Hi Michael,

Is it possible to add 'Proportional Editing' for Surface's Control Points like the one in Blender? If so, then organic surface creations / explorations will be greatly improved (IMHO).

Link for Blender Propotional Editing: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/I--s0jKhNLw



Currently, in Moi3D, editing control points for a 'dense organic surface' is quite tedious, or to be more precise: impractical. For information, I started the surface creation with simple 4 edges network, followed by editing the edges (adding and moving conrtol points).

Hi Elang, sorry no generally it isn't possible to do the same type of control point editing on NURBS surfaces as you would do in a poly modeling program.

The fundamental reason is because you can't add in a single new point on a NURBS surface, NURBS surfaces are defined by a grid of points with rows and columns. You can't insert a single point you can only insert an entire row or column.


> Currently, in Moi3D, editing control points for a 'dense organic surface' is quite tedious, or to
> be more precise: impractical.

Yes, that type of surface point editing is not a focus of Moi's toolset. If you need to sculpt control points to make organic shapes like you describe you are better off doing that in a poly modeling/subd program which is entirely focused on that type of work and has many other tools to support it.

MoI isn't the right tool to do that type of 3D control point editing.

But you can use a hybrid workflow with MOI where you can incorporate the end result of your sub-d model as a base surface in MOI using the sub-d conversion tool in MOI under SubD > Create > "From file".

MOI's type of modeling works well on things that are primarily defined by 2D profile curves, especially mechanical type shapes and using boolean operations.

- Michael

Can we say that Control points are not like like "Geometrical points xyz" like Blender polymodeling" ! ?

Hi Pilou, sorry I don't understand that.

The control points of a NURBS surface do have x,y,z coordinate values to them so I would not say they are not "Geometrical points xyz".

The differences are more about how the points are set up. NURBS surfaces have a regular grid with points in rows and columns.

A polygon mesh is not restricted to only have a rectangular grid of points.

- Michael

Hi, Michael... thank you for immediate reply, like you always do.

> The fundamental reason is because you can't add in a single new point on a NURBS surface, NURBS surfaces are defined by a grid of points with rows and columns. You can't insert a single point you can only insert an entire row or column.

But I actually didn’t imagine adding new control points to the existing ones... Instead, I was thinking that I could move the EXISTING control points in such a way that it resembles what was shown in the YouTube video I shared earlier. The point is, there’s no addition of any new control points—only moving them together, each by a different distance depending on the 'affected area' of the ONE selected control point.

Also, I didn’t imagine doing any kind of 'sculpting' like what’s common in most polygonal modelers. Instead, to achieve smooth and flowing modifications through control point editing (transforming, rotating, and maybe scaling), I only need to move a single point, and the other existing points would follow accordingly based on the affected area I mentioned earlier. I understand that making complex modifications to organically shaped surfaces is generally easier using the subdivision (subD) method, as I'm fairly familiar with it and have done it a few times by importing cage OBJs from Blender into MoI3D.

Would this still be possible? I apologize if I'm missing something.

- Elang

Hi Elang,

re:
> But I actually didn’t imagine adding new control points to the existing ones... Instead,
> I was thinking that I could move the EXISTING control points in such a way that it resembles
> what was shown in the YouTube video I shared earlier.

Only moving existing control points is very limiting, it would only work for a limited number of
special cases.


> Would this still be possible? I apologize if I'm missing something.

Although it is theoretically possible it just isn't practical to invest development time in a poly
modeling type tool like this.

It just doesn't fit well with the NURBS modeling geometry that MOI is based on.

If you want to use that function you're better off doing that in a poly modeling program where the
entire workflow and modeling toolset is focused on that type of point manipulations.

- Michael

Noted, Michael.

Thank you.

That i want to say is that" control" point are not necessary on the surface...

Thank you for making this post! I didn't even know there was a term for what I wanted nor how to activate it in Blender, but I know now! :) This was the feature I was hoping existed somewhere in MoI - and while that would have been ideal - I'm happy to be able to now use both programs in tandem to get where I want to be.

3D is so complicated! :D Thanks again.

for less complicated 3D you can try the free Demo Magica CGS! ;)
https://ephtracy.github.io/index.html?page=magicacsg
there is also something similar inside Blender...but it's Blender! ;)

Thank you for the recommend, Pilou. I don't think I can download that as I only have a Mac and don't see any option on there other than Windows.

It'll be OK. :) As much as I don't enjoy using any 3D program except MoI, I think I can probably start projects in MoI and then add all the finer details in Blender via Proportional Editing.

All the best

You have also this new last one! Some more easy than Blender...

https://nomadsculpt.com/beta/ version DeskTop free for the moment!

"""""""""""""Is it possible to add 'Proportional Editing' for Surface's Control Points like the one in Blender? If so, then organic surface creations / explorations will be greatly improved """"""""""""

For "Exploration", most people are overlooking MoI's "History Enabled" tools.

So you generate your object or surface from Curves. Then "Edit the curves" to get your "Proportional Editing". I can make a video exactly as you show by doing it that way.

It's just not on imported or previously edited object where that initial history is broken. Just for "Exploring"!

Please do so, BurrMan.

I'll be waiting for the video. Thanks a lot!

Thanks very much again, Pilou! :) I'd never heard of Nomad before, but it's already definitely 50x more natural and intuitive to use than Blender. I can't figure out how to activate Smoothing as a tool (and not just a general/global application), but maybe that option isn't in there if it's a free Beta version.

Thank you again - as this will really help me!

That's true, Burrman. Creating solids/surfaces via a Loft or Sweep can also let you control the resultant object via the manipulation of points on those original lines/curves. But I'm not sure about this method using 'History Enabled', as I've never looked into any of that - so I look forward to your further illumination of that process. :)

Yes some functions are disabled during the Beta!
You can use sculpt gl on line https://stephaneginier.com/sculptgl/

It's quasi the same and smoothing is Shift + mouse move over the object! ;)

Here is 1

Here is another.... I did surface and solid and enabled history in Deform

And one with a surface that would be dense in points, but getting the "Soft Selection" with history on the creation curves...