GSoC 2021: Knife Tool Improvements: Feedback

As far as I am aware the code that causes this is related to blender core module more so than what I am working on. I will have to ask around to see if this is something that can be fixed as I was unable to fix it from within the knife tool code itself.

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@HobbesOS
Hello,
tested latest build.

  1. Modal keys very nice organized for my taste.

  2. Strange behavior If you use knife with Relative constraint to the edge where adjoined face is hidden from view, clicked point can be added in space without snap to edge.

  3. Still issue if you use Relative constraint , click on same edge - constrained cut disappear to the nearest vertex. Also first cut Cut Through even if it OFF


    added:
    even screen constraint have same issue

  4. Additional notes for 3th: you always cut through if top faces hidden from view

  5. Relative constraint cant cut through multiple edges without losing constraint line, but Screen constraint can.

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Tools are basically wrappers for operators, they were introduced with 2.80. “Knife” always existed as an operator, and that’s what you call when hitting K. Some of these actions, such as knife or bisect, really benefit from being turned into tools, because they can have a gizmo, and they can listen to regular hotkeys, whereas “modal” operators kind of just lock Blender into a state where the user can’t do anything else but use that operator, and exit. I agree that some of these hotkeys should activate the tool instead of the operator (but I suspect that’s probably outside of scope for the GSOC).
There was a discussion about it here : ⚙ D4603 Keymap Preferences: Use Shortcuts for Tools

@IIIFGIII your ideas are good, but you seem to suffer from the old “I-am-the-only-pro-in-here-itis”. Fortunately it is curable with a healthy dose of “wording your messages nicely”

I’m not the only pro of course. Problem is that all others pros around talk about anything but this, like if this general snapping issue not exist. No one want to criticize and become “bad person”… If ideas are good - all those “buts” about personaly me does not matter. Only goal is to bring good ideas alive, I don’t care if people will treat me like a shit because they don’t like something in way how I criticize.

I said what someone have to say. Cheers.

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This menu is :ok_hand:

  1. While trying the updated tool I ran into the same issue (or similar to) APECs #3:
    It seems like it does create a vert but then it takes it away when I click another edge
  1. If I have angle snapping on but the mouse on the other side of an edge the snapping turns off, not a major issue but a bit annoying

Love what you’ve done with the knife tool, going to be great when 3.0 releases! :smiley:

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I would say it’s a major issue, cos you not able cut multiple edges with Relative constraint,
while Screen constraint do not lose constraint line.

Thank you for your work here, and congratulations on achieving the GSoC goal. I hope that in the future you can continue working on Blender modeling tools.
For me the ideal would be to be able to achieve an All in One modeling tool, where the tool can not only do what Knife tool can but also can create vertices and edges even in empty areas where there are no faces (So not just cut, but draw too). So this all-in-one new tool can also be used for modeling from scratch or even retopology jobs.

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Congrats and Great improvements, hopefully the review process goes smooth.
My only complain is it’s time to change the default ugly color scheme from the 90s.

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Yeah, that’s why I like Maya’s multicut tool. It not only has the Knife tool but also slice XYZ, loopcut and the edge flow… which I believe there is an addon for it.
Having All in one tool speeds up the workflow a lot.

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I understand. I just wish that regardless of the chosen method, the tools worked same. Now the T-bar appears to be detached. It has a handy feature, but it’s still confusing.

The cutter k limit angle would like to change to direct x y z direct input and also precise numeric input, similar to the rotation r axis direction numeric set of shortcut keys.

Hey all, I have returned from my holiday and will start taking a look at all the feedback since last week.

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Thank you for the very detailed feedback. I will investigate and fix all of these things as soon as possible.

I suspect the cut-through bugs you show are caused by my new BVH code. I will be working on this more so should be fixed soon.

Thanks for the feedback, I’m glad you like the settings menu.

For some reason the videos you have uploaded simply won’t load on any of my devices. However, maybe my previous reply to @APEC will answer your first video (likely bugs caused by the new BVH I added).

As for the second video, angle snapping turns off when you move your mouse off of a face adjacent to that edge. This is because it is snapping along the plane of the face your mouse is over. Otherwise, there is no clear plane to snap along. I’m aware this is a little weird and perhaps there is a better way of doing it but I may have to leave that for now.

The color scheme is based on Blender theme colors. You can customize these if wanted.

I am sorry I struggle to understand what you are referring to. Would you be able to clarify what you mean here?

I suppose he meant to type distance value for cutting, like angle constraint, but it seems already for the next GSoC proposal.
Or place it here

I looked into adding this a fair few weeks ago but it proved much more difficult to implement than I thought. I had to abandon it in favor of continuing on with my initial proposal. It definitely is work for a future project though.

It’s ok, more important to fix implemented features for now.

Huh, yeah they don’t seem to load for me now either. Maybe the embeds stopped working, maybe opening the link works (15_19-31-31_pn-351.mp4)
Might be too late for the GSoC period but would be neat if “relative” could use the receiving edge like this:

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