Hello here,

I'm working on a new project where I'm planing to create a lot of 'painted' bolts like the image posted here ->



So actually I'm using the new 'on surface' feature, and it's already a great time saver. However, there are still many steps in the bold creation, and
I'm wondering if it's possible, somehow, to create a script that will create, an constant 0.1 m radius circle, with the 'on surface snapping' on.

Actually it requires 4 steps :

- activate the circle command,
- click on the the surface,
- move the mouse a little bit to catch the 'on surface' for the radius,
- entering the radius distance and validate (enter)

so if it's possible to merge this into one shortcut that would be a really cool time saver.
That's said I suppose the step 3 if a bit tricky to automate in a script ^^

By extension it would be really great to have a 'paste on surface' command in fact.
Actually there is a command in modo and a plugin in lightwave to do something like this, it's called 'mesh painting'. In one click you can paste an object according
to the target normal surface.

Here a little image:
http://www.evasion3d.com/gfx/meshpaint/pics/ui_clone_uv.jpg

it's about the uv, but whatever it illustrates the plug very well, every red square pyramid are created one by one by a single click over the white 'sphere'

Hi PaQ - circle should actually grab its orientation just by the first point that you pick, so it shouldn't be necessary to actually do that 3rd step of moving the mouse.

Some commands like line, polyline, rectangle from corners do only orient themselves if you pick 2 points snapped on to a planar surface, but circle has a higher level of snappy-ness than that, it will orient itself just by the single first pick.

I think it should not be difficult to make a "QuickCircle" command that will plop circles down with a single click, I'll see if I can cook that up for you.

I definitely want to add an function along the same lines as the "paste on surface" that you are talking about too, it will probably be added as a Transform/Orient command I think.

- Michael

Hi PaQ - here is a "QuickCircle" script for you which will place a circle by a single point pick.

To install, unzip the attached QuickCircle.zip to get 2 files (one .htm and one .js file) - copy these to the \commands subfolder inside of MoI's main installation folder, and then go to Options / Shortcut keys and set up a new shortcut key with QuickCircle as the command. You can then run the new command by pushing that shortcut key.

This command draws a circle of a particular radius, placing the circle just with a single click for its center point. The circle will align itself to surfaces if the point you picked is on a surface.

I left the default at 1.0, if you want to change the default to 0.1, you can edit the default="1.0" in the QuickCircle.htm file. But you can change the radius in the edit box.

Also after you pick a point, this command will keep running so that you can click down several points to place additional circles while inside the same command.

Hopefully that may be more convenient for you for placing large quantities of circles along surfaces?

- Michael

It's simply PERFECT !

Many many thanks Michael, your support is amazing !