Discussions for "Better snapping and precision modeling"

thank you @mano-wii… I waited for this great feature… I like how to your have implemented this.

seem not working with ‘ctrl key’ temporary toggle snap and with Tweak tool

maybe you can change the gizmo draw shape for each element type being snaped, like a cross shape inner the circle when snaping to vertex… line when edge… circle/rect when face element… or changing gizmo color for each element type.

snaping to objects ‘pivot point’ would be great too.

for non active tool like G key (grab), I think that using some hotkey like B key switching to base point mode (back the object to initial position and wait click or release B key to start grab again), like the very useful A key.

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Duplicating an object from a base point would be useful. Perhaps a way to nail the base point would be the solution. I think that by clicking without dragging the snap circle could work.

For the rest I find it very intuitive.

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Completeley agree. For retopology this is a SUPER useful feature, as well.
Especially since it doesn’t require shrinkwrap setup and could be applied to an arbitrary selection of vertices on the fly without needing to se tup a group, adding a modifier and applying it.

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You love acronyms.,…

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A little idea here. All days I have a problem, that I have a incorrect snap mode selected (vertex instead of increment…) Could be possible that mouse wheel was switch between all snapping mode meanwhile you have the Ctrl pressed?

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Tested it at length now. Really love how intuitive this is. Very welcome addition for architects.

I understand it would be useful to have in the operators as well (for example toggled by B to set a basepoint), but having a snap gizmo is very useful on its own as well, as there are many tools that can benefit from this (measure, the new add objects tool ,…). The measure tool update included in this patch alone is a huge upgrade for people who need their dimensions to be exact.

Also agree that having some way of duplicating (instead of moving) objects with objects would be helpful, but that could come in a later addition. It shouldn’t stop this project from moving forward.

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this “little” new snap feature, you don’t even imagine how much it speeds up the workflow (or maybe you imagine it well… hehehe)

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so on the snapping side of things the most we can expect is the Move with base point and this only in next year?
Why modeling is so overlooked in Blender ? Modeling should be the essence of any 3d general package.

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in reality it is that the blender snaps worked with the “grab” of the Modal Tools in relation to the 3D cursor and are now trying to make everything more standard with the recently added Active Tools, the left click and also the industry keymap

@mano-wii
any news on a mac build? Is there a branch that I could build for mac to test these features?

I don’t have a Mac, so I can’t build for Macs.
This feature of moving with a base point will not be introduced in blender 2.83.
But talking to the developers, it is quite possible that it (and others snap changes) will be applied in the next versions.
So it’s close and you don’t need to depend on that build :wink:

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Just tested and it’s amazing!
Thanks Germano!

Some wishes:

  • Option to use two clicks instead of single hold-release click.
  • A better visual indication during the snap operation. Something like a dashed line conecting the “from” position to the current mouse position.
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Great job Mano, I recently posted on right click select about another snapping feature present in Maya. Basically you hit a point on 1 object and a point on another one, hit enter and it snaps the faces, here check this GIF: https://imgur.com/a/xb9WAWg

This will be a neat feature along side the other snapping functionalities.

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@mano-wii could you perhaps post a build that includes the new ruler patch for testing? (⚙ D7071 Ruler: New Snap Gizmo and its use in the Ruler tool)

Bummer that basepoint snapping will not be in 2.83, fingers crossed for 2.84 :slight_smile:

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@mano-wii Is this rightclick select item on your radar: https://blender.community/c/rightclickselect/vqcbbc/

I imagine it might be a controversial change for long time users, but it could perhaps start as an option (by default enabled in the industry compatible keymap?)

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I second that!
I’d be pleased if somebody posted at last a screenie with this very gizmo.

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It is not a priority for now. The patch will have plenty of time for user testing as soon as BCon1 starts.

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Perhaps values entered in the translate operator should work as the direction and not as coordinates.
But there are already many users used to working by typing the final coordinates. So it needs a lot of study before it is implemented.

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For me it would be great!

I understand a lot of users are used to typing the “-” and we should not change the way longtime users work, but there should be an option for using the direction instead of the sign. For me, long time AutoCAD and Sketchup user, this was one of the most annoying thing in the transition. :grinning:

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@mano-wii another thing it is important for architecture the ability to toggle on/off orthogonal transformation (I’ve posted it in the other forum).

You said to me there is a way to change the keymap for it (which I couldn’t figure it out how :grin:), but I think it should be an option. During CAD drawing/modeling there is times when I use only orthogonal direction. A way to turn it on and keep that way for a very long time is nicer.


In another subject, that “3.1.1 Offset edges tool” topic should work inside the slide vertex/edge. An option to “copy” instead of “move”; another one to keep parallel or not.