[Bf-funboard] ideas for a superior topology drawing tool for blender

[Tom Musgrove]

Most of you may have heard of silos topology tool if not see these videos 
for examples

http://www.silo3d.com/Downloads/Videos/topo_eye.mov

http://www.silo3d.com/Downloads/Videos/topo_head_lo.mov

Of course I have ideas for a much superior version.  Here is how I would 
approach it.

1) have an ellipse tool to draw ellipses, making edge loops much easier and 
faster.  After the ellipse is drawn the user can increase the number of 
control points for tweaking it.  (Ie just convert it to a bezier curve and 
up the control points...)

2) allow 'subdivision' of the topology (ie the location of the control 
points is determined by the topology and the base mesh).  Thus new points 
are projected at the midpoints of the lines.

3)just create a flat mesh and project it instead of forcing the user to draw 
the topology.  Then use standard mesh tools to slide the verts along the 
mesh etc.  Ie grab the entire edge loop and slide it.

4) Allow specifying intersections by just clicking as with a knife tool 
(instead of having to draw the interconnecting line).

The above design consideration would be far faster for users than that of 
silo - giving a large increase of power and sacraficing nothing of 
flexibility.

Of course it is all just projecting from screen space to object space (the 
points should be able to project onto both the sudivided or unsubdivided 
smoother surface as well...)

LetterRip

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