Discuss LightWave workflows and LightWave/Blender comparisions here

To continue this. The node network I showed you works reasonably well to simulate reflection/diffuse values. Specular is another story and it is beyond my node knowledge currently.

I think this thread might be helpful:

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Thanks Colkai & everyone else,

I tried it, it’s kinda similar, but you can’t inset outwards (is outset a word?), you can go smaller, but not larger than the original size of the polygon. I guess I have to learn the new Blender ways :slight_smile:

Also if you don’t start from the right position when scaling, rotating, insetting etc. the tools don’t work probably. I think you have to have your cursor out to the top right, not too close to the object/ polygon for it to work correctly. That’s my experience with the Mac version…kinda disorientating seeing polygons go crazy like that…hahaha

Cheers,

Yeah, with inset, you are limited to the initital poly size if using in conjunction with CTRL. The thing about the position is something that you get used to, it actually becomes very handy. If you are very close the the item, small mouse movements are used ot move / scale large values, but if you start further away, then the mouse movements are scaled. Very handy for doing fine work, starting away from the median point of the action, you can get a lot of creative control. Think of it almost as a variable action. Seems odd at first, but once you get into the habit, it opens up a lot more fluid workflow. So you could say, work close for large movements, use shift to slow that down, then for the final tweak, start further away with shift for super fine corrections.

OABTW: “Inset”, when set to “Outset” does do an interesting trick: make a cube, inset one face, then use the F9 panel to switch to “Outset” , and you’ll see new geometry like a loop cut going around the sides of the cube. – I have no idea if that would ever be useful over regular Loop Cut, but there it is.

Even odder, if you select one of the narrow polys thus generated and using the same Inset settings, you get this shape. It probably makes sense, but it’s certainly a surprising result:

CUT AND PASTE:

Here’s one brain-dead thing about Blender: the process to cut & paste polygons from one Object to another. (Duplicate, Separate, Join. It’s so stupid. https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/28466/how-to-cut-and-paste-part-of-a-mesh-to-another-mesh/28469 )

LWers will know: you can do a universally standard “Cut & Paste”, just like a word processor, to move polygons between objects.

HOW the Blender devs, and I blame Ton for this because it’s effing BASIC, didn’t think users might want to perform this fundamental operation is beyond me.

That it requires an addon is ludicrous.

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Technically speaking, there isn’t a way to do this in LightWave either. Because technically, this is all one mesh in Modeler. Yes they are in layers. But when in Layout, those layers become individual object containers. However not intrinsically within the model itself in Modeler. It is really all just one mesh.

Before getting your panties in a bunch over this one think of a similar workflow using collections instead of layers. And bob’s your uncle. Was possible with the old layer system as well.

As fast and convenient as copy paste portions of a mesh from one layer to the next? Not really. But not stupid or brain dead. It is just another system. Blender and Maya use a similar modern system. So I guess you have to get used to not going out and getting fresh water from the well. The make deliveries now you know. And not everyone still lives on the farm. I’d say it is a fair price to pay for progress.

The addon which currently has not been ported to 2.8 yet does sound useful.

I miss this too. Blender’s bevel is useful, but a bevel tool like Lightwave’s would be nice.

One thing I’ve found particularly annoying and has caused a lot of problems is Blender selecting things that are merely close to the cursor. I’m clicking off of the mesh to deselect. I don’t want to select that vertex or edge that’s close to the cursor, I’m not pointing to it. So, there are times when I think I’ve selected what I want, but unbeknownst to me there’s a vertex selected that I didn’t see, and when I perform a scale or move, oops, I have to undo it and go deselect the stray vertex, and try not to select anything else by accident. So it takes three times as long to do things. I hope someone can tell me there’s a preference setting to change this. It would really help me a lot.

Another tool I miss is Drag Net. I know there’s proportional edit, but it’s not the same thing. Having an adjustable sphere of influence with falloff is so helpful. I have tried to use the sculpt tools, but it really messes up the mesh. I can’t see the mesh while in sculpt mode, so I can’t see what it’s actually doing. I hope there’s something similar that I don’t know about.

Something I’ve recently found a workaround for; being able to use subdivision surfaces without actually subdividing. I used this all the time in Lightwave (at 0, or 1, I can’t remember) to smooth things out. What I do is add a Decimate modifier after the Subdivision modifier and set it to unsubdivide at factor 2, 4 for a Subdivision of 2. You get the smoothing without adding geometry. I’ve tried the Smooth modifier, but it doesn’t do the same thing.

When you have proportional edit active. Press G and use the scroll wheel to adjust the size of the fall off. It is similar is function to dragnet.

there are also more options

image

Something very strange happened from 2.49 to 2.5 with Blender selection. It used to be very accurate. I think it has been broken ever since.

Wait, what? Guys, think about it for a minute…do you really want the program to be so precise that you HAVE to hit the 2 pixel wide vertex on the head to select it?
This feature is great and one of the reasons i don’t suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome any more.
I deliberately select sloppy because i can and Blender selects the closest thing. AFAIK no other DCC allows this and they should.
It’s not broken - its brilliant.

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There is a simpler method.

Select your first object, edit mode. Select whatever you wish to copy. Then call the COPY+ command.

Exit edit mode. Select and edit the second object to which you want to paste the geometry. Call the PASTE+ command.

Done. Simple, effective.

Also nice: when pasting in the same object, the copied geo can be moved immediately without activating a move.

I’ve never heard of COPY+, and neither has F3. --Is it an addon?

Until you are in object mode the the most obvious object in the front you are trying to select, you can’t. Blender’s selection is seriously broken now. Even in wireframe mode. It always selects something else than what I am trying to select.

Since this is a LightWave thread. I remember being so annoyed by this in LightWave Layout. And coming to Blender in 2.49 it was so cool to actually select what you were pointing at.

This broke after 2.5.

The “feature” you are referring to is (or should be) pre-highlight select. Where you can hover off of a component and see it highlight. It is very handy to know what you are going to select before you select it without having to select it first.

What Blender has now at best is a hack. Which is, click near something and it selects. Annoying at best. And adding this “feature” may be why it broke in object mode. But I have no idea how that all works or why it happened.

In pre-2.5 times there used to be a real issue with selection delays. In a more complex scene, selecting an object could take literally seconds to complete - in a worst case scenario that I tested at the time it took 10-20 seconds to resolve selection.

It was infuriating, and far worse compared to the current selection options.

That said, it would be nice to have high-lighting of objects before selecting. But it should be a preference: personally, I absolutely dislike it. I always turn it off in C4D.

You are in edit mode when you call the command?

I am actually unsure - I just use it in my workflow. Might be I have some kind of addon active that exposes this function.

It is super handy, though. I recall C4D also being a pain in the you-know-what in this regard (combining geometry, etc.).

Nope. I saw that. It’s not the same. It’s a 2D circle, not 3D, so I can’t make an oval shaped drag tool, it’s equal falloff in all directions.

No, I’m actually clicking off of the object in Edit mode to deselect, but instead of deselecting, it selects something not even close to my cursor, I mean I’m really far away from the thing it selects, I’m not talking about 2 pixels, more like two or three centimeters. There has to be a preference setting for this. It slows me down so much. I wish I could record my screen to show you. How is that done?

Also, sometimes I can’t select anything. I’m using lasso select, I circle a vertex or two, nothing happens. If I zoom out and circle a larger area, that works, but I want to select a single vertex, nope, won’t let me, even if I click on the vertex to select it. It’s very frustrating. I have no clue why it’s behaving this way.

Another thing I just ran into today is a problem with one of my objects not shading smooth. I chose Shade Smooth, and clicked the box for Auto Smooth, but nothing happens. The angle for Auto Smooth is greyed out for some reason. It doesn’t matter what it’s set at.

I’m trying to boolean a logo into a handle. Nothing is working. I just tried Intersect Knife, and Knife Project. Nothing is really working right. Some letters cut fine, others don’t, and I can’t see what the problems are. Knife Project kinda worked better, but instead of projecting directly under the logo, it projected it offset and a little skewed.

I’m going to take a break and go grocery shopping.

I always deselect all with shortcut (Alt+A) to be sure that everything is deselected, I can only recommend it.

That seems an odd way to phrase it (“call the command”) – do you mean (F3) Search?? Or “invoke” the command??

Anyway, I’m not finding it in pretty vanilla Blender, although there may be something called “keKit” that seems to have that tool in it – is that installed on your, errr, installation?

If you have the Subd modifier active the screen location and the actual location of vertices are often different.

Possible red herring: last night I experienced something much like what you’re describing while Texture Painting – couldn’t paint on a polygon until I’d backed out a bit. Some kind of depth glitch I think.

Advanced Falloff options is one thing I miss from LWM. OTOH, I h8d how they were implemented (a menu, thanks for slowing us down, Stuart).