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Topic: Feature Suggestions  (Read 489 times)

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January 28, 2026, 09:53:22 am
Hello everyone. I'm currently creating a sci-fi robot (screenshot), and while I'm at it, I'm having various ideas for improving the program's functions.
This is lacking features that I personally found, maybe I missed something already existing - sorry for that.

Nvil has already so many features that are lacking in other softwares. I especially in love with customization and a lot of small handy features and settings that no other program provides. With these additions this program will become much more powerful and modern while maintaining focus on modeling
(!) These are only suggestions and my personal thoughts. I know that probably there is one developer and the budget is quite low. It is not an order, I dont insist on anything, especially on one’s  are too hard or impossible to do. But if once you will be struggling what to improve, these can be done:

1. With enabled symmetry, mirror the material assignment on faces as well
2. Make Bend/Twist/Taper operations without using Splines (maybe I miss smth)
3. An option to not show edges in object mode, but show in subobject mode
4. Extrude threshhold in pixels doesn`t go higher than 24 and my NMB tools still accidently activating
5. Speaking of NMB tools, make this option, described in example. For example, my Move Streamline Tool has a Tweak on NMB and Axis Move on LMB. If I accidentally move my mouse and tweak, when I wanted to Axis Move, then while moving my mouse I press down LMB and the program removes previous moves made by NMB and start to do an Axis Move. Actually, this is realised in Blender, then on G you Tweaking, but once you press X/Y/Z it automatically snaps to related axis. Now in Nvil you need to press Move hotkey and LMB right simultaneously.
6. In Scene Explorer make an option to use scroll while dragging an object. Now it is inconvenient to drag them into groups then you have A LOT of objects
7. Spline Mirror
8. Align Object Pivot to the bottom of the object
9. Improve Light Tool. Make it more convenient. Now experimenting with the light I can simply loose this light arrows and it`s very inconvenient to move it on the screen overall. At least would be great to have gizmo in this mode
10. Make Subdivision Surface respect corners and UV (to not smooth them)
11. Make an option for knife tool to not cut additional edges on n-gons
12. Didn`t find miltering options for chamfer, would be great to add
13. Make subd-like toggle, but for chamfer with creases controling edge bevel
14. Then Set Manipulator (Visual) is on, make it possible to click through gizmo to select an edge on which I want orient. Now the manipulator is hiding edges and it`s needed to zoom to click on smth. And an option to automatically exit the tool when orientation/position is set
15. Add a separate Collapse Edge command. Personally, I distinct Collapse only for edges and Weld only for Verticies. Now it collapses both edges and vertices. Small thing, maybe useless for most users, but personally I would be happy to have. Therefore, vertices collapce not in the center of their bounding box if there was selected many
16. I mapped Vertex Edge Slide on NMB. I have to precisely aim cursor to the vertex to slide him. Would be nice to just press slide key and slide this vertex without having to aim at it. It`s kind of annoying now
17. (!) Make an Edge Flow button. It is realised in all other softwares and very important then it comes to add subdivision to curved surfaces
18. Add Bridge for faces
19. Add Star primitive
20. Add Spline Mirror
21. Add an option to lengthen Manipulator arrows, not just its overall size. Personally, I`d like to have a small Manipulator with long arrows
22. If you dissolve an edge - the adjusted vertex deletes too
23. Make an option for pivot to place it to bottom of the object in one button
24. Work around Push/Pull to make it perfect like smart extrude in 3ds Max. Now some faces are not automatically deleted or mesh becomes a little messy in some cases.
25. Add an option for commands on hotkeys to be executed by double-pressing button. In blender on G you move subobject and on double-G you can slide it. One button - two commands. And with Nvil`s Streamline system that would be much more powerful than in Blender
26. Mentioning Blender - would be nice to have a not outdated bridge with this program. Blender's developers haven't been working on improving their modeling tools - all their attention is focused on geo nodes (which is kinda good but meh) and meaningless for modelers "wow features" which is kinda annoying. So, it would be great to model everything in NVIL, especially since the program already offers a lot of features that Blender doesn't, and then finish the simulations (Rigid Body for example), Sculpting, Materials, and Rendering in Blender.
27. Optimize screen space Ambient Occlusion if it is possible to make it not laggy. It is very handy when objects have a little real-time ao - I can see my model more clearly and nothing merges in one big mess if it has one material
28. Add Decimate tool
29. Add Remesh tool like Quad Remesher. This might be tough I know, not necessary at all
30. Make an option for Soft edges to be visualized as dotted line like in Maya. I know that hard edges can be marked with different color, but it would be also nice to have them in one color, but with different appearance
31. With dark theme white windows edges must be gray or something darker. It is a little, but distracting eyes
32. Smooth mouse scroll
33. (!) Make Auto Depth option for zooming. This feature prevents slow scrolling with mouse wheel at all. I know that I can use Alt + RMB, but find scrolling more convenient
34. Make UI smoother and less cluncky if possible
Clunky UI upsets me most. But overall, it`s a good program

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February 01, 2026, 08:50:51 am
---1. With enabled symmetry, mirror the material assignment on faces as well
A: Implemented.

---3. An option to not show edges in object mode, but show in subobject mode
A: View > Object Shading > Hide Edges In Object Mode.

---4. Extrude threshhold in pixels doesn`t go higher than 24 and my NMB tools still accidently activating
A: It is a bug. Fixed.

---5. Speaking of NMB tools, make this option, described in example. For example, my Move Streamline Tool has a Tweak on NMB and Axis Move on LMB. If I accidentally move my mouse and tweak, when I wanted to Axis Move, then while moving my mouse I press down LMB and the program removes previous moves made by NMB and start to do an Axis Move. Actually, this is realised in Blender, then on G you Tweaking, but once you press X/Y/Z it automatically snaps to related axis. Now in Nvil you need to press Move hotkey and LMB right simultaneously.
A: Implemented.

6. In Scene Explorer make an option to use scroll while dragging an object. Now it is inconvenient to drag them into groups then you have A LOT of objects
Q: Not sure what you meant. Can you explain it in a video?

---8. Align Object Pivot to the bottom of the object
A: The new button is added to the "Object Pivot" tool's UI.

9. Improve Light Tool. Make it more convenient. Now experimenting with the light I can simply loose this light arrows and it`s very inconvenient to move it on the screen overall. At least would be great to have gizmo in this mode
A: Added a new feature. You can click to select a light then click where you want it to move to.

---10. Make Subdivision Surface respect corners and UV (to not smooth them)
A: Vertex mode > Geometry > Set Subd Hard Corner.

---11. Make an option for knife tool to not cut additional edges on n-gons
Q: Can you explain it in a video?

---12. Didn`t find miltering options for chamfer, would be great to add
Q: What is miltering option?

---13. Make subd-like toggle, but for chamfer with creases controling edge bevel
A: Not doable.

---14. Then Set Manipulator (Visual) is on, make it possible to click through gizmo to select an edge on which I want orient. Now the manipulator is hiding edges and it`s needed to zoom to click on smth. And an option to automatically exit the tool when orientation/position is set
A: Implemented.

---15. Add a separate Collapse Edge command. Personally, I distinct Collapse only for edges and Weld only for Verticies. Now it collapses both edges and vertices. Small thing, maybe useless for most users, but personally I would be happy to have. Therefore, vertices collapce not in the center of their bounding box if there was selected many
Q: Can you explain in a video? What is the selection look like and what the collapse result should be.

---16. I mapped Vertex Edge Slide on NMB. I have to precisely aim cursor to the vertex to slide him. Would be nice to just press slide key and slide this vertex without having to aim at it. It`s kind of annoying now
Q: How can you slide a vertex without specifying which vertex it is? You can increase this value, Edit > Preference > General > Selection Radius.

17. (!) Make an Edge Flow button. It is realised in all other softwares and very important then it comes to add subdivision to curved surfaces
Q: I don't know what it is. Can you give me an example?

18. Add Bridge for faces
Q: How it should work? Select two polygons then Geometry > Bridge.

---20. Add Spline Mirror
A: SplineVertex Shortcut Tools > Flip.

---21. Add an option to lengthen Manipulator arrows, not just its overall size. Personally, I`d like to have a small Manipulator with long arrows
A: Edit > Preference > General > Rotation manipulator scale.

---22. If you dissolve an edge - the adjusted vertex deletes too
Q: Can you explain in a video?

---23. Make an option for pivot to place it to bottom of the object in one button
Q: Is this the same as ---8?

---26. Mentioning Blender - would be nice to have a not outdated bridge with this program. Blender's developers haven't been working on improving their modeling tools - all their attention is focused on geo nodes (which is kinda good but meh) and meaningless for modelers "wow features" which is kinda annoying. So, it would be great to model everything in NVIL, especially since the program already offers a lot of features that Blender doesn't, and then finish the simulations (Rigid Body for example), Sculpting, Materials, and Rendering in Blender.
A: There are clipboard Copy/Past tools in Nvil. If you know how to create the same tool with scripts in Blender, you can create the bridge.

---27. Optimize screen space Ambient Occlusion if it is possible to make it not laggy. It is very handy when objects have a little real-time ao - I can see my model more clearly and nothing merges in one big mess if it has one material
A: It is improved.

---28. Add Decimate tool
A: Geometry > Create > Simplify.

---31. With dark theme white windows edges must be gray or something darker. It is a little, but distracting eyes
A: Can find a way to do that.

---32. Smooth mouse scroll
A: the "Is Fine Navigation" tool.

33. (!) Make Auto Depth option for zooming. This feature prevents slow scrolling with mouse wheel at all. I know that I can use Alt + RMB, but find scrolling more convenient
Q: What is Suto Depth? Can you explain more?

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February 01, 2026, 11:16:45 am
Thank you so much for response and implementations! I appreciate that
6. https://youtu.be/hS9kqEwmsMM
11. (screenshot)
12. https://youtu.be/8EuoJcVfejs
17. https://youtu.be/BZ0xnB9Mav8
20. I described incorrectly. Mirror Instance for splines
21. It affects only Rotation. But nevermind, it is unimportant
23. Yes, sorry

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February 01, 2026, 01:27:06 pm
Oh, and one more thing. Add an option to set custom color of edges then selecting in object mode. Now it is not always clear from first glance - am I in subobject mode or in object mode?

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February 01, 2026, 09:29:46 pm
6. Right click the group node > Move Checked Node To Under Cursor Node.
11. When you use the visual cut tool(Polygon mode > Geometry > Cut), click MMB to perform the cut.
12. Due to the complexity of the current tool, it is too hard to add this option. It is unlikely will be implemented.
21. You can increase the whole manipulator then scale down the rotation manipulator and the manipulator core.

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February 02, 2026, 08:31:13 am
17. Try this https://digitalfossils.com/Download/NVil-Feb-01-26-Steam.zip. Edge mode > Common Commands n Tools > Loop Relax >...

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February 02, 2026, 09:15:36 am
17. Seems like it works better when edge is exactly on the middle. In my game studio we work with extreme low poly objects. That`s why for me it`s crucial to work with this tools and low resolution bevels. Often I need to add aditional edges to low poly curved surfaces and make a perfect flow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWvtzGAF70E

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February 02, 2026, 12:58:20 pm
17. Try this, https://digitalfossils.com/Download/NVil-Feb-02-26-Steam.zip. Edge mode > Loop Relax > Loop Relax(Mid Position).

Is the "View" tap UI bug fixed yet?
« Last Edit: February 02, 2026, 01:02:12 pm by IStonia »

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February 02, 2026, 01:28:41 pm
Great! Now it works fine, thank you :)
View Tab works in a proper way as well (by far). Need to do a little work to be sure of this. Anyway, thank you :)

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Yesterday at 10:57:28 am
Oh, and one more thing. Add an option to set custom color of edges then selecting in object mode. Now it is not always clear from first glance - am I in subobject mode or in object mode?

View > Object Shading > Edge Render Options > Render Edges With Specified Color.
Edit > Preference > Colors > Edge Colors > Object Mode.

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Yesterday at 05:40:00 pm
Nice, thank you!