[Addon] Surface Constraint Tools

Coding Released Scripts and Themes
#1

Hi all,

Surface Constraint Tools is designed to simplify the process of modeling on the surface of another mesh. Therefore, you may find it useful for retopology tasks.


For example, the “Surface Constraint” section of the UI, as seen above, allows a user to select a target on which to constrain the vertices of the active mesh. The “Mesh Brush”, “Shrinkwrap”, and “Smooth Vertices” operators comply with this constraint. Moreover, if you would like for the constraint to affect all mesh operators, simply enable the button with the car icon.

Proper documentation does not yet exist. The addon is meant to be intuitive, but I can address any usage concerns in this thread should they arise.

Here is a link to the addon: https://github.com/fedackb/surface-constraint-tools. Click the “Download ZIP” button in the lower, right corner of the page.

To install the addon, click the “Install from File…” button within the “Addons” tab of Blender’s “User Preferences” area, and select the downloaded zip file.

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#2

well, I understand you about the documentation, but, can you do at least a video tutorial? it would not take so much time from your life, yet, it could be very useful for the users! Thanks for the addon!

#3

Thanks, it is very usefull!!

#4

Thank you for trying my addon. I’ve fixed a bug that affected the automated constraint and updated the script for Blender 2.72.

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#5

Thank you for trying my addon. I’ve fixed a bug that affected constraint automation and updated to Blender 2.72.

#6

Usage Tips


Pre-selection highlighting can be enabled for the Mesh Brush under the “Display Properties” section.


It is possible to prevent the Mesh Brush from affecting boundary vertices by enabling the “Lock Boundary” option.


Various symmetry options exist for the Mesh Brush.

#7

Usage Tips (continued)

sct_isolate_selection.png1016×317 71.4 KB

While working with a dense mesh, it may be desirable to enable the “Isolate Selection” option for the Mesh Brush in order to increase performance.

sct_relax.png1047×345 33.5 KB

If the active object and the surface constraint target are the same, the Smooth and Mesh Brush operators relax vertices while preserving form.


Use the surface constraint projection mode that best accomodates your needs. For example, constraining to the “Closest Point” will prevent vertices of the retopologized mesh from slipping over the boundaries of the target object.

#8

This is fun :wink:

#9

well, I tried it, it is quite useful for the retopo process, especially combined with other tools, however, I was wondering, is it possible to create such operator for radial symmetry selection specially for selecting verts/edges/faces on a mesh? I was dreaming about such a tool for a long time…

#10

These tools work pretty well. Thanks for making them available.

#11

Thank You @Umdee for great addon.

#12

The Mesh brush with shrinkwrap is really great !

I think you should work with Iceking to make a really great addon for retopo who can be in trunk.

#13

ummmm nice and thanks umdee

#14

This add-on will be really useful! Thanks!

#15

Impressive addon , thanks for sharing it !

#16

Small and Clear! Really Great Work!

#17

Great AddOn.
However, some minor issues on the mesh brush.
It works in perspective mode, in ortho mode it works on isolated selection only.

#18

I suppose it is possible, but I’d have to explore the problem in more detail, which is something that I don’t have the time to do currently.

Indeed, collaboration can be a great thing, but, unfortunately, I’m currently too busy with other matters to develop Blender addons. This one was just sitting on my hard drive collecting dust. So, I figured it may be of use to some people. I will continue to squash bugs in it as they pop up.

Good catch! It was working in 2.71, but 2.72 seems to have introduced some silent changes that affect ray casting. I’ll look into the issue.

Thank you all for your gratitude.

#19

Okay. I’ve fixed the bug that michalis described about the mesh brush in orthographic mode.

#20

It will be great to keep the mirror On when we use the mesh brush tool.