SU8 - WISHLIST

ken28875 · 30 Nov 2009, 18:00

Rotation gizmo - It would be nice to be able to rotate each object using a gizmo (or whatever it is called) like in other programs such as Maya or Max. It would be faster and more efficient than the current rotation method where we need a plane/surface. Having a bounding box similar to the scale function in Sketchup for rotation would help. Thanks.

Gaieus · 30 Nov 2009, 18:29

Hi Ken,

I do not know any other 3D application (this of course, doesn1t mean there aren't any) whose Rotate tool would be as intuitive and easy to use as in SketchUp.

Just hold your left mouse button after you first clicked and drag it around to establish the axis of rotation (there is no need for different planes and such).
Then release, grab the model anywhere and Rotate. Every gizmo I have used so far is so much clumsier than this.

mitcorb · 30 Nov 2009, 19:28

Having a gizmo for SU would be yet another dimension of manipulation, such as the gizmo's that Blender uses. The effectiveness of Blender's gizmo is that it is not preempted by increments of distance or nearest inference point while moving along x, y, or z, scaling in x, y, or z or while rotating. These abilities are also seen in 3dVia's demo. But-- it's all a matter of what you are used to.

tfdesign · 30 Nov 2009, 20:05

Full Screen Mode. (Without scene buttons in the way at the top too).

With the ability to split off the full screen to another monitor (if your PC supports that). This would be great for presentations (as I found out yesterday!).

Another handy feature would to be able to instruct SU, which way the camera swings when moving from scene to scene, because at the moment it predicts, and this can be rather vomit inducing- if you're not using a lot of transitory scenes.

ken28875 · 30 Nov 2009, 20:46

@gaieus said:

Just hold your left mouse button after you first clicked and drag it around to establish the axis of rotation (there is no need for different planes and such).
Then release, grab the model anywhere and Rotate. Every gizmo I have used so far is so much clumsier than this.

Thanks, Gaieus. I guess I just have to practice and get used to it, and hope that a gizmo for rotation will be available in the future.

mpowell1234567890 · 30 Nov 2009, 21:00

The ability it import 3D Game levels for the free version of Sketchup 8.

plot-paris · 1 Dec 2009, 17:54

@gaieus said:

I do not know any other 3D application (...) whose Rotate tool would be as intuitive and easy to use as in SketchUp.

I totally agree with Gaieus. the approach SketchUp is taking to rotate, move or copy objects is one of the reasons why it is so incredibly fast to model with that application.
although I would appreciate the option to show/hide a transformation gizmo at the origin of groups/components. at the moment you can change the axes of a component (not of a group though). and you can see the axes - and therefore the origin of the component - when editing it. if you move groups/components around however, you don't know where the origin is.
in that case it could be helpful to have a transformation gizmo showing up at the groups/components origin and do all transformations (move, rotate, scale) around this point...
but let me emphasise, that this would only be a nice addition to current tools. for most things however I find the tools to be fantastic as they are...

ken28875 · 1 Dec 2009, 18:16

Selecting vertices and merging them. Right now Sketchup allows us to select only one vertex. I would love to be able to select as many as needed to move, rotate, or merge. For example, if two vertices are 10 m apart, selecting them and clicking on the merging tool will merge them at the middle point (5m); or slecting many vetices and merging them to a point/center of the group.

plot-paris · 2 Dec 2009, 09:19

thats a good idea - merging vertices.

I would also like more control over selection options and inferencing. being able to select vertices, edges, faces only would make certain tasks easier.
also having an option to only select visible elements (at the moment if I draw a selection frame, everything will be selected, even if its hidden behind other geometry...).
and being able to switch off coordinate axes inferencing would be great.

and - I think it was mentioned earlier and I didn't really understand the idea behind it - having a modifier key to lock movement/drawing to a certain plane (similar to the arrow keys locking to a certain axis already). I would implement it like that: if you press the key - no matter if you are in the middle of an operation, like drawing a line - you get a gizmo (not much unlike the rotating wheel). you then click-drag to define the orientation (exactly like with the rotating tool). now the locked plane is shown with a dotted, light grey grid and you can proceed with the operation you were executing...

Gaieus · 3 Dec 2009, 09:45

@tfdesign said:

With the ability to split off the full screen to another monitor (if your PC supports that). This would be great for presentations (as I found out yesterday!).

LayOut can do full screen presentation and you can even set which monitor it should do it (surely you need the pro version for LayOut)

@plot-paris said:

I would appreciate the option to show/hide a transformation gizmo at the origin of groups/components. at the moment you can change the axes of a component (not of a group though). and you can see the axes - and therefore the origin of the component - when editing it. if you move groups/components around however, you don't know where the origin is.

Hi Jakob, have you tried to make the Component axes visible in the Model info > Components dialog? You could even assign a toggle on/off shortcut.

@ken28875 said:

Selecting vertices and merging them. Right now Sketchup allows us to select only one vertex. I would love to be able to select as many as needed to move, rotate, or merge. For example, if two vertices are 10 m apart, selecting them and clicking on the merging tool will merge them at the middle point (5m); or slecting many vetices and merging them to a point/center of the group.

How about the "Point Merger Tool" by BTM?

plot-paris · 3 Dec 2009, 09:51

cool, thanks Gaieus. didn't know about that option...

ken28875 · 3 Dec 2009, 18:24

How about the "Point Merger Tool" by BTM?[/quote]

Hi Gaieus,

Yes, that's the idea. But it is still very hard to control what to merge. I wish I can select which points to merge. I guess the merger will work better only when Sketchup allows us to select vertices.

Thanks for the link, though.

ken28875 · 3 Dec 2009, 18:32

UV Texture - I don't know if anyone has mentioned about UV yet. But that would be awesome to be able to UV texture the model the way Maya or Max does.

Gaieus · 3 Dec 2009, 18:44

SU's native texturing tools are indeed rather primitive. Have you seen Whaat's UV Tools?
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=10404
and
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=23725

ken28875 · 3 Dec 2009, 19:07

@gaieus said:

SU's native texturing tools are indeed rather primitive. Have you seen Whaat's UV Tools?
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=10404
and
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=23725

Awesome. Thanks, Gaius for the link and Whaat for the plugin!

mpowell1234567890 · 5 Dec 2009, 21:14

For Sketchup 8 "Free", I like to have the ability to lighten or darken shading of models especially ones that have curves.

remus · 5 Dec 2009, 21:17

If youve got shadows on it's already possible, just go to the shadows dialog->expand it->twiddle the light and dark sliders.

mpowell1234567890 · 5 Dec 2009, 22:46

@remus said:

If youve got shadows on it's already possible, just go to the shadows dialog->expand it->twiddle the light and dark sliders.

Cool, thanks.

Ultimatez 32 · 23 Jan 2010, 11:24

Looks like I need to put in my wishlist, so here it is:

high poly support
Object animation (would be awesome with rendering as well, but if it's a sketchy style then even more awesome! )
unlikely to be in su 8 though, most like su 24..

Gaieus · 23 Jan 2010, 13:50

Well, what I can say is that at least with rendering (some renderers for the time being - but hopefully sooner or later more and more will be capable) and SketchyPhysics, object animation and animation export is at least not impossible...
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sketchy+physics+twilight+render&search_type=&aq=f