create polygon snap to grid

create polygon snap to grid

hi again. second wish.
i think something that would totally elevate cheetah to a new level of ease and flexibility would be the ability to snap the create polygon tool to the grid(or the ability to quantize it). let me explain...
you could just start with an empty polygon object and then use the create polygon tool to 'illustrate' what you want to model, the only drawback ive found with this approach is that i always have to spend ages pulling around points afterwards. if the create polygon tool could snap to a user-defined quantize setting, you could use it to just draw what you want to see. i think this would make the whole modeling process easier, faster and more enjoyable.
any thoughts?
hertz.x
 
I've posted this before too!

I've posted this before too! BEGGING for it!! This is by far one of the biggest time-wasters that I have to deal with in this program for those exact reasons. I mean I've gotten some 'workable' work-arounds (place them roughly then use the quantize tool afterwards (note I said the quantize tool, not the quantize feature of the transform tool)) which again, "works" (in quotes) but you run into problems when your points collapse together because they suddenly change from two vertices to a shared one. Not fun! And if you delete it to correct... POOF! Entire poly-gone! (sorry about the pun. Can't help myself at times!) Points are still there so you could redraw, but instead, I just keep undoing, adjusting the individual points, then re-quantizing. It's a real pain but better than manually moving each and every point to the grid with the quantize feature of the transform tool.

One thing that would aid here is user-definable presets for quantization. Even if it's a fixed number... being able to choose them from a list, or better yet, assign them to hotkeys, so I don't have to keep changing from 1.0 to 0.05 by manually typing in all those fields (one in the transform but three in the quantize tool!) just because I decided to work on a bevel instead of the object itself.

Actually, I'll post a new thread about that latter thing alone.
 
I'd prefer snap to grid over quantize, and I'd love to have a modifier key that overrides (reverses) the current setting (just like in MacDraw or Filemaker Pro when editing a template). E.g. if snap is on, then holding the command key temporarily turns it off, and vice-versa.
 
Wouldn't have to be either/or...

Wouldn't have to be either/or. I think quantize is for 'correcting' or cleaning up things you've already done whereas snap-to is more of a real-time effect as you're doing something. It's akin to music software. You record a track, then quantize it to 'fix' your performance whereas you use the step-sequencer (ala snap-to) to enter the notes already perfectly aligned.

Some useability ideas:

1. As you're moving the mouse around, show a 'preview' of where the point will be placed if you click right then rather than only showing the final point afterwards.

2. Add hot-key support to 'nudge' the points after you drop them to correct incorrect drops. Think along the lines of CMD-Arrow for instance. And in that vane, until you've created the next point, or ended the drawing operation, don't combine points with existing ones or you won't be able to nudge them. In other words, if you are creating a new polygon and you accidentally touched an existing vertex from another polygon, you should be able to 'nudge' the point away. (Granted with the preview it shouldn't have been placed incorrectly in the first place.)

3. While drawing a complex polygon, if you do place a point incorrectly, you should be able to undo placing that last point without nuking the entire shape so far. I can undo drawing the last point with the Insert Point tool so this isn't a far stretch.

M
 
I agree about undoing the last point.

The quantize tool (vs. the quantize setting) is useful for cleanup, I wasn't referring to that. What I was referring to was the quantize checkbox in the transform tool.

Actually the problem with quantize (the checkbox AND the tool) is that it snaps and doesn't quantize, and I have no clue what it does with multiple selections -- so there is no "either/or". It would be nice to have numeric positioning, and it would be nice to have actual quantize (as in "move by multiples OF a fixed amount" vs. "move TO multiples of a fixed amount"), but snapping to a grid (i.e. TO multiples of a fixed amount) is more useful in general.

I guess you can do what I want by nesting objects, but that's pretty laborious.
 
Actually, quantize always snaps to a grid. That's what quantizing means, and why multiple selections make complete sense there. Snap-to on the other hand is more ambiguous since you can snap to a grid, or snap to something else arbitrary such as other objects or vertices, and if you have multiple selections, do you treat it as a whole object or as individually selected items.

BUT... I agree that a way to shift 'by' not 'to' some multiple (i.e. I want to move left 2 units regardless of where I start) would be great for the times I'm starting at say 3.275 and I want to end up at 5.275. This would be really helpful for things such as the 'slide point' tool where you're not sliding along a plane at all but rather an edge.

Then again, if Cheetah ever allows us to create our own planes as a lot of packages do, then quantize and snap-to grid would both work there since you could just orient the plane along the lines that you want to move. (Some programs make that really easy by letting you simply select a face and say 'make that the plane', then specify some points and.or vectors to set its center and orientation on that plane.
 
Bonzai3d

Hate to say this... but Bonzai3d already has sooo much of what we've been asking Martin for. And it's cross-platform. It does however cost $499 as opposed to $150, but that $350 can be saved in time easily.

I went there because of Form*Z (to see what all the hype was) and I'm really struggling to stay with just Cheetah. I say 'just' because I will still use Cheetah to export header files. That no one else does... but all the drawing, snapping and such, it's already there. (It's apparently a subset of Form*z)

Martin, you'll still have my money and I'll still pay for upgrades, but you now have some SERIOUS competition on the Mac side to worry about. SERIOUS!!! I am pulling for you but the game is changing.
 
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