Discussions for "Better snapping and precision modeling"

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262

Well in this case you just need to use regular move instead of edge slide. Make a new transform orientation in the direction of the slanted edge and then move. This basically replaces what edge slide is doing but lets you use snap. Then move the upper vertex down and you can snap to the horizontal line. When the vertex is in position you snap the other one and repeat with the second pair.
Edit. hmm seems it’s not working because when using the new transform orientation it snaps in that orientation and that doesn’t snap correctly. So it seems the addon is the only way possible.

263

Use the “Intersect” tools in Precision Drawing Tools add-on, which ships with Blender 2.82 onwards, perhaps?

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264

someone created an interesting addon for cad move point to point snap

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265

He is the author of Archipack.
As for me, I am pretty much tired from having snaps as addons.
All of them have issues and limitations, and this one is no exception.

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266

dear friend I understand you, one day we will conquer this flag.

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267

well guys, I think it is useful that I paste the task on precision modeling here, since it is updated, so as to give the opportunity to peek at the milestones to be reached and maybe revive this thread, at least for the moment we enjoy the hope of what it will come :slight_smile:

Snapping & precision modeling improvements

Description

Big picture: Improvement of existing features and implementation of new ones for precision modeling.

Use cases :

  • Architectural works.
  • Interior design.
  • Mechanical design.

Design:

  • Unified Snapping system for tools.
  • More options for controlling the point of origin and the point of destination of a transformation.

Engineer plan:

  • Changes concentrated on bf_editor_transform and bf_editor_mesh.
  • Implementation of common snapping utilities for gizmos.
Work plan

Milestone 1
Minor changes and improvements.
Time estimate: ?

Milestone 2
Big changes.
Time estimate: ?

Unknown Milestone

Branch : tmp-snap-improvements
Implemented in the branch:

  • Transform: Snap to the intersection geometry with the axis constraint
  • Vertex sliding: snapping improvements
  • Tools suport for extended modes: Knife
  • Snapping: Make ‘Absolute Grid Snapping’ a new Snap Mode
  • Snap to Grid in Perspective View performed only at ground level
  • Transform Tools: Perform on a base point
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268

Ping me when Face Center snapping shows up there. :+1:

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269

@mano-wii great to see an update on the Modeling Module showing a timeline for precision modeling! Do you think it will be done until November? Everything listed? Just a part?

It would be great!

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270

@mano-wii, excellent work on the snapping improvements so far. Thank you for the huge quality of life improvements you’ve brought since starting this project.

For “T66426: Edge and Vertex sliding: snapping improvements” the people who requested this feature are expecting this it to allow for snapping in a particular local or world axis. So, for instance, if I want to snap to only the z location of the target vertex, I will drag the z gizmo or press the z key when sliding along an edge and the vertex will project the axis of motion along the edge to the z location of the target - the vertex slides until it reaches the xy plane that the target vertex lies on. The current state of things has the vertex snapping to the point where a ray perpendicular to the edge intersects with the vertex. So far, this has only been useful to me when the edge I’m sliding on is parallel to one of the primary world axes.

The image below depicts the current behavior of the edge slide snap which snaps perpendicular to the edge as shown in red. If I press the z key during this transform while having World Coordinates selected, I would expect the vertex to snap in a location that lies in the xy plane of the target vertex - shown in blue.

Edge Slide Snap
Edge Slide Snap643×524 36.6 KB

I posted a similar message on the task page, but wasn’t sure you’d see it. Sorry for the double post.

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271

There are many things that can be improved in Blender for precision modeling.
Making the Edge Slide a complete tool with new features is not a priority right now.

In my opinion, the proposed solution with Z would only work when we have a snap point and could be confusing otherwise or when we are snapping to an edge or face.

Also, this limitation can easily be worked around if you create an edge or a face aligned to the desired plane:

image
image562×553 38.7 KB

I recently fixed a bug with edge snap. Maybe you can replicate the image’s behavior in today’s build.
https://developer.blender.org/rB52b125a790e389b463e0d9947bab8747534f9cb5

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273

While I’d prefer a more user-friendly approach to respecting coordinate systems, what you show seems to be a fair workaround. Please keep this on your radar for future tuning of the edge slide snaps. It really is a convenient way to work.

I’m really happy with the way the edge snapping is working after your fix. This is perfect and seems like it could be used in some cases to get what I’m expecting from edge slide.

1 Like
274

Do you mean this option is only possible and interesting when snapping to vertices? If so, I agree. For the record, we are not talking about changing the default behaviour of vertex and edge slide, we are proposing selecting the axis of sliding to be an option to activate while running the operator. We can choose not to use it and avoid any possible confusion about what selecting an axis is intended for. I see that using a gizmo would be more convenient and understandable, but many of us never use gizmos and the functionality, if added, should be reachable without the use of gizmos, despite how confusing could it be.

Thank you for the workaround, it’s something to keep in mind. Straight true for the face, for the edge the target have to be aligned on the same plane with the edge of slide, but ok. Anyway I think that it shouldn’t be necessary to create additional geometry for snapping if enough snapping targets in the form of vertices are present in the model, and changing the snapping mode every time I have to do this is another step I would avoid if possible.

For now I understand it is not a priority and that we have workarounds just because of your work on improving all the snapping system, so thank you and please continue because you are doing great.

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275

I tried the edge slide snapping today and while the workaround works somewhat well (still has a quirky behavior), it would really be much nicer to be able to slide an edge in vertex snapping mode and just be able to constrain it to either the X,Y or Z axis.

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276

i think this is the best time to invest in precision modeling, i would even do a new code quest campaing.

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277

I am really not sure if Blender ever can or should try to compete with a parametric CAD modeler.
Don’t get me wrong: Precision modeling is great and Blender benefits from everything we get in this regard but true volume object modeling is a whole different thing and workflow.

Maybe a better solution would be an improved development for something like FreeCAD and a Blender bridge.

3 Likes
278

I can tell you my opinion, I am a mesh modeller and cad modeller for some decades. Blender has all the potential to make working on it comfortable and fun. with a complete precision modeling and snap, if he add nurbs (breps) a little more serious and little else and the possibility of importing and exporting the step format (so that everything remains parametric), then everything else will come by itself over time, or even not, it doesn’t matter.

FreeCAD is full of utilities to do engineering things, for example I use it to prepare models for my CNC, but to modeling on it is very boring especially when compared to its closed source competitors. I think it will never have a real success on modelling, unless they decide to rewrite an interface and a modeling section that is more compact and solid and more understandable. I see FreeCAD comparable to Gimp, it has a certain power, it is usable, but it is boring and very uncomfortable when compared to photoshop or affinity photo … I hope I have given the idea.

1 Like
279

Yeah, I think I get what you mean. It’s the impression I got from FreeCAD as well. Functioning but a little clunky. Ultimately I want to get more into CAD and constructive modeling but currently I only have to work on the Rendering and Mesh Processing side of things. So you know probably more about it than I do.

Isn’t CAD construction based upon true volume processing which Blender isn’t really capable of, right now, though?

280

Does anyone know about the current process of improving precision modeling?

I’m a student majoring in architecture and have been waiting long for precision modeling to be improved. However, I haven’t seen not so much improvements for the past year or two. Only some auto-merge editing, some more snapping options, and little knife tool improvements…

There’s people and professors in department of architecture of our university who’s recommending Blender for architectural use, even though it is not fully feature-complete for this field. This is amazing becuase most people didn’t even know what Blender was just two years ago. I really think now is the chance for Blender to expand its potential to this new area. It’s a whole new market with many new possibilities, which may be even bigger than the movie/animation industry.

From my perspective as a student majoring in architect, the only reason Blender still lacks at precision modeling is because the community is more focused on animation, artwork, etc. That’s a good thing. It made Blender come this far. However I keep thinking, ‘With this wave of transitioning to Blender in department of architecture, is it okay to use as it is now? Maybe not…’. There are just not enough architects to contribute to the community yet, therefore not getting enough spotlight.

One thing I can tell is, only if the list items in the post by mano-wii becomes real(Possibly with the asset browser able to drag and drop trees, people and cars)… Blender will nearly have no competitors in the field of architectural visualization(Twinmotion, Lumion is currently becoming more popular).

Just to be clear, I don’t think Blender would be able to compete with mechanic/2D CAD programs(Since they need to support complex curve/nurbs functions such as fillet, split, trim and auto linewidth printing), but in terms of 3D architectural visualization, it’s nearly there.

Maybe then we will have more architects in the community and can talk about section planes, boolean extrusion, etc… thanks for reading!

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281

Hello,
I only know two major addons for such tasks:


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282

Thanks for the recommendation. I really appreciate it.

I’ve actually used both of these and currently still using ‘CAD Like transform’ addon. However It’s hard to recommend Blender to my colleagues if one needs to model basic building using a 5$ external addon… Things like basepoint snapping should be included in Blender by default to be used in architecture in my opinion.

1 Like