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[Plugin] QuadFaceTools

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  • T Offline
    thomthom
    last edited by thomthom 14 Aug 2011, 16:39

    [floatr:3rvrvn2q]
    https://bitbucket.org/thomthom/quadface-tools/wiki/Images/Toolbar_v0_7_0.png
    [/floatr:3rvrvn2q]
    Overview
    Quads and Topology
    A big deal of organic modelling workflow spin around good topology of quads (faces with four vertices/edges). Quads allows for many very useful mesh operations, such as selection rings and loops. Quads are predictable which is why they are so useful.

    Many applications let you work with non-planar quads. In SketchUp however, it is not so easy. When you modify a vertex of a quad in SketchUp it auto-folds and breaks the quad into two triangles - where as other 3d applications might leave it as one unit.

    At the core of every 3d applications, everything consists of triangles - the only difference is how they expose the triangles to the user. However, there is no reason why SketchUp users can't work with non-planar quads - it's just that the tools need to be aware of them.

    Quads in SketchUp
    This toolset is an attempt to begin on such a suite of tools to let SketchUp users work with quads. My approach is conceptually simple: When two faces are separated with a soft edge (smooth only affects shading) then the two faces are treated as one Unit. Click one and you select both and the Entity Info window says you have selected a Surface. Based on that, here is how I define quads in SketchUp:

    QuadFace Definition

    [floatl:3rvrvn2q]
    https://bitbucket.org/thomthom/quadface-tools/wiki/Images/Alert.png
    [/floatl:3rvrvn2q]
    The definition of a QuadFace was changed again in version 0.6 because the previous versions relied on the Hidden property. The Hidden property is affected by a model's Scenes, so when you copied quad mesh into a new model you would loose the Hidden property of the diagonals.

    To update a mesh from the older versions, use:
    Tools > QuadFace Tools > Convert > Sandbox Quads to QuadFace Quads

    • Native quad face, face with four vertices.

    • Two triangles, joined by an edge with the following properties:

    • Soft = true

    • Smooth = true

    • Cast Shadows = false

    • Border edges can have any property, just not all of them.

    • Faces that makes up a QuadFace cannot have holes in them.
      (Updated in 0.6.0)

    Call to Developers
    I'd encourage all plugin developers of plugins that generate geometry if what they generate can be made compatible with my definition of a QuadFace so we can expand the toolset for dealing with QuadFaces. QuadFaces is key to working with good topology in 3D modelling.

    Project Hosting
    This project is now hosted on BitBucket where the downloads and documentation exists.

    • QuadFace Tools on BitBucket
    • List of Features

    Download
    https://bitbucket.org/thomthom/quadface-tools/wiki/Download

    Videos

    UV Mapping
    [flash=560,315:3rvrvn2q]http://www.youtube.com/v/HdX517AryWs?version=3&hl=en_US[/flash:3rvrvn2q]

    UV Transferring
    [flash=560,315:3rvrvn2q]http://www.youtube.com/v/qQHsabwvErg?version=3&hl=en_US[/flash:3rvrvn2q]

    UV Unwrap
    [flash=560,315:3rvrvn2q]http://www.youtube.com/v/hnW_yjkM_SY?version=3&hl=en_US[/flash:3rvrvn2q]

    UV Mapping Example
    [flash=640,360:3rvrvn2q]http://www.youtube.com/v/pcvxdwgWxXM?version=3&hl=en_GB&rel=0[/flash:3rvrvn2q]

    https://bitbucket.org/thomthom/quadface-tools/wiki/Images/Cookieware.png

    Thomas Thomassen β€” SketchUp Monkey & Coding addict
    List of my plugins and link to the CookieWare fund

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    • T Offline
      thomthom
      last edited by 14 Aug 2011, 16:41

      I meant to make some videos explaining quads in SketchUp, but I had no time this weekend. But I figured I'd still push it out there for the brave guineapigs who like to punish themselves with new unknown tools.

      Thomas Thomassen β€” SketchUp Monkey & Coding addict
      List of my plugins and link to the CookieWare fund

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      • G Offline
        Gaieus
        last edited by 14 Aug 2011, 16:49

        Holy crap, TT. I saw you post in the (other) forum to Pete and was wondering. Good news is that I seem to have some spare space in my toolbars...

        Gai...

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        • T Offline
          thomthom
          last edited by 14 Aug 2011, 17:00

          It has been a wee little distraction from Bezier Surface, but not completely. As I need the same selection routines in both plugins. This has been a playground experiment. πŸ˜‰ Win-win!

          Thomas Thomassen β€” SketchUp Monkey & Coding addict
          List of my plugins and link to the CookieWare fund

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          • R Online
            Rich O Brien Moderator
            last edited by 14 Aug 2011, 17:07

            I'd pay for this πŸ‘

            Excellent tool!

            Download the free D'oh Book for SketchUp

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            • G Offline
              Gaieus
              last edited by 14 Aug 2011, 17:18

              @unknownuser said:

              I'd pay for this πŸ‘

              You said it - go ahead then!

              (I also owe you a ton of cookies, TT!)
              πŸ˜„

              Gai...

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              • EarthMoverE Offline
                EarthMover
                last edited by 14 Aug 2011, 17:39

                SWEET! This has been a long time dream finally realized. Thanks for all your amazing contributions Thomas! We are lucky to have you in our community! πŸ‘

                3D Artist at Clearstory 3D Imaging
                Guide Tool at Winning With Sketchup
                Content Creator at Skapeup

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                • fredo6F Offline
                  fredo6
                  last edited by 14 Aug 2011, 18:08

                  Tom,

                  All my support for your initiative, which is, I believe a big undertaking.

                  As a contribution, I'll include an option to generate quads (under your definition) in Curviloft (the preview display is based on quads, precisely).

                  Fredo

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                  • T Offline
                    thomthom
                    last edited by 14 Aug 2011, 18:22

                    @unknownuser said:

                    As a contribution, I'll include an option to generate quads (under your definition) in Curviloft (the preview display is based on quads, precisely).

                    πŸ‘ πŸ‘
                    That's great Fredo! The more tools we get that generate geometry like this the better topology we can create in SketchUp with better tools.

                    Thomas Thomassen β€” SketchUp Monkey & Coding addict
                    List of my plugins and link to the CookieWare fund

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                    • PixeroP Offline
                      Pixero
                      last edited by 14 Aug 2011, 18:32

                      This will be most useful. Thanks!

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                      • B Offline
                        Booman
                        last edited by 15 Aug 2011, 00:27

                        Awesome plugin... will definitely try out for some organic modeling

                        Brian McCracken
                        In The Red Website Design

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                        • EarthMoverE Offline
                          EarthMover
                          last edited by 15 Aug 2011, 03:51

                          Been playing with it and it's really great. Thanks again. Been playing with Artisan meshes with some mixed results, but after a few Make Quad operations, I can get the whole mesh to quadrify.

                          Any plans on adding a Ring Connect option as a way to add additional loops?

                          3D Artist at Clearstory 3D Imaging
                          Guide Tool at Winning With Sketchup
                          Content Creator at Skapeup

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                          • T Offline
                            thomthom
                            last edited by 15 Aug 2011, 06:31

                            @earthmover said:

                            Been playing with Artisan meshes with some mixed results, but after a few Make Quad operations, I can get the whole mesh to quadrify.

                            I meant to make a whole video tutorial for that. It's best not to make the starting point at the edge of a mesh. That might yield some odd results. And holes in the mesh might also produce unexpected results. And I suspects meshes where the quads are not uniformly laid out, but need star connections could throw some odd results as well.
                            If you find that the quadification of a mesh yields odd results it might help if you manually quadify some of mesh first. A couple of quads around holes and star connections.
                            Got any sample models to share by the way. I did not have any organic models with regular mesh to test on.

                            @earthmover said:

                            Any plans on adding a Ring Connect option as a way to add additional loops?

                            What is a Ring Connect?

                            Thomas Thomassen β€” SketchUp Monkey & Coding addict
                            List of my plugins and link to the CookieWare fund

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                            • T Offline
                              thomthom
                              last edited by 15 Aug 2011, 07:36

                              @earthmover said:

                              Been playing with Artisan meshes

                              Perhaps an idea to request Dale to add an option to generate the mesh as quads? That'd be pretty sweet.

                              Thomas Thomassen β€” SketchUp Monkey & Coding addict
                              List of my plugins and link to the CookieWare fund

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                              • R Online
                                Rich O Brien Moderator
                                last edited by 15 Aug 2011, 08:14

                                What's the icon at the end of Vertex Tools? I don't have it in mine?

                                Download the free D'oh Book for SketchUp

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                                • T Offline
                                  thomthom
                                  last edited by 15 Aug 2011, 08:33

                                  @unknownuser said:

                                  What's the icon at the end of Vertex Tools? I don't have it in mine?

                                  Cursed your keen eyes! Now I have to kill you!

                                  Thomas Thomassen β€” SketchUp Monkey & Coding addict
                                  List of my plugins and link to the CookieWare fund

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • T Offline
                                    thomthom
                                    last edited by 15 Aug 2011, 08:35

                                    @gaieus said:

                                    Holy crap, TT. I saw you post in the (other) forum to Pete and was wondering. Good news is that I seem to have some spare space in my toolbars...

                                    By the way Gaieus, with meshes build from quads, making UV tools becomes easier.
                                    It was in fact one of the biggest challenges I had/have with UV Toolkit, being able to sort the geometry into predictable chunks. Now I can build upon the requirement that the mesh is quads, which makes the traversing of the mesh and mapping much easier. πŸ˜‰

                                    Thomas Thomassen β€” SketchUp Monkey & Coding addict
                                    List of my plugins and link to the CookieWare fund

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • R Online
                                      Rich O Brien Moderator
                                      last edited by 15 Aug 2011, 08:36

                                      Mwah ha hah hah hah haaaaaaa πŸ‘Ώ

                                      Download the free D'oh Book for SketchUp

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                                      • T Offline
                                        thomthom
                                        last edited by 15 Aug 2011, 08:39

                                        @unknownuser said:

                                        Mwah ha hah hah hah haaaaaaa πŸ‘Ώ

                                        Just for the sake for retaliation and mute your excitement, it's simply a Collapse function. So there! Hah! No magic!

                                        Thomas Thomassen β€” SketchUp Monkey & Coding addict
                                        List of my plugins and link to the CookieWare fund

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                                        • T Offline
                                          thomthom
                                          last edited by 15 Aug 2011, 08:42

                                          @thomthom said:

                                          @unknownuser said:

                                          Mwah ha hah hah hah haaaaaaa πŸ‘Ώ

                                          Just for the sake for retaliation and mute your excitement, it's simply a Collapse function. So there! Hah! No magic!

                                          In reality it's a function to call upon all my killer robots to home in on Rich - as you can see from the iconic representation. Yes, that is right, I'm giving everyone who buts Vertex Tools this mighty power! muhahahah!

                                          Thomas Thomassen β€” SketchUp Monkey & Coding addict
                                          List of my plugins and link to the CookieWare fund

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