New Tool Test "Draw Mesh"

Thanks Kevjon!
This non-retopo drawing is pretty cool.

One problem though. I can't snap to vertices that lie on backfaces, which would be pretty handy here. Does anyone remember which option is responsible for it?

I can draw a normal spline and snap to back faces but cannot do it with draw mesh. I agree this would be very handy when using draw mesh. Hopefully Istonia can add the feature.

With regard to Import splines and refine. I hope both those tools can be replaced in the future by a Draw Mesh spline option, fingers crossed.

Thanks Kevjon!
This non-retopo drawing is pretty cool.

One problem though. I can't snap to vertices that lie on backfaces, which would be pretty handy here. Does anyone remember which option is responsible for it?

Can you show what kind of snapping it is in a pic?

I'd like to snap to vertices lying on open edges.
If they are on backfaces, they cannot be snapped to, and I need to rotate the camera first, which isn't good for draw mesh line I'm drawing.

I'm fairly sure it's a matter of toggling some option in NVil, I just don't recall which one.

It doesn't happen to me.

Weird, must be something about my NVidia video driver. It happens in all viewports.

My scene was set to meters and the autoweld threshold was 0.97435870m. I don't know why that is as I never set it to that but that looks like the culprit. When I zoomed out in the viewport I obviously created a larger mesh and autoweld never kicked in.

Here is a pic of the spline and Straight line at any angle suggestion. It will help with generating meshes more precisely with draw mesh when you are modelling hard surface objects.

Try this
http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/NVil-Sep-29-17.rar

  1-- DRAW. Use LMB to draw lines. To straighten line, tap Space key, and while the line is in straight style, tap Caps-Lock key will finish the current line and start another straight line which shares the same start point. 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. If retopo mode is not enabled, the program will use snappings and line crossings to set the drawn line's position in viewport camera depth. If want to disable line crossing checking, when drawing that portion of line, have Alt pressed down(a comination hotkeys including Alt when no mouse button is pressed), or use masks. To create spline, LMB click without drag at starting point, Ctrl change style, Shift constrain, RMB finish.

  2-- RESUME. 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. When extending a line, tap Caps-Lock key will terminate current extending and create a new line starting from the last point of the last extending line, the new line will be in extending mode. To exit extending mode, RMB click.

I'd like to snap to vertices lying on open edges.
If they are on backfaces, they cannot be snapped to, and I need to rotate the camera first, which isn't good for draw mesh line I'm drawing.

I'm fairly sure it's a matter of toggling some option in NVil, I just don't recall which one.

There is no option. It is hard coded. You should be able to do it now.

  1-- DRAW. Use LMB to draw lines. To straighten line, tap Space key, and while the line is in straight style, tap Caps-Lock key will finish the current line and start another straight line which shares the same start point. 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. If retopo mode is not enabled, the program will use snappings and line crossings to set the drawn line's position in viewport camera depth. If want to disable line crossing checking, when drawing that portion of line, have Alt pressed down(a comination hotkeys including Alt when no mouse button is pressed), or use masks. To create spline, LMB click without drag at starting point, Ctrl change style, Shift constrain, RMB finish.

  2-- RESUME. 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. When extending a line, tap Caps-Lock key will terminate current extending and create a new line starting from the last point of the last extending line, the new line will be in extending mode. To exit extending mode, RMB click.

Something from the recent changes interferes with Closing splines.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5_r9d5SdkIvT3ZNdy1rZldsWDA

Try this
http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/NVil-Oct-01-17.rar

The related hotkey is changed to Ctrl from Caps-Lock.

  1-- DRAW. Use LMB to draw lines. To straighten line, tap Space key, and while the line is in straight style, tap Ctrl key will finish the current line and start another straight line which shares the same start point. 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. If retopo mode is not enabled, the program will use snappings and line crossings to set the drawn line's position in viewport camera depth. If want to disable line crossing checking, when drawing that portion of line, have Alt pressed down(a comination hotkeys including Alt when no mouse button is pressed), or use masks. To create spline, LMB click without drag at starting point, Ctrl change style, Shift constrain, RMB finish.
  2-- RESUME. 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. To exit extending mode, RMB click. When extending a line, tap Ctrl key will terminate current extending and create a new line starting from the last point of the last extending line, the new line will be in extending mode.
                   

Try this
http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/NVil-Oct-02-17.rar

Axis constraint is added to Extrude tool

10-- EXTRUDE. To extrude lines from existing open edges or line edges, enable edge snapping, LMB drag from the edge. To create from multiple edges, LMB click the first edge then move over to the second edge and LMB drag. If the second edge is the same as the first edge, the whole open edge loop will be used. Once lines drawn out, WMB or Ctrl+LMB-Drag to adjust segments, Ctrl+Shift+LMB-Drag for rotation, Ctrl+Alt+LMB-Drag for Scaling. Axis constraint, 1/2/3. To bridge, drag the cursor to the opposite side edge or line, tap Space key to correct order if wrong. To change line moving direction, tap Caps-Lock key. To generate mesh without view projection Process, while the mouse button is still being pressed, tap Enter key(Useful for creating cylinder like shapes). To stop current extrusion and start a new one without releasing mouse button, tap Shift key. If wanted, keep shift key pressed and continue dragging to create a series of extrusion.

All good with curve closing now. Thanks.


I don't understand the purpose of the Tweak mode. Its tooltip states that:

To enable the using of the assigned basic streamline tools to tweak generated mesh. To switch it on/off, Caps-Lock+Space key

But I can't use any streamline tools nor other tools while I'm in this mode. So, what it's for?

I constantly end up in situations in which I hover over a curve and press CAPS+Space to close it, forgetting the fact that this shortcut works only in Draw and Resume modes. So it always takes me several seconds to realize that I can't draw more curves because I entered Tweak mode.

If you open the Draw Mesh tool in streamline tool customizing window, you will see three basic streamline tool are assigned to the LMB/MMB/RMB. When you are in tweak mode, you can use these tools to tweak the mesh and the undo/redo will work on the changes made by these tools.

Try this
http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/NVil-Oct-02-17.rar

Axis constraint is added to Extrude tool

10-- EXTRUDE. To extrude lines from existing open edges or line edges, enable edge snapping, LMB drag from the edge. To create from multiple edges, LMB click the first edge then move over to the second edge and LMB drag. If the second edge is the same as the first edge, the whole open edge loop will be used. Once lines drawn out, WMB or Ctrl+LMB-Drag to adjust segments, Ctrl+Shift+LMB-Drag for rotation, Ctrl+Alt+LMB-Drag for Scaling. Axis constraint, 1/2/3. To bridge, drag the cursor to the opposite side edge or line, tap Space key to correct order if wrong. To change line moving direction, tap Caps-Lock key. To generate mesh without view projection Process, while the mouse button is still being pressed, tap Enter key(Useful for creating cylinder like shapes). To stop current extrusion and start a new one without releasing mouse button, tap Shift key. If wanted, keep shift key pressed and continue dragging to create a series of extrusion.

I tried most of them out and they work well. Takes a bit of getting used to but an impressive array of tools, thanks !

Kevin, can't wait to see what you can do with those tools.

Hi Istonia,

In order to get used to the draw mesh tools, I've started to use it on a real project.

I came across this issue.

In ortho right view, I used draw mesh in non-retopo mode to create the two simple planes.
I was drawing in world space.

I would expect they would draw on the world XYZ axis in world space but both objects ended up a long way a way from the model both at a random distance.

It would be good if it drew on the XYZ plane in world space or on the workplane if that is active when using ortho views ?

Try this
http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/NVil-Oct-03-17.rar

Try this
http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/NVil-Oct-03-17.rar

I tried Draw Mesh on World Grid , Top, Front, Right
I also tested it on Workplane Grid, Top, Front, Right

In all instances it worked really nicely. Thanks !

Try this
http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/NVil-Oct-01-17.rar

The related hotkey is changed to Ctrl from Caps-Lock.

Thanks, but now I can't undo the segments that I lay down while I'm in LMB+SPACEBAR mode because I have Undo under CTRL+Z. 
So the only option is to remove the whole curve and restart drawing.