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 :
->
The selection mode for multiple edge sliding has been redone,
in addition to the paint selection mode, it now allows :
-
marquee select, with use of ctrl and shift modifiers, limited
to the edges of the loop.
-
higlighting, limited to the edges on the loop.
-
space will empty selection, inside the selection mode, or
after.
-
ctrl + a (select all by default) will select all the edges
of the loop.
-> The shortcut keys for changing distance options
have been changed to arrow keys; look on the status bar to
know which key does what.
-> If a vertex is slid all the way down 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.
-> Fixed a bug where, if releasing lmb before the
end of the filter mode, the selection would stay.
Installation
& compatibility :
-
erase all previous versions of the plugin in your wings directory
(if unsure where you precedently copied the plugin, make a
search on wpc_slide*.beam).
-
download
slide_098_03.zip here
and unzip in wings folder, keeping directory structure.
It's released for wings 0.98_03, 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.