Basics   Multiselection   Percent/WorldUnit   Repeat   To do/Previous versions

  General info :
 Slide vertices along their attached edges, or edges on their lateral edges; the constrain choice is done by 'drawing' it (indicating by mouse move). It is now possible to slide loop/part of loop, through shift-clicking an edge : this will bring on a new selection mode to select edges that are part of this edge's loop. New also : if a vertex is slid all the way to another, there is an option to weld it.


 What's new :
  nothing. It's compatible with wings 0.98.04, that's all.



  Installation & compatibility :
 - download slide_098_04.zip here . It's released for wings 0.98.04, and is not backwards compatible.


 Basics :
 Again, it's a tweak-like plugin...
 It is started by Tools/Slide (i use alt+s as shortcutkey). From now, only vertex and edge can be selected; selection mode can be changed using icons, hotkeys or smart-highlighting.
 Left click and hold (keep pressed) on a vertex, and drag it towards the other vertex of the edge you want to slide on. In the example, it'll be slided on the vertical edge (the arrows indicates all possible choices..) see left pic below, the right one shows what would be the choices for an edge.

 The status line is :

 FILTER ZONE means that no dragging will happen until the mouse has moved at least 30 pixels on the screen ( the options on the right of the status line are discussed below).
After that, the drag will begin, on the edge indicated by the mouse move; see below :

 the status bar is :

 50% represents the actual length of the edge the vertex is slide on, compared to its original length (more on this below).
 Additional features :
 - when dragging, the move can be canceled by right-clicking.
 - as in tweak, undo/redo/undo_toggle work inside the plugin; the whole plugin session can be cancelled after exiting by undoing it.
 - pressing Escape will immediatly exit the plugin (even in multiselection mode) and keep any changes done in it.


 Option : multi-edge selection :
 It's triggered by shift-selecting one of the edges of the loop you want to multi-select on. The plugin is then switched in multi-edge selection mode, all edges of the loop selected except the end ones if the loop is not closed.

  The status bar is:

 It works as usual, with marquee, modifiers etc..
 Classic shortcuts that work inside the plugin :
 - select all : by default ctrl + a :select all the edges of the loop.
 - deselect : by default space bar : empty selection.
 - select more : by default + key : grows selection on loop.
 Store selection, recall selection, select less are buggy; the plugin might crash, you're warned :) ...
 When the selection is done, right-click to confirm it, and click&hold on one of the selected edges to start the drag as usual (filter mode etc..); or press space bar to deselect everything.


Option : distance :
 The user can choose if the move is done proportionally to edge length (mode : PERCENT, shortcut UP arrow, , or in world unit (mode : WORLDUNIT, shortcyt DOWN arrow). Following the same example (the end loop edge has been added) than before :

 Both images correspond to the same mouse move, first one in percent mode, second one in world unit.
  On the left each vertex is moved proportionnaly to the length of the edge it's slide on (PERCENT).
 On the right each vertex is moved the same distance (WORLDUNIT), the slided loop will not tend to acquire the 'aim' loop shape.
 Note that changing distance unit can be done anytime during the plugin session, even while dragging. You'll need to move a bit the mouse to see the change.
 Note also that in WORLDUNIT mode the move towards the 'aim' loop will be limited to the smallest edge length.

 Here is another illustration of the difference between the two modes :
 - start from a cube smoothed twice, start slide, multiselect the central loop.
- slide it slightly on the right to lock the slide on the right adjacent edges, keep lmb pressed.

 - slide the loop fully on the left, in percent mode this will be similar to left pic, in world unit similar to right one.



 Option : weld vertex :
  If a vertex is slid all the way donw to another, a window will popup asking if the user wants to weld this vertex to the other. If the answer is yes, the edge in between the two vertices is collapsed (note : i made sure that the position of the resulting vertex is the exact position of the 'aim' vertex); if the answer is no, everything is left as it is, and the plugin waits for a new selection.

Option : repeat :
 Toggle repeat by pressing 'd' key. It's only possible to do so if at least one move has been done before in the plugin session. Select and drag as usual (even multiselection), as soon as the mouse is out of the filterzone, the move will be automatically repeated in the indicated direction.
 Note that it will remember if the repeated move had been done in percent or world unit. A bug might be hiding somewhere here, i didn't test all the possibilities, and seem to have sometimes strange behaviour..


To do :
 - some sort of store/recall selection, select less.
 - alternative way to start with multiselection with one edge only ?.
 - precision step via +/- keys.
 - display distance as in 97_05 move/free command, top left of the screen, display repeated move as well.
 - change PERCENT/ WOLRDUNIT to something like REL/LIN (rel stands for relative, lin for relative), screams less ?..


Previous versions :
  wpc_slide_97_01 : all wings 0.97 serie : download and install here.
 wpc_slide_97_05 : here.
 wpc_slide_98_01 : here.
 wpc_slide_98_03 : here