DeleD Community Edition

Akahige · Member Joined: 21 Sep 2005 Posts: 17

I'd like to make a hexagonal cylinder, with the corners all an equal distance from the center. However, when creating the cylinder, it doesn't snap to the grid. If I try to scale it, it doesn't come out even. (I want to scale the cylinder's radius, not the width and depth of its shape.) Is there a solution, or even better, a plan for a radius-based cylinder tool?

Daaark · Posted: Thu Sep 22, 2005 5:41 pm Post subject: Re: Scaling columns by radius?

Jeroen · Posted: Thu Sep 22, 2005 6:15 pm Post subject:

Or maybe you can use CTRL+scale? I'll be working on the scale command for the next version of DeleD as I'm totally refactoring the lowpoly routines right now. It'll work much better then. Smile

Akahige · Member Joined: 21 Sep 2005 Posts: 17

Though the suggestions given may help me with other problems I've been having, they didn't seem to solve this one. Maybe I'm not seeing it, but there doesn't appear to be any way to make a column shaped like a regular hexagon and snap it's radius to one specific length. I have no problem waiting for extra features, as long as I realize I should be waiting. Wink

Paul-Jan · Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2005 6:51 am Post subject:

DeleD doesn't support radius snapping, no (only center and vertice snapping). Indeed, that means you'll have to do scaling and placement of cylinders mostly manually. What usually works for me if I want to do precise placement of a cylinder:

1. Draw cylinder (snapping is, by default, off)
2. Scale cylinder (using ctrl+mouse to maintain ratio) to appropriate size, using the visual cues of the grid (adjust grid size as necessary). Because DeleD currently saves at the integer unit-scale, it is easy to be exactly precise.
3. If cylinder radius spans an even number of grid units, set grid to half size. Set snapping of the cylinder to center.
4. Move cylinder to correct place, using the snapping technique.

You haven't told us yet what it is exactly what you are trying to do. If you do, maybe some of the guys here can think of a clever way. We are sorry DeleD doesn't offer the particular solution you were looking for yet, but that doesn't mean there are no other ways to achieve what you are trying to accomplish Smile

I put radius snapping (only for those objects where appropriate) on our the todo-list.

Akahige · Member Joined: 21 Sep 2005 Posts: 17

Well, to answer you question, I'm just trying to make a hexagonal column. I want each of the hexagon's corners to be a specific and equal distance from the hexagon's center. For now, I'll just move on to another part of my project. Thanks for explaining and adding it to the to-do list.

Paul-Jan · Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2005 10:07 am Post subject:

Akahige · Member Joined: 21 Sep 2005 Posts: 17

When/if you implement a radius-based cylinder tool, that'll eliminate the problem of cylinder vertices snapping to the grid after a save, right? (I'm hoping to make some tiny cylinders, and I don't want them to be distorted.)

Jeroen · Posted: Sun Oct 30, 2005 8:20 am Post subject:

Akahige · Member Joined: 21 Sep 2005 Posts: 17

You position the cylinder's top and bottom centers.
You type in the number of sides you want it to have.
You type in the radius you want it to be.

The cylinder's round shape is created independent of the grid, so that it's proportions are perfectly maintained (instead of having its sides' vertices always snapping to the nearest grid point upon saving).

Hopefully, the radius could be adjusted later, simply by selecting the cylinder you've made and typing in a new radius. Adding extra sides to an existing cylinder would also be a nice feature.

Case in point: Making a hexagon. Currently, at least as I've seen, if you want a cylinder in the shape of a perfect hexagon of a given radius, the "corners" of the hexagon will snap to the nearest single grid point upon saving, thereby distorting the shape, albeit only slightly. Plus, trying to scale a hexagonal cylinder with the current method of XYZ, results in stretching the shape abnormally. Scaling by radius would eliminate this problem.