Nvil News

Summary of changes:

• A new basic streamline tool, Vertex-Edge Extrude. Extrude from vertex or edge. It is a tool exposing the Extrude functions in Draw Mesh tool so those functions can be used outside of Draw Mesh tool.
  
• A new basic streamline tool, Spline Patch. Create a mesh patch from a four sided boundary formed by selected splines and existing mesh borders. None or just one mesh object must be selected. Before this operation, the total number of selected mesh object and splines must be less than 5. Click and drag to create the patch and adjust the segments. Press down Ctrl/Shift key for individual segment control.
  
• A new page is added into the help file. Help > Contents > Modeling > Draw Mesh. Some new features shown there. They can be very useful features.
  
• Guide line feature and a right click context menu is added into the Draw Mesh tool. The context menu can only be brought up in Draw mode.
  
• Some improvement on Draw Mesh tool. Apart from Enter key, MMB can also be used to convert lines to mesh. For Patch tool, apart from Caps-Lock+LMB, LMB+RMB can also be used to create patch. Highlighting line is no longer necessary for creating patch if number of lines in scene is no more than 4. So patching can be formed regardless cursor position.
  
• In Draw Mesh tool, it is now possible to do dot and some mesh operations in Draw mode. Shift+Alt+LMB > Create dot. RMB : Tweak subobjects. Shift+RMB: Delete subobjects. MMB: Spin edge or triangulate polygon.
  
• A right click context menu is added for the control items, buttons/comboboxes etc, in "Visual Tools" window and "Manipulation" window. It makes it possible to quickly access the tool assigned to the control item in the related tool library or help file.
  
• Three new option tools, Draw Mesh Tool LMB/MMB/RMB Simulator. It is used in conjunction with Draw Mesh tool. The pressing and releasing of its hotkeys are used to simulate mouse button's pressing and releasing. Default Key: A, S and D. This makes it possible not have to use mouse buttons in most cases. This can be useful when fingers tired or uncomfortable. It can be enabled in the right click context menu.
  
• There is a context menu, "Edit Tool"/"Edit Composite Tool"/"Edit StreamLine Tool"/"Help". It can be activated by Shift + LMB/MMB/RMB click at an user button to access the tool assigned to the button in the related tool library or help file.
  
• A button is added to "Manipulation" window for bring up a selected objects related option menu.
  
• View > Object Shading > Show Subd Edges. Show subdivision edges on selected objects.
  
• Some bug fixings.
  

Summary of changes:

• A new function, P_AssignMaterial. Assign material with the specified name from material liberary to selected object.
  
• Geometry > Create > Instance > Create Mirror Intance_X/Y/Z. Create a mirrored instance at world/workplane X/Y/Z axis.
  
• "Copy" and "Paste" buttons are added to "Manipupation" window to pass position/rotation/size between selections.
  
• Some bug fixings.
  

Summary of changes:

* Lattice object can be created in "Box" tool with "Create as lattice object" option. To perform deformation on mesh object with lattice object, the two objects must be linked first. Select the two objects then run this command tool, Geometry > Create > Link Lattice. To modify the subdivision of an existing lattice object, select that lattice object then open the Box tool. There the properties of the lattice object can be edited.
* Some lattice related options are added to Box tool. "Smooth", "Hard" and "Apply lattice effect in realtime". They are only available when bring an existing lattice object back into the Box tool.
* To set lattice object symmetry status, use these tools, Edit > Options > Shortcut Symmetr Options >..., Geometry > Calculate Symmetry Topologically.
* This tool can be used to hide some lattice vertices and edges, subobject mode > View > Hide.
* Vertex mode > Geometry > Restore Lattice Vertex Positions. Set the selected lattice vertices to their original positions.
* Vertex mode > Geometry > Smooth Lattice Vertex Positions. Smooth selected lattice vertices.
* In primitive tool, "LMB-Drag" and "Ctrl+LMB-Drag" can be used to change segments and sizes. The program will change to corresponding segments or size according to the cursor initial direction.
* Some improments on the primitive tools. While the primitive tool is active, side polys or edge of the new object can be clicked to select the side of the new object and bring up the move manipulator which can then be used to adjust the sizes of the new object while the position of one side of the object is fixed. Combining with snappings, this method makes it very easy on primitive precise positioning and resizing.

Summary of changes:

* Edge mode > Geometry > Create Splines From Selected Edges > Create Transform Spline. Create transform splines from selected edges. A transform spline is a spline created from a group of connected vertices. If a transform spline is transformed, those vertices, from which the spline is created, will be transformed along with the spline.
* A new basic streamline tool, Refine Spline. Refine the selected cubic spline to a specified vertices number which evenly spacing along the original spline.
* "Convert radial menu to context menu" option is added to custom button settings. It makes it possible to present the assigned radial menu as context menu in custom button click events.
* Some bug fixings and performance improvements.

Summary of changes:

* Object mode > Geometry > Spline_2DMesh. Create 2d meshes from selected closed splines by projecting them onto world/workplane XZ plane. The resulted mesh can contain holes depending on spline positioning. It is a quick way to create fonts, logos, patterns, etc. which are potentially very complex shapes, from splines especially those imported from .dxf files. A spline can nest inside another spline. splines can not be intersecting with each other. Intersecting line segments will cause unexpected result. The operation will detect this intersecting case and make the related points selected and this can be useful for inspecting and fixing the problem in vertex mode. Inserting extra points into long straight line segments can be helpful shortening the processing time in cases where point densities are too different between the outside and the inside lines. If the result mesh is too dense, use this tool to fix, vertex mode > Geometry > Simplify.
* The "Text" tool is improved to support more languages.
* Subobject mode > Geometry > Common Commands n Tools > Even Vertex Spacing. Place selected vertices evenly along the vertex selection path.
* Retopo reference objects are not affected by culling options.
* Quite some improvements on the uv tool, Polygon mode > UV Map. It is now possible to display and work with multiple objects in uv view port. Texture UV Mapping > Extra Tools > Copy/Paste Island. It is useful for uv islands with similar geometry shapes. Texture UV Mapping > View > Show polygon selection color. For detail, Help > Contents > Modeling > Polygon Section > Texture UV Mapping.
* File > Save User Settings.
* "Replace By Name" import option is added.
* Some bug fixings.