DeleD Community Edition

[unphazed]

Ok, I believe I've learned enough about Deled so far that I can discern Deled's failings, and can identify the areas where it needs improving. These are my suggestions, based on other programs that I've used in the past. I'm not trying to say I can do better, as I am by no means a programmer, and I appreciate all the hard work that everyone has put into this program, and I must say it is a great tool. These are just my observations.

1) Vertices/Polygons alignment
Better control over aligning vertices would be wonderful. Aligning similarly to Milkshape 3d would give far better control, in that it allows you to align by different axis, and by least, average (Deled does this), and greatest values.

2) Numerical control
Another great feature would be to control extrusion based on numerical values, rather than simple dragging.

3) Optimization
The optimization tool over simplifies. It would be nice to control specific areas of this tool. Another nice option would be similar to Silo, where a user can select polygons, edges, vertices, etc. based on formulas (Select - Polygons with faces < 1, Select - Faces with edges > 4, etc.) This would be extremely helpful for finding double-faced polygons, as well as places where bad geometry exists.

Similarly, it would be nice to have the ability to convert all polys to single faces. Another great feature in this area would be to weld all vertices which share the same location, so that users no longer have to weld vertices each time they extrude by edge. This would greatly improve holes and other bad geometry.

4) Error Handling
This may be my system, or it may be universal, but I know it has to do with my bad geometry. I've noticed that sometimes whenever I delete a polygon or sometimes other actions, Deled sends a stream of errors at me. It would be nice if Deled rather than simply erroring, and sometimes crashing my computer (ugh), it would catch itself, and undo with a report of why it was unable to perform the function requested, even if the report is generic.





I admit, I am just learning how to use this program, and there may already be functions similar to this, but I have not found them if they do exist, neither in documentation nor experience. There are other functions that would be nice, but these are the most important in my opinion.

[Jeroen]

Very nice suggestions indeed! I'm particularly interested in the aligning functions you mention. I don't know Milkshape that well, so could you elaborate?
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[chronozphere]

What DeleD absolutely needs most is a few new developers that would be willing to spend some time implementing the stuff you just mentioned (and fixing bugs). I feel that PJ and Jeroen dont really have time anymore to really work on features etc.. I will have less and less time too (just need to get the path tool done).

[AWM Mars]

One of the prices that has to be paid when going Open-Source. Most people think it just means free software, what they don't perhaps see at first is, the continuous process of bug fixing, enhancing with new features, writing manuals, tutorials etc etc, all come down to those that volunteer their free time to doing this. After all, that's what you were paying for before.

Without the unsung hero's who work behind the scenes for nothing, most/all Open-Source software would vapourise.

My hat off to you guys
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[unphazed]

Jeroen:



A picture of the positioning tools in Milkshape. I think it says more than I can describe.

Honestly, for the "align to" part, I align by selected more than anything, like 99.9% of the time. Also, I select vertices, sometimes polygons, but rarely do I select an entire mesh for positioning (usually I just orient to 0,0,0, or origin)

Align Axis is self explanatory, you can select one to all three axis as well, in case you want to orient more than just one at a time. The last part may look confusing, but it's really the easiest part. Basically, in the case of 3 or more vertices, it will allow you to position on the selected axis either according to the least value of axis, the average of all of them, or the greatest value.

IE: Let's say I have a triangle with points along the x,y at 0,0 - 10,10 - 20,0.

This makes an obtuse triangle. To make it a right triangle, the middle point, (10,10) needs to be placed at (20,10). So, I select both the middle point, and the end point, select align -> y axis , align to -> selected, and alignment -> vertex -> GREATEST VALUE (right most button). Once I click ok, my middle point will change to 20,10. If it were a quadrangle, and one of those points were at 9,9, and I did the same action, that point would move to 20,9.

I'm pretty sure that the above math was correct... sorry to go all mathy...

Anyhow, it makes it easy to align according to the different axis, especially when you are dealing with meshes where you didn't have symmetry to begin with and you wanna make it match later .

This tool is what I find myself using a LOT in MS3d. I hope I described the function of this tool well enough. If it helps it get implemented, I'd even be willing to set up a screen cap vid, heh.