Scaling Center line for "mirror modeling

About Truespace Archives

These pages are a copy of the official truespace forums prior to their removal somewhere around 2011.

They are retained here for archive purposes only.

Scaling Center line for "mirror modeling // New Users

1  |  

Post by curryhell // May 5, 2009, 10:09am

curryhell
Total Posts: 16
pic
After deleting half my model and selecting the center line I tried to scale the line in the "Y axis" to zero for using the mirror modeling tool. However no matter how much I move the grey widget that scales in the "Y axis" the "y" scale never reaches zero. I gave up trying to get the scale lower than 0.998. When I hit the mirror tool I found I have 2 halves. I can not select one half without the other and can't turn the mirror tool off.

Is there a differing way to scale the center line in the Y axis to zero?

Post by Jack Edwards // May 5, 2009, 10:20am

Jack Edwards
Total Posts: 4062
pic
You may want to try flattening the history on you model before trying to scale the center line. Also check to make sure that you haven't locked one of the axes using the "XYZ" icons at the bottom toolbar.

Post by curryhell // May 6, 2009, 8:30am

curryhell
Total Posts: 16
pic
How do I use the flatten feature? Is there a visual tutorial on flattening. The tutorial I am on mentions it but then goes on to the mirror modeling

Post by Jack Edwards // May 6, 2009, 8:35am

Jack Edwards
Total Posts: 4062
pic
You can find the "Flatten History" icon on the last icon flyout on the right side of the main toolbar. Let me know if you're still having trouble finding it.

Post by curryhell // May 6, 2009, 9:49am

curryhell
Total Posts: 16
pic
I have tried selecting the center line and then pressing the flatten button and then tried the scaling in the X axis and I still get the same result. The X scale value goes as low as 0.997. Mean while I see more change in rotation values. I have even tried selecting the whole mesh and hitting the flatten button with no positive result. When I do click the mirror button I get 2 halves that are inverted( ie the new half is not in the right position). @ the beginning of the tutorial we are told to turn of a snap function. would turning that back on help to keep the center line in center?

Post by Jack Edwards // May 6, 2009, 10:39am

Jack Edwards
Total Posts: 4062
pic
You have to exit out of mesh edit mode to use the flatten history tool. If you post a screen shot or a video we might better be able to help you.

Post by curryhell // May 6, 2009, 11:14am

curryhell
Total Posts: 16
pic
I can't send you a video of picture because I am really not sure what I am supposed to be doing. I am not sure how to exit out of mesh edit mode. I know it might sound simple for you but I am working with an out of date video tutorial, I have made a search in the manual for "exit mesh edit mode" with no luck. If it was to send you a video it would be of no help as I am only following the instructions in the video tutorial. I have tried highlighting the center line and hitting the flatten button but that was with the object as a mesh. When I reboot TrueSpace the mesh does not show the vertices, is this when I should hit the flatten button.

When you sent me the instructions on flattening the model you did not mention to exit out of mesh edit mode. I just naturally assume if I am hitting a button then my cursor should be highlighting the object to be affected

Post by Jack Edwards // May 6, 2009, 11:37am

Jack Edwards
Total Posts: 4062
pic
I'm sorry you're having trouble following the video. :(

The flatten history tool doesn't actually flatten anything what it does is it removes the construction history from an object and extracts just the static mesh. It's used to freeze any mesh modifiers in place or to extract an editable mesh from an object that procedurally generates it's mesh. The reason I suggested it was to remove any previous mesh modifiers (such as mirror modeller or SDS) that you may have applied to the model.

About exiting out of mesh edit mode, there are two ways to do it. One is to click the white arrow icon on the mesh edit tool bar. The other is to right click in the 3DView.

Note that while right clicking in the 3D view is the usual method for entering mesh edit mode, it's also the default method to cancel the currently selected tool. So if you have a tool active, the first right click will exit the tool, the second right click will exit mesh edit mode.

Also if you're stuck at a particular part in the video, I've provided scenes with the model at various stages. So you could load the scene for the next video and continue from there. Some times it's best to just move on and then later come back to what you were having problems with after you've learned more about the interface.

If you'd like, you're welcome to post the model here and I'll take a look at it to see what's going on.

Post by curryhell // May 6, 2009, 10:28pm

curryhell
Total Posts: 16
pic
Ok I managed to get time to make a video capture of what I am doing to center the lines. Please ignore some of the errors in my narration. I say 0.98 instead of 0.998 and I forgot to mention that when I am moving the grey widget the info panel shows more rotational movement than scale movement

Post by Jack Edwards // May 7, 2009, 4:50am

Jack Edwards
Total Posts: 4062
pic
Ah that was very helpful! Looks like something is bugged with the info panel in your scene. Did you notice that the Z value seems to be scaling down and the rotation is going all wierd?

Reguardless of that, the center line does appear to have scaled flat anyway. So that looks pretty good.

Where you're making your mistake is with the mirror modeller. The selection you make specifies the mirror plane. So you should be able to set the mirror up simply by clicking on the mirror modeller icon with just the center line still selected. Let me know if that works for you, if not I have some other ideas I can suggest. ;)

BTW good work on the model, it looks like you're already doing very well! :)

Post by curryhell // May 7, 2009, 5:28am

curryhell
Total Posts: 16
pic
Thanks now have the 2 halves together. I did not try zeroing the center line this time I just turned on trueSpace selected the center line and hit the mirror button.
The flattening to zero threw me because I was trying to follow the video tutorial. I all so used to use Animation master that as a similar process for mirror copy/paste. Old habits are hard to forget. You also say I have some bug that is cause wrong readings on the info panel.... should I reinstall trueSpace to get rid of the bug?

Post by Jack Edwards // May 7, 2009, 5:34am

Jack Edwards
Total Posts: 4062
pic
Glad you got it working! :banana:

Nah I wouldn't worry about the wierd Info Panel thing. I doubt reinstalling will change anything. Something to watch for is if you're getting video errors and instability, since that may indicate that you need to change/update your video drivers. Sometime that can cause really wierd problems in the UI.

If you get stuck again don't hesitate to post. :)

Also while you're here, you may want to start a WIP thread. It's always good to bring in new active community members. :D
Awportals.com is a privately held community resource website dedicated to Active Worlds.
Copyright (c) Mark Randall 2006 - 2024. All Rights Reserved.
Awportals.com   ·   ProLibraries Live   ·   Twitter   ·   LinkedIn