Hard Light Productions Forums
Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The Modding Workshop => Topic started by: Vertigo 7 on August 23, 2008, 02:28:37 pm
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here's my scenario... Ive got a part of a model that i need to mold to fit around another part. the problem is the part i need to mold is triangular shaped. Essentially i'm going to notch out part of this thing 90 degrees from the base. But what im running into is finding the point along this angled edge to make it 90 degrees (and i dont want to move this edge at all, just cut a piece of it out). If i know the X and Z value i want, but not the Y value, is there any way i can find that point with out click guessing? or some way i can see the mouse coordinates on a particular edge or something like that?
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or better yet, can i move a point on an edge and have TS compensate on the other 2 axis to keep from deforming the edge?
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hahahahahaha
sorry i couldnt help it, truespace sucks :D
you could probibly use *cough* math *cough* to figure it out, just dont ask how.
post a pic of the thing so i can get my head around it.
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lol... yeah im sure i could use some obscure form of math, however it got too difficult to do cuz not knowing the exact length of 2 lines of a right triangle makes figuring out the connecting point too difficult to try =p a^2 + b^2 = c^2 is much easier if you know the value for b to get c =p
i ended up doing best guess to do it and its so close i doubt anyone could tell with out looking at the vertexes.
However, i would love an easy method for general use... working on angled edges is a pain in the ass.
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line plane intersection isn't too dificult, but if you know the x and y and just want the z why not just align your cammera to view the triangle edge on and use the right mouse button to move alon the z axis untill you are as close to the plane as you need to be?
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hmmz i didn't really think of that... i only started doin this about a week ago so im still learning all the tricks =D
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Bit of advice: You're probably better off trying to learn something like Blender than trying to wrestle with TrueSpace :doubt:
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word of advice, truespace has a good interface, most other people are just jealous because they only get about half as much space to look at what they are doing. there is nothing you can not do in truespace, ignore whiners.
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:wtf:
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meh i already started this in TS... I feel like i'm getting the hang of it for the most part... hell i just figured out how fillet works =p sorta anyway...
but yeah, i don't mind TS so much, its just like anything else i spose... gotta get used to it =D
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word of advice, truespace has a good interface, most other people are just jealous because they only get about half as much space to look at what they are doing. there is nothing you can not do in truespace, ignore whiners.
Bobboau speak the truth. TS is great. Has many little nice tricks.
Erm.. a image of what you're trying to do might help. ATM I can't get a picture in my head. Might be cause I just got up...
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Well you have to remember that 3DSMax was the program :v: used.
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first off the object info box will become your friend as it allows for my precise placement of verts and objects. if you doing what i think your doing then to find the vert position you'll have to click and hold to point edit box (see pic)
and select vertexes. now select the vertex on your model and the object info box will display the verts x,y,z coordinates. if you want to place a vert in a certain place where there are no verts the using a reference vert can help. i do this be make a new cube or whatever and moving one of the verts around to where i want it and writing down the corrdinates. also worth noting is object info box can be applied to whole objects, edges and faces in which the size and rotation info in the object info box can greatly help you to form your meshes.
other little trick include the weld vertex button, it join two verts on the same line in an average location i.e. the middle which kinda sucks but can be worked through. there is also the slice button, it only works for edges and faces. what this dose is create a new edge or face from the selected one after which it can be moved along the intersecting edges lengths, (to do this hit the slice button, and then hold down the mouses left button to move it into position) after which you can the individually move the lines around. and finally there is the lock x,y,z buttons. these constrict movement of anything from view point, verts, edges, faces, objects so one to only the selected direction. so say you only want to moving something along the X direction then you would de-select y and z and now the object only moves along X which is typically forward and backward.
so i hope this helps some if its stuff you didn't already know.
(http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h308/t64smyhotrod/TSHELP.jpg)
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take a look at this picture...
(http://img82.imageshack.us/img82/7508/trianglejb5.th.jpg) (http://img82.imageshack.us/my.php?image=trianglejb5.jpg)
in this example, i know my Y is -0.25, my X is 1, the only point im missing is my Z to intersect on the angled line. Granted in this example itd be easy to figure out but in other more complex polys, not so easy, esp if the surface is angled on more than 1 plane.
99% of the time im making an edge at 90 degrees from another edge... there just has to be an easy way to make that edge exactly 90 degrees with out moving another edge =p
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i really just dont remember how to do stuff in truespace, i just remember that ehwn i started learning max, it had blown away in pretty much every aspect. some good ships like the dante and the ragnarok class were modeled entirely in truespace. hell i think everything in nukemod was modeled in truespace. ive not released anything ive made in max yet.
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wellz i think im doin ok. I'm a stickler for perfection so i would get pissy if my vertex is .001 off from where i want it =p I decided to give myself a lil room for error... hard habit to break =p I just wish there was some way i could see what angle my new edge will be compared to its base... that would be friggin awesome.
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what truespace lacks in terms of precision modeling it more than makes up for in terms of ease of use. most peoples bad review of truespace is often based off of a really old and deprecated version of the program (3.x). id have to say the best version for modeling stuff for freespace would have to be 6.x, since it has all the uv tools youd ever need, but without the bloat of ts 7.x.
take a look at this picture...
(http://img82.imageshack.us/img82/7508/trianglejb5.th.jpg) (http://img82.imageshack.us/my.php?image=trianglejb5.jpg)
in this example, i know my Y is -0.25, my X is 1, the only point im missing is my Z to intersect on the angled line. Granted in this example itd be easy to figure out but in other more complex polys, not so easy, esp if the surface is angled on more than 1 plane.
99% of the time im making an edge at 90 degrees from another edge... there just has to be an easy way to make that edge exactly 90 degrees with out moving another edge =p
see what i would do here is add a vertex to the line through the cube first, copy its x value (or is it y, i know ts has some wierd axis order), create a vertex on the other line and paste its y value into it to match that of the other vertex. i can tell you when you get into higher poly models precision isnt as important. because you get to the point where you can simply move verts around and sculpt the model into the shape you want.
:yes: --Steve-O--, those are probably the most useful tools/windows in the program.