Better Modeling with Meta/Pep/P.N – Tutorial 1: Introduction

[eric_son]

Hi,

Some questions regarding Metasequoia:

(1) How do I cut an object into two separate objects? For instance, if I create a cylinder, then I knife the cylinder in the center. How do I break up that cylinder into two separate objects at the part that I knifed?

(2) How do I do a 'cookie cutter' like operation? Let's say I already have a fuselage. I want to attach a side intake. To do that, I'd start making a box. Then I'd slap the box onto the fuselage. But I'd want the inner side fo the box to adjust to the contour of the fuselage.

Thanks

Eric

 

[Jaybats]

(1) How do I cut an object into two separate objects? For instance, if I create a cylinder, then I knife the cylinder in the center. How do I break up that cylinder into two separate objects at the part that I knifed?

Select all the faces of the part to be separated, then press "Move" to make the Arrow Handles appear. Press Ctrl+C to copy the selected area, then press Ctrl+V to paste. This will copy the faces and paste them in exactly the same place as the original faces, so it will look like nothing changed. THEN move the Arrow Handles; you will see the copied/pasted faces move separately from the originals. Move them temporarily out of the way (above, in front, or beside the originals; use only one direction), and delete the original faces from which you made the copies from. Your cylinder is now two separate cylinders.

(2) How do I do a 'cookie cutter' like operation? Let's say I already have a fuselage. I want to attach a side intake. To do that, I'd start making a box. Then I'd slap the box onto the fuselage. But I'd want the inner side fo the box to adjust to the contour of the fuselage.

Turn on the Pt, Ln, and Fc buttons in the upper left corner of the Drawing Area. Move the intake box into position, overlapping with the fuselage. Take note of the positions of the vertices around the overlap, and the vertices of the edges of the inner side of the box. If necessary, turn the Fc button on or off to be able to view them separately; at minimum you will need to see the points/vertices and lines. Press the Del button on the Edit Control Panel, and delete each face on the fuselage with which the intake's shape overlaps, so that you make a large hole around the intake's sides. This is to identify the area of the fuselage from which the original shape will blend into the intake.

Then, press Create on the Edit Control Panel, and make new faces that connect the surrounding vertices of the hole around the fuselage with vertices on the intake. Just position the cursor over each relevant point until it changes color, then press, then move on to the next point. This makes new faces in the fuselage that connect with the shape of the intake, thus making former's shape conform to the latter. After completing the operation, separately select each one of the vertices that form the new faces, and press Ctrl-J to join any vertices that may not be exactly aligned and make sure that the indented area can be unfolded by Pepakura without breaking up into individual new faces.

 

[barry]

If you have the registered version of Metasequoia an automatic joining of parts is available it only works on 2 parts at a time so if you were inserting an item that extends over several bays first you would have to copy all the items in the first part together then use the Object menu and select the Japanese set of characters in the lower part of the box (immediately above "wired") select your two objects and hit go (please do not ask me all the meanings of the drop down boxes the default seems to work). This will produce a seperate item consisting of the two objects,then you delete the faces not required. Do make sure you lock and hide the original items used before you start deleting faces or you can get well confused.

 

[eric_son]

Thanks for the information.

The two tips worked!

RE: Registered version
Oh, I'm currently playing around with the shareware version of Meta since it still allows me to use UV mapping. The MQO only format is not an issue since I only use pepakura. Unfortunately, that menu you mentioned is not available. So I guess that's one of the other stuff missing from the non-registered version .

Anyway, I'm still learning.

 

[sjsquirrel]

An easier split

Select all the faces of the part to be separated, then press "Move" to make the Arrow Handles appear. Press Ctrl+C to copy the selected area, then press Ctrl+V to paste. This will copy the faces and paste them in exactly the same place as the original faces, so it will look like nothing changed. THEN move the Arrow Handles; you will see the copied/pasted faces move separately from the originals. Move them temporarily out of the way (above, in front, or beside the originals; use only one direction), and delete the original faces from which you made the copies from. Your cylinder is now two separate cylinders.

An easier way:

1) Select all the faces you want to move to a new object
2) On the "Selected" menu click "Move to new object"

Done.

 

[Nothing]

hey jay? do you know how in depth you wil be going into textures and uv mapping?

 

[Jaybats]

hey jay? do you know how in depth you wil be going into textures and uv mapping?

i'll include everything i know about texturing and using the UV Mapping and UV Edit menu, which eventually enable you to texture an entire complex object with just one image map. for example, the texture for the Wing Commander movie Rapier below is only one image map. it's a rather complicated operation, though, because you have to keep track of several buttons at the same time, it took me quite a while to get the hang of it. so sometimes i find it more efficient to just use the plain flat texture mapping technique, even if i have to use multiple image maps.

 

[Nothing]

outstanding!cant wait and thank you!

 

[D-WHALE]

Hi JAY!
I like your tutorial, particularly the texturing! Your new models look COOL:thumb:But I dont work with Metaseq, only for pre-texturing! for design I use Truespace!
so I want to ask you something: how would you do that with Metaseq? you have a Cube (or a Pyramid) and a Ball, and you want to put the ball on the cube (or the pyramid), without he rolls away! (here some pics)

 

[Jaybats]

so I want to ask you something: how would you do that with Metaseq? you have a Cube (or a Pyramid) and a Ball, and you want to put the ball on the cube (or the pyramid), without he rolls away!

1. Using MetasequoiaLE, create the cube and the ball.

2. Align the faces of the ball which make the indentation with the edge of the cube, and then delete the excess parts of the ball and the cube face to be modified.

3. Invert the faces of the indentation, so that the indentation now faces outward instead of inward.

4. Create new faces to connect the vertices of the cube with the vertices of the indentation.

5. When done, it should then be a cube with an indentation in the middle.

With the pyramid, it's basically the same procedure; just connect the outer vertices of the two shapes.

NOTE: The registered version of Meta has a Japanese plug-in that can automate the procedure. If you're using MetasequioaLE, both the Cube and the Ball should be the only one object. If they are different objects, the faces will not be connected (although the points and edges may still be aligned properly and look like one object).

 

[D-WHALE]

Thats good, but you need many time for that! Maybe I have a better way for you why dont you work with BOOLEAN Operation? perhaps it is a plug-in(?), but i have the Boolean-Button under "Object" (1st PIC)!
click on them and then comes the operations (2nd PIC)! of course i cant reed the word too, but the first is "Ojects union" and the second is "Object subtraction"! The direction (CUBE - BALL) is important!!! go to the second Button and you become a 3rd object (3rd PIC)! make the other two objects invisible and you can the result see!!!(4th PIC)


if the direction is "BALL - CUBE", you get PIC 5!!!

 

[Jaybats]

Yes, it is in the registered version as i mentioned.

The tutorials have not yet reached the point where we really need to use the registered version, and i am assuming that people following the tutorials use MetaLE. One of the things I am trying to show in this tutorial series is that you can get really far in modelling with just MetaLE.

True, it takes more time, but my attitude towards automation has always been that it is something you use after you understand how it works and what it is automating. One must know how to add before using a calculator

Thanks for showing the procedure!

 

[sjsquirrel]

Shift with Knife

I've been reading through the tutorial and have a tip to add.

When using the knife to cut an object, holding the shift key down forces the cut into a straight vertical or horizontal line, depending on which way you move the mouse first.

SJ

 

[JT Fox]

Any tips on the best way to cut a hole in an object?

Example: You have Cube, you wish to cut a hole though the cube and then insert a cylinder thought the hole. The diameter of the cylinder is smaller than the hole in the cube so the internal face needs to be solid.

Hope that's clear.

Cheers JTF

 

[sjsquirrel]

Cutting a hole

Any tips on the best way to cut a hole in an object?

Example: You have Cube, you wish to cut a hole though the cube and then insert a cylinder thought the hole. The diameter of the cylinder is smaller than the hole in the cube so the internal face needs to be solid.

Hope that's clear.

Cheers JTF

Absolutely!

This is very similar to the operations already described above.

Open Meta, and using the primitives tool create a cube. Now, in the Objects panel, click New to create a new object, and click on it to make sure it's highlighted. Now back in the primitives tool create a cylinder. Adjust the size so it is slightly longer than the cube in one dimension, but smaller in the other two dimensions. You end up with a cylinder passing through a cube. In the screen shots here I've renamed the objects Cube and Cylinder for clarity.

Now, on the Objects menu (not the object panel this time) you will see some Japanese characters near the bottom. Click those, and you get another pop-up menu, populated with more Japanese. This tool provides lots of useful things like Union, Intersection, and more. In the drop down list on the left select Cube, in the one on the right select Cylinder. In the middle list select the second item, then click OK. This creates a third object named Cube-Cylinder. To see it, turn off the visibility for the original Cube and Cylinder. Voila! Cube avec hole.


Experiment with the rest of the items in the middle list. They do very cool things.

 

[JT Fox]

That's cool and simple. But those option don't show in the LE version.

I guess my only option is to loads of vertical lines in the cube and then cut a circle with a knife.

A bit long winded and I don't think my circle will will be very round.

Cheers JTF

 

[JT Fox]

Just had a thought after posting.

I could always use the doughnut primitive and move the out side points to make the cube.

Again, long winded but at least my circle would be round.

Cheers JTF

 

[Jaybats]

hi, JT, sorry i didn't check the thread to see your earlier posts.

to make a hole in a square in MetaLE, the procedure is basically the same as for making the indentation, except that instead of a globe you use a cylinder. remove the middle point at each end of it, invert the faces, and align the ends of the cylinder with the corresponding sides of the cube. delete the sides of the cube that you don't need, and then connect the points of each end of the cylinder to the corresponding 4 points of the side of the cube to which it is aligned. you'll still end up with what sjsquirrel shows in the 2nd image he attached.

your idea of converting a donut could work, using the "align vertices" command to flatten sides. but you may have to spend more time in making sure that they outer sides form a square, and each side may be divided into more faces than you would like (depending on how round the inner hole is).

 

[eric_son]

Hi,

How can I determine what bitmap dimension I have to use to prevent uneven stretching when it becomes mapped on to my object?

Thanks!

Eric

 

[Jaybats]

How can I determine what bitmap dimension I have to use to prevent uneven stretching when it becomes mapped on to my object?

What kind of "stretching problem" are you having? I've noticed at least 4 types:

...(a) when the proportion of texture on the image map is not the same as the proportions of the model (e.g. the Meta model of the rocket is 5 units long, but the texture map of the rocket is 4 units long)

...(b) the image map resolution is so low that individual pixels stretch out (e.g. the texture map is only 200x 200 pixels, and is spread over a large area that measures 6"x6" when printed)

...(c) the texture is flat mapped at an angle (e.g. the face is at a 40 degree angle to the texture)

...(d) when there's only one Material and texture assigned to several faces, and the alignment in one face on one part of the texture needs to be adjusted without altering the alignment in another part (e.g. you're texturing a car, and want to move the texture for the front bumpers, but it seems you can't do it without losing the alignment on the rear fenders)


Each issue can be addressed differently:

...(a.1) if your texturing using an image of orthographic views, avoid differences in proportions between your image maps and models.
...(a.2) if possible, use the background image when you make the meta model as your texture (e.g. what was done with the Orbital Inspection Pod), or at least the base for making your texture (e.g. you can color and refine the image of the Orbital Inspection Pod)
...(a.3) if you made the model without a background image, take screencaps of the various sides of the model, color/texture those images, then use them for your Materials

...(b) always use as big and as high resolution images as possible for textures, since Pepakura will scale it down a hi-res image to 1024x1024, but not scale up a low-res image

...(c) use multiple textures, trying to keep them as parallel to the face as possible.

...(d) you can "clone" Materials and apply them separately in different positions to the model, without one affecting the other's assigned mapping. if you don't clone them Meta will stretch and move the entire map, in all faces it is applied to, everytime you make an alteration with any one of the faces.