which it should), but the textures had to be reloaded - so use with caution!

 

Yeah - I've thought that was weird.  Maybe it's a quirk of Carrara but deleting points, edges and polys doesn't affect the UV map at all.  Even stranger, sometimes (not always, but sometimes) adding to an already UV mapped model doesn't affect the UV map, which I would have thought was impossible logically, but I've made minor additions to models before (just things like adding edge loops within the existing structure - we're not talking major extrusions here) without having to re-unwrap it.

 

Slightly OT, but a couple interesting things I noticed lately that contradict things I've seen in the forums here.  I'm sure people working at a more advanced level than me (which is a very long list of people ) probably knew these already, but for everyone else these might be interesting:

1. I've seen multiple people say that Carrara does not save any seams you add to a model between sessions, so you have to unwrap a model all in one session - this is not true at all.  I was workiing on something the other day, had it mostly unwrapped then had something come up and had to stop.  When I turned my computer on the next day and went back to it all my seams and pins were still marked and I was able to add to them and finish the job with no issues.  Maybe this was a bug in earlier versions?
2. I've also seen many people say that you have to keep the UV within the grid.  This is kind of true.  You do need to keep it there if you intend to export the map and create a texture in another program, or are going to use the 3D paint tool within Carrara. But if you are just going to use procedural shaders or tiling textures the UV doesn't have to remain within the grid.  For any parts outside the grid, Carrara will just tile your texture across them as if the grid was repeating infinitely in every direction.  I was watching a video for another program and the person doing it did this deliberately and mentioned that it was pretty a pretty much standard setup (in fact some programs give you options to determine how it tiles for things off the grid), so I tried it in Carrara 8.5 and it works.

That second one is really useful if you are using a procedural texture that doesn't include scale options, or is so complex that adjusting all the scaling options would be impossibly time-consuming.  Instead of adjusting the material settings, you can go in and scale and rotate the UV map without worrying about whether it is in the grid space or not!

TangoAlpha

Look at some of Stonemason's UVs, particularly for street areas, pavements etc, even walls - the grid is in there somewhere, but you'll be hard pushed to find it.

Roygee

Can't say I've ever come across anyone mentioning that Carrara doesn't save seams between sessions - you sure that statement wasn't referring to Hexagon, which has that problem?

Same issue regarding keeping the UV maps on the grid - this is a Hexagon issue.  If a part is off the grid, you get no texture on it.  So if you map in Hex and texture in Carrara, keep it on the grid in Hex, then when you get it into Carrara, you can resize off the grid to get your tiling, if so desired.