More on:
3) Incremental Upgrades
For the life of me I can’t figure this one out. Perhaps Windows Installer doesn’t support this out of the box? Maybe I would need to purchase an add-on such as InstallShield to do it.
Richard
Richard
The first is a problem I find quite frustrating but should be easy enough to capture with error handling:
If you are CTRL selecting faces (not points, but I’ve not tested with points or lines) and select an already selected face, it throws an illegal operation error and quits. (ok so at least 3DC gets your model back for you when you go back in but frustrating all the same).
The second is probably more to do with me but I’ll raise it anyway:
If you do a Boolean operation (subtract usually) on a complex object (e.g. a well extruded and shifted shape) [i:1vcherrc]without[/i:1vcherrc] triangulating first, I sometimes get an illegal operation, sometimes not. This seems to depend on the complexity.
(reason for not triangulating is that I want to remain with a wire-frame that I can understand – at least at this stage!!)
I always get an illegal operation if the target object is not solid.
The reason for mentioning these last 2 is that surely they should be captured by error handling before an illegal operation ensues!
But on a positive note, v5.0.5 is far more reliable than 5 or 4.2.3 and my life has been much easier since downloading the new version. Since your latest tutorials, I have been using the tools much more and using primitives/boolean much less with far better results!
I note there is yet another new version to download. Is it at all possible to have bug-fixes as patches as opposed to needing to download yet another 20 megs of file? Just a thought!
Oh and (sorry for long post) how does the reduce faces/points tool work? I don’t quite get the interface – what does the slider refer to – for the most part I see little results. Is there anything in the help files that I can refer to?
cheers <!– s:D –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_biggrin.gif" alt="
" title="Very Happy" /><!– s:D –>
JonG
More on:
2) Boolean
I found where errors were not being handled properly. Boolean operations SHOULD recover properly in the next release. Hard as a try I can’t produce an error, but I did simulate errors and it handled them well.
Richard
1) Ctrl-selecting of faces
I believe this was corrected in 5.0.6.
2) Boolean
I have had an error #5 when doing boolean operations occasionally. But, I have never been able to reproduce it. It happens once and then never again. Even if I recover the model exactly as it was. I handle/trap this error, but it is hard to know what to do with the error. And in what shape the objects will be in after the error. The safest thing is to exit and let the 3DC recovery correct things.
I agree, you shouldn’t get an illegal operation if the object is not solid. (see my comment below on error handling). This is something that I can look at. If it happens to me then odds are that I can fix it.
3) Incremental Upgrades.
I would like to do this. But until I started using Windows Installer this was not an option. Even now, whenever the 3DC Editport (an activex control that handles 3DC editing) changes it requires virtually everything (except textures and help) to be replaced. Hopefully one day. It is on my list.
4) Reduce tool.
Drag the slider to the left to reduce the number of points (ignore the number of faces reported since faces are not significant-only points). Not every object can be reduced much, but many can. It looks at the general shape and decides if there is anything to remove. Hard edges are typically not removed. So, I don’t think a cube reduces at all, but a sphere does.
A couple of things that may help. Before running the Reduce operation:
i) Run the new andquot;Snap To Rangeandquot; plug-in on the object.
ii) Use the Optimize operation on the object.
5) Error handling is done in the 3DC code but sometimes there are errors that are not passed from the OS to me. IMO these are OS/Driver errors. Though, there may be an odd error that is not handled. Also, the sample plug-ins have no error handling to make things clearer for would-be plug-in writers.
Richard
Cheers Richard for the comprehensive replies – I will try and get time to send you over a scenario where boolean subtract is causing an error.
In the meanitime I will try again to figure out the reduce points tool. Thanks for the advice!
JonG
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