little Slice Surface addon

[LiveWire]

Andy,

i use the slice serface function alot, very useful, but say i wanted to slice all the polygons of the cylinder(see picture) around the selected vertexs. i would have to select 2 by 2 each pair then go to vertex>slice surface, that wouldnt be a fast task. it would be alot easyer if i could just select all the vertexs(like in the picture) and hit vertex>slice surface, and then have it slice all the polygons at once
http://img26.photobucket.com/albums/v79/witte2008/SliceAdvanced.jpg

ive been thinking of how this could be accomplished, and it seems pretty easy, is it possible you could add this in? just tell me what you think, great tool.

thanx

Philip

[Andy]

I'll look into expanding the slice function to work with multiple surfaces.

For now, create your shape starting with a line with vertices in suitable locations, so that when revolved (menu Object->revolve), you get the shape/surfaces you want.

Andy

[LiveWire]

thanx andy!

(you anwserd that within the hour :D , lol)

Philip

[Andy]

Hi Philip,

I can confirm that this function has been modified to work across multiple surfaces at once. This will be in the next release.

Andy

[LiveWire]

wow Andy, glad to here it. :D

i cant wait! :wink:

Philip

[Cowboybebop]

any way to add a shortcut key to the function ? Or to change the key layout in general ?

[LiveWire]

acculy there is a way, but it requirs changing ac3ds tcl files,
so if you dont know what your doing, you prob shoulnt mess with it.
and i sugest you make a back up copy of the tcl folder just incase you mess up :wink:

but heres how:

.open ac3d.tcl, in the tcl folder, with notepad
.scroll down till you see this line: .mbar.vertex.menu add command -label "Insert vertex" -command "ac3d insert_vertex" -underline 0
NOTE: it should be about half way down the file along with all the other mbar lines.
.add -accelerator Ctrl+Shift+I to the end of that line

next...
.find the line: .mbar.vertex.menu add command -label "Slice surface" -command "ac3d surface_slice" -underline 0
NOTE: it should be two lines down from the one you just changed.
.add -accelerator Ctrl+Shift+L to the end.

next(IMPORTANT)...
.about 10 lines down, right under the line: bind . <Control-S> { ac3d createsurface }
create these two lines:

bind . <Control-I> { ac3d insert_vertex }
bind . <Control-L> { ac3d isurface_slice }

YOUR DONE! :wink:
now Ctrl+Shift+I will 'insert vertex'
and Ctrl+Shift+L will "Slice Surface'
it would be nice if ac3d had a 'hotkey wizard' or somthing, so we woulnt have to do this

i hope andy dosnt mind this, i dont know if he wants everyone changing his program
but since its just hotkeys :)

Philip

[-WOODY-]

Hey thanks for that info LiveWire, it works great. There was only one prolem. When I fired up AC3D it would add the vertex fine, but I kept getting a beep when I tried to slice the surface. Come to find out that I copied and pasted your "bind" command directly from your post.

bind . <Control-I> { ac3d insert_vertex }
bind . <Control-L> { ac3d isurface_slice }

If you look at the "isurface" word in the lower listing, it should read "surface" instead. As soon as I deleted the "i", it worked fine lol.

[Cowboybebop]

:twisted:

thanks finally got around to this again

[LiveWire]

oops must have mist that. :wink:

also, if you want to change the keys to somthing besides Ctrl-Shift-L, or Ctrl_shift_I...

.first change the -accelerator to Ctrl-Shift-whatever or Ctrl-whatever
(Note: make sure that the accelerator you use is not use by another menu comand)
.then change the bind: bind . <Control-whatever> { ac3d whateverMenuComandIs }

Important: if your accelerator is Ctrl-Shift-whatever, your binding must be a Capital letter.
example:

...-accelerator Ctrl-Shift-A... bind . <Control-A>
or...
...-accelerator Ctrl-A... bind . <Control-a>

have fun.

also...
i wanted a hot key for edit>Select Noting(which is Ctrl-D default in photoshop and some other programs)
the problem is Ctrl-D is already used for edit>Duplicate
so i set Duplicate to Ctrl-U, and used Ctrl-D for Select Nothing :D
just telling you all incase somone else wanted the same, i could post a how to.

Philip

[foxa]

:roll: This gets me to wondering if it would be too much trouble to add an interface customizing utility (or plug in) to make it easy to change keyboard commands. I use (in the following order) Corel Draw / Photo Paint, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, AC3D, XaraX, Illustrator, Swift 3D, and a few other utility programs. Any way to lower the keyboard commands and combinations to memorize or look up would be great (but not if it is at the expense of resources, the low overhead of AC3D is one of its greatest features (and Price :wink: ). What do you think Andy?

Art

[Andy]

Possibly in the future, but it would be quite a bit of work.

In the next release, the key bindings are all in the same place - so that will make things easier for mod'ers to edit :)

If you have ideas for new/better key shortcuts - let me know.

Andy