[Bf-committers] Feature Proposal Update

[Robert Wenzlaff]

At 03:16 AM 8/16/04, you wrote:

>...and another update of my proposal, this time about the knife tool:
>http://www.neeneenee.de/blender/features/#10

While the multi-cut would be nice, it is technically difficult, since the 
full name of the tool is "Knife Subdivide", and the subdivide routines only 
make 1 cut per edge.  I currently pass the % cut location in the edge's 
user flag data (ed->f1), but the mesh/edge structure only has one useable 
flag per edge...  Allowing arbitrary cuts would require arbitrary numbers 
of flags, (arbitrary numbers of datum is something Blender does not do well).

It might be possible to do the cut in several passes, though, where each 
segment flags the edges and calls subdivide independently (marking new 
verts as selected, so the edges get cut a second time).    This could make 
paint-cuts very CPU intensive and could increase the number of faces 
generated, since the routines to detect when to use tris and when to use 
quads need to see al the marked edges at once.  Maybe I lump them as one 
cut until I detect an edge that already has a cut, then call subdivide 
and  repeat.  I'll think some more about this.

I disagree with your assessment of the mouse button functions, since MMB is 
"lock axis" for many blender functions and that is what is implemented 
now.  (I can't actually think of anyplace MMB is "line draw", but I'm sure 
someone will correct me.)  Paint is really just a special case of line 
draw, where all the segments are 1 pixel long.  I really hated to make the 
distinction between these "modes" in use, since there really isn't one in 
the software.   If the LMB is down, knife starts a new segment.  If you 
hold it  down, it just starts a new segment for every mouse movement.

Robert Wenzlaff