Please suggest modeler for 3D moron.

[Kerba Fett]

I've got what sounds to me like a simple modeling job. I want to take a sphere and scale it along the vertical axis to make a saucer. Then I want to slice it into 3 vertical segments along polygon edges. And I'd like there to be faces where I cut it just like it was a solid object that was cut.

Once again, I want to cut it along a polygon seam and not some random point in space.

The idea is that I end up with 3 objects that I can texture and bring into KSP.

I just spent the last 9 hours bouncing between Lightwave, Wings 3D, Blender, and Youtube trying to do this.

I just want to do some simple part modeling. Is there any software that I can use that is simple to learn and can do this ONE function?

[sal_vager]

Those programs should be able to do this, but I think where you are having problems is with the polygon seam.

Here's what I'd try, make a regular sphere and instead of scaling it vertically, scale it on the X axis so it's narrow, like a saucer on its side.

Then, rotate it 90 degrees so it's flat.

You should now have a saucer with the polygon edges running vertically from front to back, select the ones you want and separate the edges, giving you three parts with nice flat cuts

Oh and the empty areas can be filled easily enough, not sure on how you mean by cutting it though.

Edited July 6, 2014 by sal_vager

[Kerba Fett]

Apparently I'm so bad at 3D I can't even explain the problem. I can select the edges where I want to cut it easy enough. I can copy the entire object into another layer and delete all the polygons making up the center of the object leaving me just the top and the bottom. I can do the same thing to leave me just the middle. The problem is that then I have 3 parts that are just a surface with no thickness.

The empty areas can be filled easy enough? Sure, I can copy all of the points from the edge where I cut it. Then I can pick 2 opposing points and make an edge between them, then I can subdivide the edge, then I can delete the edge leaving only the points. Then I can hand make polygons 3 points at a time for the 30 I need to close each opening.

Then after a few hours of slow tedious work I get the objects I wanted, but for some reason there's twice as many polygons as there should be. (and too many to use the same mesh as a collider)

I see some amazing mods released for KSP and I've got lots of ideas of my own that I'd like to try, but I just can't seem to get past the object creation.

I know what I want stuff to look like and could carve it out of a block of steel in a machine shop easily in a couple of hours. It's now been 14 hours since I sat down at my computer to try and make 3 simple objects and I still haven't started texturing or importing them into unity.

I know what I want to do I just can't get past the programs interface to do it. So, Is there any software out there made for 3D simpletons?

[blizzy78]

Is this what you were trying to accomplish? At least that's how I understood it.

[Kerba Fett]

Yeah Blizzy, that's pretty much exactly what I was trying to do. That took you what, about a minute to model and render? I spent 14 hours yesterday trying to accomplish pretty much the same thing.

Every time I get it into my head to try making a KSP object I spend days struggling with every step of the process. If I'm really lucky I end up with a KSP object that looks like total crap that I'd be embarassed to show screenshots of and I consider all that time wasted.

Then I go back to playing games for 6 months till I get another mod idea and have forgotten what an ordeal the process is.

And by the way, even though that was probably an easy thing for you to model, I notice you didn't mention what software you used or the simple process you used to make it.

[sal_vager]

Sorry I misunderstood KerbaFett, I though you wanted something like this, this was using blender and the separate tool on the two side sections, and the alt+f fill tool on the edges to fill them.

Scale and Rotate were used as well, though from what blizzy posted I see you'd not need to rotate the basic sphere mesh.

[nli2work]

Wings3D and SketchUp is about as simple as 3D modeler gets. SketchUp is more intuitive, but you must have a good grasp of polygon modeling fundamentals before going with SketchUp. Wings3D is quick, and little less forgiving of shoddy modeling methods, a better starting point I think.

Blender is next step up, with UV and Animation Tools.

[blizzy78]

And by the way, even though that was probably an easy thing for you to model, I notice you didn't mention what software you used or the simple process you used to make it.

That's because I wanted to get a grasp on what you were trying to do first. This is how I did it:

Javascript is disabled. View full album

Oh, and the software I use is Blender.

[Kerba Fett]

Thanks for the info Blizzy. I'm trying to follow your directions but it's still seems pretty difficult. (yes I'm really that stupid)

For instance, you mentioned to not limit selection to visible but then when I'm right clicking on all of those polygons to select them I'm also deselecting the ones on the back side. I assume you were using a lasso or box tool to select them all at once, but after 20 minutes of looking through menus I couldn't find one.

Also, if you select a bunch of faces and want to move them or scale them or rotate them a bit, it seems very imprecise. As soon as you click the button in the toolbar, any movement of the mouse moves the faces. To move them a specific ammount seems to require you to left click to drop your selection in the wrong place, then go to the bottom of the toolbar where there's a numeric panel of your last action. Then you can adjust the numbers to put your selection where you wanted it in the first place.

But why can't you just bring up the numeric requester in the first place and move your selection where you wanted it to begin with?

Are there any really good tutorial videos that you can recommend? I've watched a lot of Blender/Unity tutorials and so far they pretty much all suck. The last one I watched the guy spent the first 3 minutes talking about how you'd need a mouse to use Blender and where to get one.

Really? In 2014 this guy figures his youtube viewers that want to learn 3D modeling don't know where to buy a mouse?

I got more from the 6 images you posted than I learned from 6 hours on youtube yesterday.

Sorry if I'm starting to sound a little cranky here. I had such a simple idea for a mod and it's turning out to be insanely difficult to make happen.

Unfortunatly it's starting to look like a waste of time. I managed to get a simple mesh into unity, but when it writes the KSP object there's no texture. Looks OK in Unity and I've followed all the instructions in tutorials on the subject, but it only writes the .MU file.

It's probably time to leave the mod making to smarter people than me. Thanks for all the help from you and Sal though.

[blizzy78]

I assume you were using a lasso or box tool to select them all at once, but after 20 minutes of looking through menus I couldn't find one.

Oops, I'm sorry, I forgot to mention it. Yes I did - press B to start the box selection tool, then just click and drag a box. Or hit Escape if you want to cancel the selection tool.

Also, if you select a bunch of faces and want to move them or scale them or rotate them a bit, it seems very imprecise.

...

You might want to use keyboard shortcuts instead of the buttons:

G - Grab - move things

S - Scale - scale things up or down

R - Rotate - well, yes

Then, to restrict movement, scaling, or rotation to any axis, just press X, Y, or Z after the first shortcut. For example, to grab something and move it along only the Z axis, press G, then Z, and then move your mouse.

To make more precise movements, you can also hold Shift while moving the mouse.

Are there any really good tutorial videos that you can recommend?

I've been watching a lot of Andrew Price's tutorials and I can generally recommend them. He's more into making still shots rather than modeling that much, though, but you'll always learn a few bits and pieces from every good tutorial.

Also, this other guy here I don't know the name of seems to explain his stuff in very fine detail, so I think it should be quite easy to follow his tutorials:

Sorry if I'm starting to sound a little cranky here. I had such a simple idea for a mod and it's turning out to be insanely difficult to make happen.

Complex things tend to be overwhelming and frustrating at first. My advice would be to just keep banging your head against that wall if you really want to accomplish doing stuff. In the end, it's all about practice and routine. It can only get easier over time.

I managed to get a simple mesh into unity, but when it writes the KSP object there's no texture. Looks OK in Unity and I've followed all the instructions in tutorials on the subject, but it only writes the .MU file.

Your Unity object might be missing the PartTools extension on it, or you might be using the wrong shader. KSP does not like Unity's default shaders, you must use a KSP shader.