New Tool Test "Draw Mesh"

Try this
http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/NVil-Jul-19-17.rar

I think you fixed it.

Some observations from a little bit of further testing:

• 'Escape' key applies changes instead of canceling them.
• Individual strokes are not placed on Undo stack. I assume this is by design. It's fine with me (though I'd rather prefer each stroke to be put on the stack because we could always bulk undo using Show Undo Stack), but I do have one request. Please let it NOT undo last operation that was called before we entered the Draw Mesh mode. Just make it abort the drawing or clear all strokes. Currently hitting undo while in Draw Mesh mode will quit the mode and undo that last operation, whatever it was. So that undone operation needs to be redone again. A small detail, but a frustrating one.
• Can Caps-Lock for closing splines be externalized for customization, so we could choose a different hotkey for it?
• I find it difficult to set proper welding radius without some form of a visual hint. Could you perhaps make it work in the same way that changing Soft Selection radius does? Tweaking soft selection radius requires a combination of CTRL+Mouse Wheel (I believe these are the default hotkeys for it?), and displays the radius as a sphere attached to cursor.

There were also a couple situations in which drawn splines that were connected to the existing geometry didn't generate polygons, but I'll have to record a video of that. Hopefully tomorrow evening.

I just encountered what it seems to be an infinite loop of unhandled exceptions (object reference not set to an instance of an object) just after starting a new scene. In the previous one I was doing some mesh drawing.

I just encountered what it seems to be an infinite loop of unhandled exceptions (object reference not set to an instance of an object) just after starting a new scene. In the previous one I was doing some mesh drawing.

Can you repeat it?

Hopefully I can. I'll try tomorrow.

Try this
http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/NVil-Jul-20-17.rar

Some observations from a little bit of further testing:

• 'Escape' key applies changes instead of canceling them.
• Individual strokes are not placed on Undo stack. I assume this is by design. It's fine with me (though I'd rather prefer each stroke to be put on the stack because we could always bulk undo using Show Undo Stack), but I do have one request. Please let it NOT undo last operation that was called before we entered the Draw Mesh mode. Just make it abort the drawing or clear all strokes. Currently hitting undo while in Draw Mesh mode will quit the mode and undo that last operation, whatever it was. So that undone operation needs to be redone again. A small detail, but a frustrating one.
• Can Caps-Lock for closing splines be externalized for customization, so we could choose a different hotkey for it?
• I find it difficult to set proper welding radius without some form of a visual hint. Could you perhaps make it work in the same way that changing Soft Selection radius does? Tweaking soft selection radius requires a combination of CTRL+Mouse Wheel (I believe these are the default hotkeys for it?), and displays the radius as a sphere attached to cursor.

There were also a couple situations in which drawn splines that were connected to the existing geometry didn't generate polygons, but I'll have to record a video of that. Hopefully tomorrow evening.

* Fixed.
* Done.
* What is the reason? I have changed it to Caps-Lock+Space.
* Done.

* What is the reason? I have changed it to Caps-Lock+Space.

Yeah, I know. It was mostly a personal request. I use a system-wide program launcher (Humanized Enso) that uses CapsLock key to allow to type-in name of a program I want to launch or switch to. It's actually very convenient.
NVil is the only program that I use which makes utilizes CapsLock, so nothing else conflicts with Enso. I would change this shortcut in Enso itself if it was possible, but the program was discontinued some time ago and there's no chance that its devs will implement a feature for customizing this hotkey.

If it's too much of a trouble then it's not really a problem, I will just kill Enso process whenever I need to perform some retopo in NVil. But if one day you will be bored, with nothing important to do, etc., think about this request.

I find it difficult to set proper welding radius without some form of a visual hint. Could you perhaps make it work in the same way that changing Soft Selection radius does? Tweaking soft selection radius requires a combination of CTRL+Mouse Wheel (I believe these are the default hotkeys for it?), and displays the radius as a sphere attached to cursor.

* Done.

I noticed two problems with this:

• If something is bound to CTRL (like a Tweak (All Modes) tool on my end), then using CTRL+MouseWheel in Draw Mode to modify the welding distance will make NVil exit from Draw Mesh mode (it enters Tweak mode). This is not the case when modifying soft selection radius as it does not invoke whatever is bound to CTRL.
• The radius doesn't have to be displayed all the time. Only when user is changing it will do just fine.

This is a newly loaded scene containing a single, frozen reference mesh. Retopo mode is enabled.
I lay down some strokes, but then press and hold CTRL (the first step to undo -> CTRL+Z). NVil registers CTRL as an attempt to invoke Tweak tool (which I have bound to that key, as I have mentioned earlier) and tries to generate the mesh (of course nothing is generated because I merely drew just a bunch of horizontal, non-crossing splines). When I hit the Z key while still holding CTRL, Undo is invoked and this clears the scene from all objects(!). What happens here is that NVil undoes Load File.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5_r9d5SdkIvQnFYVGg4QU93ODA

Try this
http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/NVil-Jul-30-17.rar
Edit: previous file deleted. Try this
http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/NVil-Aug-04-17.rar

New tooltips
Draw grid lines to create polygons. The mesh will be created on tool exit, the auto weld threshold in preference setting(which can also be adjusted by [Ctrl|Shif|Caps-Lock|Tab]+WMB, or Caps-Lock+LMB+drag) can be used to weld the generated vertices within new mesh. To extend the existing mesh, use vertex snapping to draw lines from the existing mesh. If a line is drawn from an existing mesh vertex, the open edges of this vertex will be treated as lines by the program when generating new mesh. lines will be drawn on reference object or on viewport plane depending on retopo mode enabled or not. The grid lines should be in a shape close to flat, not too much 3D, or the result may not be as expected. WAYS: 1-- Use LMB to draw lines. To straighten line, tap Space key. To close line, tap Caps-Lock+Space key. To draw horizontal/vertical lines, press down Shift key. To draw diagonal lines, press down Ctrl key. To allow the line to be drawn through the end of another line, enable vertex/spline snapping. 2-- To resume the drawing of a drawn line, Caps-Lock+RMB-Click the line at any of its two ends. Then continue its drawing or right click another line to connect. 3-- To break a line, press RMB at the line then tap Space key. 4-- To remove a line, right click at it. 5-- To create lines between two specified lines, MMB-click or LMB-click+Shift/Ctrl to select the first line, then LMB-Click the second line and drag, or Shift/Ctrl+drag, to adjust the segments. If the order incorrect, tap Space key to fix. 6-- To create lines inside a rectangle enclosed by 4 lines, Caps-Lock+LMB and drag, or Shift/Ctrl+drag, to adjust the segments. 7-- To import lines from scene splines, Caps-Lock+RMB and drag over 400 pixels.

Also some new stuff to check

  * It is possible to assign the same hotkey combination to different tools and the program will use the order in which hotkeys are pressed down to fire the right tool. For example, Undo: Ctrl+Z, Redo: Z+ctrl. If only one tool is assigned to the hotkey combination, the tool will be fired regardless the hotkey pressing order.
  * Two new streamline basic tools, Polygon Tools > Subdivide_Normal/Smooth. Subdivide selected polygons.
  * If a streamline-tool/visual-tool/radial-menu/hot-window is activated in a composite tool, the program will wait for its close before executing the following commands. Inother words they become sticky. If the composite tool is activated by hotkey or the composite tool is activated by a radial menu which is activated by hotkey, the same hotkey can be used to colse those sticky tools. This can be used to make the whole operation simple.
  * Composite tool editing UI is updated.

I noticed two problems with this:

• If something is bound to CTRL (like a Tweak (All Modes) tool on my end), then using CTRL+MouseWheel in Draw Mode to modify the welding distance will make NVil exit from Draw Mesh mode (it enters Tweak mode). This is not the case when modifying soft selection radius as it does not invoke whatever is bound to CTRL.
• The radius doesn't have to be displayed all the time. Only when user is changing it will do just fine.

See if fixed.

The Caps-Lock key is customizable, together with the Space key. They are the hotkeys for "Redirect Modifier" and "StreamLine Tool Option Cycler" tools. If you have a look at the descriptions of some of the basic streamline tools, you will find these two hotkeys are used widely.

The last version of the tool seems to be very solid. No problems so far.

Two issues:

• It is difficult to retopo curved surfaces like ear's pinna. The process must be divided into several steps because if I draw the lines around the pinna and apply, it will result in vertices snapping to wrong surfaces. But this is already mentioned in the tooltip ("The grid lines should be in a shape close to flat, not too much 3D, or the result may not be as expected"), so it must be a technical limitation.
• Vertex snapping in Draw Mesh tool snaps to vertices of backfacing polygons. To counter this I enable Backface Culling, but it noticeably slows down the viewport.

Try this
http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/NVil-Aug-06-17.rar

* Can't fix.
* Fixed.

* Can't fix.

No problemo.

* Fixed.

While the spline does not physically snap to vertices of backfacing polygons now, it is still pulled towards them (though it remains on a reference surface).

There is also a new issue - vertices obscured by another geometry object are now highlighted when cursor hovers over them. You can see on a video that I hover my cursor over a mirrored part of my retopo mesh and vertices from the other side get preselected. (00:40+).

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5_r9d5SdkIvUkktZGhRWG1UOFk