[Released] ManFriday's Mesh Grabber [Commercial]

TheNathanParable

Lasciare said:

TheNathanParable said:

I was very lucky to have been able to test this before its release, and it really is a massive gamechanger!

Here's a couple of pictures of one of the first things I did while testing this addon; flesh pressed against glass.

@TheNathanParable

Fascinating! How did you do that?

I just selected the polygons that were poking through the glass and then moved them behind the glass. :)

marble

Just got around to reading the PDF and trying this out. I then discovered that it doesn't work with geografts. I use geografts extensively and this tool turns them off so I would need to use an external application anyway. Pity.

Like the Geometry Editor and some other Daz Studio tools, the Mesh Grabber tool needs to disable geografts while it is active. It turns them back on when you switch to another tool. (The reason for this is like all Daz Studio geometry modifiers, the Mesh Grabber can move vertices around, but must assume that the number of vertices stays the same. Because geografts can add or remove vertices, they need to be disabled while a modifier tool like the Mesh Grabber is active.)

EDIT: on trying a figure with a geograft it seems to me that the graft remains in place but is a separate object while the original base mesh is visible as well. So you get the effect of one overlaying the other rather than replacing the original mesh. I also tried exporting the OBJ to Blender with a geograft present and can see the same effect (which I had not noticed previously).

TheNathanParable

But it does work with geografts. I've used it on geografts. Yes the geograft becomes temporarily disconnected while using Mesh Grabber, but it still works. As soon as you switch to a different tool the geograft will become connected again, and your changes will remain intact.

marble

TheNathanParable said:

But it does work with geografts. I've used it on geografts. Yes the geograft becomes temporarily disconnected while using Mesh Grabber, but it still works. As soon as you switch to a different tool the geograft will become connected again, and your changes will remain intact.

Yes, I realise that. I was getting at the impression I got from reading the PDF that georgrafts are "disabled" - I thought that meant they are temporarily removed or made invisible. Upon testing, however, I can still see the graft as a separate object so what's really happening is that it becomes disconnected or de-integrated. I wanted to make sure that I could use the tool to move polygons - of clothing, for example - to cover the graft in place.

EDIT: After spending more time with this tool I have decided to revert to exporting to an external application. I just can't manipulate the gizmo precisely enough to be useful. I'm sure that some people, perhaps used to similar methods of modelling, will find it a great addition to the DAZ Studio toolbox but I prefer the sculpting brushes of Blender.

Asari

From my experiments so far this works great for fixing minor pokethroughs. My intended use case, so I'm quite happy. However I use more and more imported clothing that I model elsewhere and for my personal use I don't rig my own models but merely fit them to a certain pose so those clothing items stay as props in my scene. Whenever I select the mesh on those props, the gizmo doesn't show up. On rigged clothing it works fine. Am I doing something wrong?

Cybersox

I just finally had enough time to install this and check it out...

It's a nice start, but the interface feels really clunky.  It needs to have keyboard input as well as sliders, and the lack of rotating and scaling currently limit it badly.  If there was simply a way to rotate axis of the field or of the object being modified while the tool remains engaged on the current selection, that would be a big plus. 

Also, I'm finding that with some items, the mesh grabber tool isn't appearing next to the item selected, but rather it appears high above it, so far up that I thought it wasn't appearing at all in the default view.  Thus far, this seems to happen mostly with clothing items that are from other stores.  Needless to say, though, it pretty much makes manipulating those items imposssible when the Geo Too is effectively 15 feet away, loating over the subjects head...  

Imago

Just bought it and I already addes it to my most used tools!  Way better than struggling with DFormers (still useful, anyway).

Just a note: the gizmo is too small for me... Other users got it bigger in the images posted here. 

And I want to add my vote to symmetry, rotation, freezing and resizing.

Martial

Allo

I  bought today Mesh grabber

I don't see the plugin in DIM I have updated DIM and try 2-3 time different maners and never see mesh grabber

I have finallt installed manually in D:\DAZStudio4 64 bits

I am iusing version DAZStudio  4,12

When i open DAZStudio i see Mesh grabber in Tools menu but no mesh grabber in the panes list

So i cannot use it for now

If someone can indicate to me where the files are supposed to be installed , i would tried to find and install each one manually inside D:\DAZStudio4 64 bits

 

RGcincy

Martial said:

 

When i open DAZStudio i see Mesh grabber in Tools menu but no mesh grabber in the panes list

You access it from the Tools menu, it does not show in the panes list. Choose it as your tool and you will see a pane with various settings. To use, click on a mesh in your scene (or select a mesh in the scene pane). When you click on the mesh, you'll select polygons. For most objects, there will appear a set of 3 axis and a white sphere (there's a bug for some objects where these might appear at a different location). Garb a handle on the axis and pull/push.

Martial

Thanks

I finally found a gizmo for mesh grabber but see no settings dispalayed

Here are some screen capture showing where the files are installed and an example ( just a sphere primitive) inside DAZStudio

Cybersox

Martial said:

Thanks

I finally found a gizmo for mesh grabber but see no settings dispalayed

Here are some screen capture showing where the files are installed and an example ( just a sphere primitive) inside DAZStudio

Open WIndows - Panes (tabs) and open the Tool Settings pane.    Note - normally I keep this pane docked at the bottom of one of my main normal pane groups, but for the use of the Mesh Grabber tool I've found it more efficient to keep the Tool Settings pane seperate and floating, as that allows me to expand it and make the sliders as wide as possible,.thereby getting a little more control.  

RGcincy

Martial said:

I finally found a gizmo for mesh grabber but see no settings dispalayed

Look at Tool Settings pane 

IndigoTea

This is my new favorite plugin for Daz - does wonders for helping to adapt stubborn adjustment/pokethru issues directly inside D|S - great job!

Tryhard

wscottart said:

Will definetly look forward to added functions especially rotation and scale =)

 

So much this.

I'm really hoping for some easy tool that would allow me to twist eyelashes at the base upward without bending them in order to finally nail that anime eyelash look.

Not to mention easy assymetric deformations like you can see with World of Warcraft and other toony MMOs.

gollor42

Been working with large objects with very simple geometries. I have tried working in various modeling tools, with some success but the UV mapping frequently gets fragged going from modeler to Daz and back. So bought this tool and it's allowed me to fix in a few minutes what caused me hours of frustration and irritation - seems like a trapezohedron like shape shouldn't take so much work to make. 

This took me off guard though:

The prism I was working on has a size of 1000x1000x1 meters. I didn't see the mesh grabber controls get so strangely large until I scaled things up to that size. I would suggest this as a bug, since I expected the relative size of the mesh grabber controls to stay about the same no matter what scale of object I wanted to work with. I can still use it this way, but moving around at this scale (even zooming in and out) is very slow, so it does rather hinder trying to make the changes I wanted to make, although not completely.

Still far easier to use that deformers or trying to keep tabs on the primitives UV maps.

Looking to make a large arcology with a massive scale for a sci-fi story I'm working on, with the simple geometry I can get quite detailed without slowing my machine to a craw.

Looking for something along these lines eventually, although that's only a fifth of it. The tiiny white sliver is the Burj Khalifa for scale.

Martial

RGcincy said:

Martial said:

I finally found a gizmo for mesh grabber but see no settings dispalayed

Look at Tool Settings pane 

Thanks for your reply

But i still don't see the mesh grabber  settings  i have tried some others workspace and same result :no settings

RGcincy

I don't see your Tool Settings pane in your screen capture (they may be lower down). If you don't have that pane open, go to main DS menu and choose Window/Panes (Tabs)/Tool Settings to open it. You can then dock it next to one of your other panes. If that's not the case, I'm out of ideas.

barbult

It worked great to fix some clothing poke through, but why does the Mesh Grabber tool remain highlighted in the tool bar even after another too has been selected? 

dijidave_a64850a362

RGcincy said:

"I don't see your Tool Settings pane in your screen capture (they may be lower down). If you don't have that pane open, go to main DS menu and choose Window/Panes (Tabs)/Tool Settings to open it. You can then dock it next to one of your other panes. If that's not the case, I'm out of ideas."

As per attached screenshot, then in the Tools List dropdownin the too lsettings pane, choose Mesh Grabber to see it's controls.

    Good Luck

 

 

pfunkyfize

Hi all, cool tool!

I am having trouble with the gizmo appearing in some place no where near the selected polygons. Is there a way to get it closer to what I select? I haven't read all the pages of this thread though but I will later to see if there's an answer for the problem...

barbult

pfunkyfize said:

Hi all, cool tool!

I am having trouble with the gizmo appearing in some place no where near the selected polygons. Is there a way to get it closer to what I select? I haven't read all the pages of this thread though but I will later to see if there's an answer for the problem...

It has been acknowledged as a bug. No fix yet. It only happens on certain items, not universally. It hasn't happened to me yet.

Imago

There's a solution for the too tiny gizmo? The only way I have to se the handlers is to zoom in a lot but at a certain point the Y axis (green arrow)  gets crumbled on the bottom of the gizmo and it becomes unusable.

The tool is awesome but that gizmo is driving me mad!

nicstt

pfunkyfize said:

Hi all, cool tool!

I am having trouble with the gizmo appearing in some place no where near the selected polygons. Is there a way to get it closer to what I select? I haven't read all the pages of this thread though but I will later to see if there's an answer for the problem...

Use the aux viewport to move it, and the larger one (main) to watch it being moved... Or vice-versa if that works better. It hapened to me on an item, and that bodge worked well.

barbult

nicstt said:

pfunkyfize said:

Hi all, cool tool!

I am having trouble with the gizmo appearing in some place no where near the selected polygons. Is there a way to get it closer to what I select? I haven't read all the pages of this thread though but I will later to see if there's an answer for the problem...

Use the aux viewport to move it, and the larger one (main) to watch it being moved... Or vice-versa if that works better. It hapened to me on an item, and that bodge worked well.

I haven't run into that problem yet, but this sounds like a smart tip. Thanks.

pfunkyfize

Thanks for the tips everyone, I will try the aux viewport method when I get to my desk. so far the gizmo has behaved like this on every piece of mesh I own but it does move mesh as expected once I get my hands on the gizmo that appears so far from the item being grabbed.

barbult

I've only used it on conforming clothing so far, but the gizmo is always right by the selected polygons. So close, that I can't see the polygons moving very well. The gizmo is kind of in the way. So I guess I kind of have the opposite problem. I really like this product, though. The tool icon that won't unhighlight is really confusing me,though. I'm not sure if the tool is selected or not sometimes.

Worlds_Edge

Thanks for the examples of what you can do with the tool @RGcincy  I can imagine myself using it on hair in swimming type scenes, or any pose requiring the hair to tilt to one side really.

nicstt

I've used it on diforce and conforming items, and when dforce both before and after dforcing, also used on characters too. Sadly it doesn't work on strand hair.

AllenArt

Used this for the first time today....

ManFriday, I love you. LOL  Scaling and rotating would make this something that's a must-have if you use DS.

Laurie

RGcincy

AllenArt said:

 Scaling and rotating would make this something that's a must-have if you use DS.

I put in a vote for these as well

Worlds_Edge said:

Thanks for the examples of what you can do with the tool @RGcincy  I can imagine myself using it on hair in swimming type scenes, or any pose requiring the hair to tilt to one side really.

Thanks Worlds_Edge