What I’d hope for with my “Cursor Fit & Align” suggestion is to come closer to the way Maya handles temporary orientation (hold D to orient gizmo to what under the mouse) and pivots (hold D + V or X and MMB to snap it to verts/grid), video as illustation:
Using your Linear Array is a lot faster than manually applying the modifier. I usually have my objects rotated in random directions so I have to figure out which axis is the correct one. Itd be nice to have the option to toggle “between” since I sometimes want to have “14 items with 2m spacing”
I have unfortunately run into this error when using Linear Array:
It seems to be due to having duplicate linked the object but I dont understand why I cant use “Linear Array” on it since I can apply a regular array without issue.
Another thought, that’s a lot less important to me, would it be possible to have Linear Array work in 2-axis if you hold down a hotkey when the tool is active? Its not something I do a lot and Im sure you have a lot on your plate but sometimes itd be nice to be able to snap the array 6m to the right and 4m up.
Ah, I see.
CFA: It is possible, but there is no “data only” way I know of to actually just get the element under the mouse without selecting it, like I did with element pick in get&set editmode for instance. Which would be a bunch of macrostuff. I might investigate more.
In the meanwhile, you can still do this for faces at least, with the regular mouse cursor placement with dragging w. O&P set to cursor & active element. (I use it to drag-snap offset the cursor, to complement cursor fit&align)
LA: I probably didn’t do much linked object handling… but I am prob holding off a bit as I am hoping to do a nodes-version, so I can easily use “real” instances (things get heavy with all the dupe object data), both for radial and linear arrays. TBD.
IMO “Cursor Fit & Align (Maya)” for this suggestion need to be a separate tool if @Kiellog have a time for it.
Why make it separate? What I’m suggesting is exactly how “Cursor Fit & Align” works in object mode:
I just want it to work the same in edit mode as in object mode, IE Mouse over face → Align to face, Mouse over nothing with selection → align to selection, Mouse over nothing without selection → Align to world. Being able to align to edges under mouse would be nice but not something I’d expect.
because snap to face no big deal for you - just click, snap to edge or vert need raycast and highlight to see what is under cursor now, otherwise you will be clicking until got the right element.
Raycasting is a huge resource consumption process. You can see it when “QuickMeasure” tool is active.
Maybe I’m wrong, and it can be without raycasting then ok.
I dream that someday we get built-in raycasting and elements will be highlights on mouse hover.
This will solve many modeling problems.
It is a bit reverse on how it was developed; assuming a selection first in editmode, which admittedly makes me hesitant. not ruling it out, but there are a lot of “moving parts”, I will have to think about it.
well QM is resource heavy because it is not very optimized ;D (I re-calculate the mesh a lot by allowing editing while QM is running.) But as the name implies, its just for quick measurements, so I’m not that bothered
Also, why need separate, actually need to separate to 4 different operations.
CF&A regular.
CF&A (faces). Like in Object mode but for Edit mode.
CF&A (verts). Like in Object but ignores faces and edges and snap to a closest vert under the mouse.
CF&A (edges). Like in Object but ignores faces and verts and snap to a closest edge under the mouse.
With this 4 operators and assigning them to a different combinations we can reach what in your example from Maya, without raycasting but without highlights also…
Hi! me again with all this small things…) i noticed that TTdupe in mesh(!) mode and standard behavior active (first(!) TT mode), after duplicating does not(!) automatically jumps in move/grab mode without G pressed. In object mode everything works as expected.
one thing that can be improved in CF&A tool when more than 1 edge is selected
example
for this case I just make macro with your tool, before running tool it make face from selected, select it, run CF&A, delete face and restore selected edges.
This is very useful when you need to add something at the middle of selected edges with keeping it aligning.
An idea regarding improving Frame All or Selected. I think adding Frame Camera Bounds (view3d.view_center_camera) into the tool would be right.
Currently these 2 commands work fine with the same hotkey. So nothing urgent , just polishing the tool. Along with mentioned previously shader and other editors.
hey. hmm. The expected scenario for two selected edges right now are two parallel edges - it might be hard to combine with the suggestion as default functionality.
Ex modo user, too.
Is there any way to replicate action center mouse from lightwave? It’s immediate, fast and feels organic. Just click anywhere and it immediately performs an action.
MultiCut works nice!
