[Plugin] UV Toolkit

Gaieus

[attachment=0:3sro2dfg]centerofface.png[/attachment:3sro2dfg]
That's the thing: what would you determine as centre of face for something like this? (or top,left,right,etc...)

What kind of a quad is that, Thom?

thomthom

The exotic kind.

My point was - that when you don't deal with regular quad-faces - it's much harder to predict desired result.

thomthom

The thing is - would picking the "centre" (however it's defined) be any different, as just picking the first vertex I can get? At all seem rather arbitrary in terms of the result.

thomthom

@pixero said:

Would it be possible to have an option for it to automagicly recognise the lenght direction based on witch side is longest on a quad and rotate it to match that.
Like if I want to rotate some UVs on a branch to line up the texture with the trees branches length direction. Would be cool.
Am I making myself clear?

Are we talking about rotating on quads strictly? I was under the impression this would be a general purpose rotation.

Pixero

Would it be possible to have an option for it to automagicly recognise the lenght direction based on witch side is longest on a quad and rotate it to match that.
Like if I want to rotate some UVs on a branch to line up the texture with the trees branches length direction. Would be cool.
Am I making myself clear?

thomthom

@pixero said:

Would it be possible to have an option for it to automagicly recognise the lenght direction based on witch side is longest on a quad and rotate it to match that.
Like if I want to rotate some UVs on a branch to line up the texture with the trees branches length direction. Would be cool.
Am I making myself clear?

Can you show a little screenshot of your starting point and your desired result?

TIG

@thomthom said:

That's the thing: what would you determine as centre of face for something like this? (or top,left,right,etc...)

There's a 'Center of Gravity' script somewhere - 'centroid.rb' - by TBD that adds a cpoint at the CoG of a face.
I can't find it so here it is againcentroid.rb

Pixero

See image in my updated post above.

thomthom

@pixero said:

See image in my updated post above.

Can you show that with hidden geometry on so I can see the mesh?

Pixero

Here's another one with hard edges and lighter texture.
It would be useful for things like trees, railings, plumbing...
Here the texture is applied vertical but should of cause follow the direction of the branches.

thomthom

The thing is, is's hard to determine the direction here. As far as I can see, there's no quad faces in that three, instead lots of triangles. The longest side of each triangle isn't necessarily the direction you want.

I now understand what you want. But ... it ain't easy. Trying to create predictability in organic shapes...

Pixero

To me it look like it's the direction of the second longest side in the triangles.
(Not the hypothenuse)

thomthom

@pixero said:

To me it look like it's the direction of the second longest side in the triangles.
(Not the hypothenuse)

If that is the rule throughout everything you use it one, then that could work.
But note, you would not get seamless texture between each triangle, in any case.

genma saotome

I know I'm coming in quite late on this thread but if I may comment anyway... just having some rather basic adjustments to the texture position on multiple selections would be a real time saver for me. There are many situations where I find I must first snap the red pin to a corner before I do a rotate and when I'm in that situation it almost always involves repeating the task. For example, take a model of a street intersection and the task at hand is to texture the gutter. The texture shows some moisture that should be closest to the curb. For every face, from the straight street thru all four curves of the intersection, each face in the gutter has to have the edge of the texture that's "moist" moved up against the curb. Same for the curb, the texture has to have the "moist" pixels down next to the gutter. That's a red-pin snap-to-corner for every face and a rotate for many.

So for me, doing a select some faces and do a snap-red-pin-to-lower left vertex, and a select some faces and do a rotate-texture-90d to would turn an ordeal into a 10 second event.

I find I often have the same sorts of problems texturing and set of radial oriented faces -- you need to get the red pin moved to a corner vertex before rotating to align the texture on the axis of the edges originating at the center point.

From such a basic beginning perhaps there might spring a more sophisticated tool but wanting the perfect shouldn't prevent the creation of the good-enough-for-now.

KXI System

THOM YOU DID IT!

You solved my problem!(for now)

Expect a crate full of "cookies*" by your door soon(if I could find a way, don't be disappointed though)

*Cookies can be substituted for beer, remember?

bac9-flcl

Is it still in development? Those screenshots of Texture Along Path feature looked very promising.

And these poor things really need the help of updated UV plugin )

Anyway, thank you for awesome work, it's already the most advanced UV plugin I saw for SU )

thomthom

It is being developed yes. For the last six months I focused on Vertex Tools, but I am now back on my other projects. Can't give any estimate on when, but the new version should be of significant improvement.

bac9-flcl

@thomthom said:

It is being developed yes. For the last six months I focused on Vertex Tools, but I am now back on my other projects. Can't give any estimate on when, but the new version should be of significant improvement.

That's great to hear!

Gaieus

You know, Thom, that I am obsessed with this tool so do not get distracted with every silly component comparison plugin!

thomthom

I need to make my plugins TimeWare - as I really need more Time.

UV Tools are high up on the list. Hope to get something to show soon. But it does compete with the component comparison plugin as I need that for my work.

I have so many plugin ideas - that I think I need to release them in stages. (I get all too easily carried away and start on big packages.) Focus on one feature, then release, then add the next and so on.

I should probably change my sig from "SketchUp Monkey" to "Plugin Monkey" oook!