New Tool Test "Draw Mesh"

Well you know - primitives, like sphere, cube, and so on have a little "Drop" checkbox in their settings window. By enabling it we can drop the primitive directly on a surface of another object. It will also change its orientation according to that object's surface normal.
We can't however drop primitives on frozen reference objects, and this is why I asked about this feature.

It is possible already as long as you have this option on, Edit > Preference > Options 2 > Selection > Include retopo objects in selection and snapping occlusion. Also you can use this option, Modeling Snap to frozen object enabled. But it may cause performance issue.

I have no clue how that can happen. Can you reproduce it?

It happens on random basis. I can't reproduce it.

It is possible already as long as you have this option on, Edit > Preference > Options 2 > Selection > Include retopo objects in selection and snapping occlusion. Also you can use this option, Modeling Snap to frozen object enabled. But it may cause performance issue.

Include retopo objects in selection and snapping occlusion doesn't have any impact on "Drop", however Snap to frozen object did the trick. Thanks.

Creating patches with CTRL+LMB will not work sometimes at all when I'm trying to generate one which would sit inside an area surrounded by open edges. I don't think that this is actually a bug, because the algorithm would probably need to decide which half of the area divided by the draw mesh line we intend to generate the patch in. And I can only imagine it might be difficult to adapt it to such decision.
However, if you could make it work in similar cases (like letting the user decide on which side NVil should place construction lines), it would be great, but if it is too complicated, then it is no big deal. Draw Mesh is already a fantastic tool which, combined with StreamLine tools, I greatly prefer over retopo solutions available in other programs that I use on daily basis.

Creating patches with CTRL+LMB will not work sometimes at all when I'm trying to generate one which would sit inside an area surrounded by open edges. I don't think that this is actually a bug, because the algorithm would probably need to decide which half of the area divided by the draw mesh line we intend to generate the patch in. And I can only imagine it might be difficult to adapt it to such decision.
However, if you could make it work in similar cases (like letting the user decide on which side NVil should place construction lines), it would be great, but if it is too complicated, then it is no big deal. Draw Mesh is already a fantastic tool which, combined with StreamLine tools, I greatly prefer over retopo solutions available in other programs that I use on daily basis.

Try this
http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/NVil-Sep-15-17.rar

If both sides are valid for patching, tap Space key to switch the side.

Some weird random bug. Disappears after NVil is restarted:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5_r9d5SdkIvYzhVTDFJNWprVzA

You may have a faulty mouse. In the video, when mouse is pressed down, Nvil always receives the wrong cursor location which always the same point regardless where the actual cursor is. But when drag happened, Nvil receives the correct information.

You may have a faulty mouse. In the video, when mouse is pressed down, Nvil always receives the wrong cursor location which always the same point regardless where the actual cursor is. But when drag happened, Nvil receives the correct information.

Hi IStonia,
It's hard for me to believe that it could be the mouse. For three reasons:
1. Screen recording software registers (and visualizes) mouse clicks in correct cursor locations.
2. It isn't shown on the video, but when It was rotating the view, it didn't affect the position of this "attracting point". I was always the same 3D coordinate in the scene. New strokes drawn from different camera angles kept snapping to this "attractor" (I couldn't find a more suitable name for this phenomenon).
If it was a faulty mouse, the attractor would probably be located at the same point in 2D screen space. This would place new attractor points in different coordinates in 3D space after each attempt of drawing splines from different camera angles.
3. I only saw this happening in Draw Mesh.

New problem encountered during retopo of concave object.
Splines keep snapping to reference surface located behind the camera:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5_r9d5SdkIvNElyNFhqbElyQ3c

Try this
http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/NVil-Sep-15-17.rar

If both sides are valid for patching, tap Space key to switch the side.

Hm, it doesn't work.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5_r9d5SdkIveTRQTW9lQnBTX1U

Allrighty!
I retopologized one of my older real-time hero models. I used Draw Mesh for everything except of the chimney and satchel buttons, which were reconstructed from subdivision surfaces. The model consists of 17.190 triangles in total.
The retopo process was very pleasant and automatic patch generation was a huge time saver.

Try this
http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/NVil-Sep-15-17.rar

If both sides are valid for patching, tap Space key to switch the side.

Hm, it doesn't work.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5_r9d5SdkIveTRQTW9lQnBTX1U

Can you send me this scene file so I can check why it doesn't work?

Edit: Don't need to send the file. I have solved the problem.

Allrighty!
I retopologized one of my older real-time hero models. I used Draw Mesh for everything except of the chimney and satchel buttons, which were reconstructed from subdivision surfaces. The model consists of 17.190 triangles in total.
The retopo process was very pleasant and automatic patch generation was a huge time saver.

Looks good! Do you have a video?

Try this
http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/NVil-Sep-15-17.rar

If both sides are valid for patching, tap Space key to switch the side.

Hm, it doesn't work.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5_r9d5SdkIveTRQTW9lQnBTX1U

Try this
http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/NVil-Sep-16-17.rar

I wasn't recording it because I was retopologizing the snail while still testing the tool, so bugs were coming out from time to time. But I can redo the retopo if you want. It shouldn't take much time with Draw Mesh.

I wasn't recording it because I was retopologizing the snail while still testing the tool, so bugs were coming out from time to time. But I can redo the retopo if you want. It shouldn't take much time with Draw Mesh.

It would be great to see how you used draw mesh to obtain such an outstanding result.

You may have a faulty mouse. In the video, when mouse is pressed down, Nvil always receives the wrong cursor location which always the same point regardless where the actual cursor is. But when drag happened, Nvil receives the correct information.

Hi IStonia,
It's hard for me to believe that it could be the mouse. For three reasons:
1. Screen recording software registers (and visualizes) mouse clicks in correct cursor locations.
2. It isn't shown on the video, but when It was rotating the view, it didn't affect the position of this "attracting point". I was always the same 3D coordinate in the scene. New strokes drawn from different camera angles kept snapping to this "attractor" (I couldn't find a more suitable name for this phenomenon).
If it was a faulty mouse, the attractor would probably be located at the same point in 2D screen space. This would place new attractor points in different coordinates in 3D space after each attempt of drawing splines from different camera angles.
3. I only saw this happening in Draw Mesh.

New problem encountered during retopo of concave object.
Splines keep snapping to reference surface located behind the camera:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5_r9d5SdkIvNElyNFhqbElyQ3c

Try this
http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/NVil-Sep-16-17Test.rar
You will see a string of Xs representing the cursor positions Nvil received. If the bug appears, take a snap shot of the whole viewport so I can check.

I wasn't recording it because I was retopologizing the snail while still testing the tool, so bugs were coming out from time to time. But I can redo the retopo if you want. It shouldn't take much time with Draw Mesh.

It would be great to see how you used draw mesh to obtain such an outstanding result.

Please show us the magic.

I have just done a fixing so it won't snap to the point behind camera. So when you see this post, please redownload the file.
http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/NVil-Sep-16-17Test.rar

Thanks for the fix. Downloading it now.
I'll restart retopo of the snail and record the process.

Meanwhile, baked normal and occlusion maps: