Original Questions

[Mark Johnson]

Hmmm. My original question post didn’t make it. So I’ll just try again:

First, I love this program. Unbelievably cool.

I’ve done the tutorial and have built a couple ships from plans. However, now I see I need some help to improve my technique as follows:

1) My bow has a sharp edge and obviously I need more control points to be able to shape it. How can I get more control points in the bow area without having to subdivide the entire controlnet (which gives me more points globally instead of locally).

2) Is there a way to move multiple vertices as one time rather than individually? Similarly, can one move a segment or series of segments (a whole curve) globally?

3) There are some very nice models in the database. I’d like to start with some of those to alter but don’t know how to scale them up or down to match my plans. Is there a way to scale a controlnet globally?

4) I like the align tool for a series of points in a line. Is there any way to align a group of points on a planar surface?

5) Is there a way to optimize your controlnet after you’ve subdivided it? In other words, once you subdivide your net are you stuck with the higher resolution or can you go back to reduce the resolution of the net?

THANKS GUYS! I cannot express adequately how cool this program is.

[Mark Johnson]

Although I didn’t get any responses here, I got help over at the forum for http://www.boatdesign.net. In case anybody is searching any of these issues I’ll go ahead and post what I’ve learned:

1) My bow has a sharp edge and obviously I need more control points to be able to shape it. How can I get more control points in the bow area without having to subdivide the entire controlnet (which gives me more points globally instead of locally).

ANSWER: I didn’t realize how easy it is to split segments and then, while the points are still selected, you simply choose “insert.” By the way, there is a very useful unofficial tutorial available on the FreeShip Plus site: http://freeship-plus.pisem.su/indexEN.html … I found that this tutorial answered a lot of my questions.

2) Is there a way to move multiple vertices as one time rather than individually? Similarly, can one move a segment or series of segments (a whole curve) globally?

ANSWER: I was hung up on trying to move multiple points with the cursor keys or by dragging. I didn’t realize the translate command works on multiple points and multiple segments. Cool.

3) There are some very nice models in the database. I’d like to start with some of those to alter but don’t know how to scale them up or down to match my plans. Is there a way to scale a controlnet globally?

ANSWER: Just as I had missed the move command under the translate section, I missed the scale command. Works like a charm.

4) I like the align tool for a series of points in a line. Is there any way to align a group of points on a planar surface?

ANSWER: I realize that this isn’t an available feature, so I’m saving up for the pro version that will allow me to do automatic fairing (which I need more than simply aligning to a plane.) For the latter, I have been relying on using other 3D packages, such as 3D-Max, that allow you to align points and surfaces in a variety of ways.

5) Is there a way to optimize your controlnet after you’ve subdivided it? In other words, once you subdivide your net are you stuck with the higher resolution or can you go back to reduce the resolution of the net?

ANSWER: I never got a response to this, so I’m assuming you are not able to go backwards (except probably as an undo command) once you’ve subdivided your mesh. I suspect there are optimization routines and algorithms in external apps that could do this, but I also suspect you’d be better off saving versions of your work so you don’t have to go that route.

Ciao!

Mark Johnson

[Marven]

Thanks for sharing that Mark.

A subdivided controlnet is indeed not reversible, that is to say not automatically. Doing it manually involves a lot of work. Rather than subdividing the entire control net you can also insert new points on edges and connect the new points with new edges. This is basically the same process as subdividing the entire controlnet, only performed locally (and manually). 😉

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