Thanks Ambimind!

Yeah, often times the negative consequences of adding stuff to UI is not really considered very carefully by many developers, that's a big reason why typically a program becomes sort of "bloated" over time.

Trying to avoid that is a big priority for MoI's continued development.

One way that I do that is by trying to get more multiple functions out of the same UI area - like in this case for filtering the selection indicator will do double duty to also allow for filtering as well. I try to make it a higher priority any time there is a good concept on how to re-use some existing UI to make it more powerful without really adding any extra footprint to the simple use case.

- Michael

Hehe this is great :)

But yes, I'm really keen to see circular selection - many times so far I've wished to have it!

If that is not possible then making a circle that selects everything touching inside is simple enough and then I can invert selection to get the outside

Today I feel it very strong, it seems, hour X comes nearer.

Rudl

Hi Rudl - still working on the new selection filtering system right now. Hopefully that will wrap up soon and then I'll probably try a few deformation tools and then release the new beta after that.

Not sure exactly when, maybe in about a week.

- Michael

A week :D

Yeys!

Hi NightCabbage, yup it's getting really close - I think I've got the selection filter system all working, and now I'm working on one of the first deformation tools, the "Flow" command which lets you warp an object between a base spine curve and a target one, like so:



- Michael

Hello,

Does this apply to solids as well? Even if not, I see could the immediate savings in time and effort using it.

Nice Michael.

Can you lay that notched object down flat and deform it around the same curve?

If so, then we may need fewer steps to project designs and text onto a cylinder?

Ed

Hi OSTexo, yes it will work on solids as well although with a few caveats. It seems like it will be better for sharp edged things - surfaces that were smooth to one another in the original object will not necessarily end up totally smooth to each other in the deformed result. That's because the surfaces undergo a kind of rebuilding process.

Still though it should be quite useful.

There will also be another variant where you can map a 2d layout from a plane to follow a surface rather than mapping from curve to curve.

- Michael

Hi Ed,

> Can you lay that notched object down flat and deform
> it around the same curve?

I'm not quite sure if I follow what you're asking about here - but there will also be a different variant that will allow you to map from objects arranged on a plane to some other surface rather than mapping between curves.


> If so, then we may need fewer steps to project designs
> and text onto a cylinder?

Yeah I think it should help out a lot for applying text on to other shapes.

- Michael

Also in some cases I'm seeing kind of odd little bumps and lumps in the rebuilt results when applying this to some kinds of surfaces. I may need to do an overhaul of the surface rebuilding part to get the solid morphing piece to be more reliable.

- Michael

Thanks Michael. I was asking if you rotate the notched object 90 degrees away from you (lay it down), will it wrap on the same curve?

Ed

Hi Ed - sorry still not quite following - the notched object shown there is already a 2D curve laying flat in the Top view...

If I rotate it by 90 degrees then it will be sticking up vertically and you can still wrap it on that other curve - it will then give a vertical result like a wall like this:



- Michael

Sorry for the confusion. That's what I was trying to describe. Yes - that will open the door for a lot of design possibilities.

Ed

Exciting looking stuff Michael! you're such a tease :)

Cheers

Ahhhh, text along path... Does it work with a 3d curve???

Hi Burr,

> Does it work with a 3d curve???

It does - it's basically the same as doing a sweep with Twist:freeform along the curve.

- Michael

But with groups of object too???

Hi Burr, yup you can do multiple objects spaced along the base curve. Every object will get morphed into the equivalent area along the target curve. This usually involves some deformation of the object as well, like areas towards the inside of a bend will compress together and areas to the outside will kind of spread apart. I guess I'll probably put in an option like Rhino for just moving the object into that spot without the morphing too, although the non morphing version kind of seems like it should be some kind of "arrange" type function instead of being in a deformation function like this... not quite fully sure about that part yet.

- Michael