That *^!#^*!#$ Clear Button!
marble
Posts: 7,500
I've just ruined another animation which took hours because I mistakenly hit the blue dForce Simulation "Clear" button. I just wish it was programmed to default to "Clear Selected" rather than clear everything. There is no undo so hours of work just had to be abandoned. I meant to animate a single dress but it cleared all the dForce cloth in the scene which had taken hours to get just right and freeze. And yes, that's the other evil trick of the clear button - it clears even the cloth that has been frozen!
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Comments
+1
At least it doesn't play a sound byte of that nelson kid from The Simpsons that says "Ha Ha" and points mockingly when it torches hours worth of work with no way to recover it.
Sure I can make saves every so many seconds/minutes.But when I'm "in the zone" I really don't think about that. All I want to do is get my idea from brain to Studio in the least amount of time, and nothing happens fast in Studio.So my thought train isn't concerned about the logistics, just my project.
edit:I totally agree, there needs to be something done about the function of this button.It's burnt me several times.
Well, to borrow your Simpsons theme, I feel like Homer when he has Bart by the neck. I know this has been talked about here in the past and I know someone is going to say "log a feature request" but, come on, I'm pretty sure that such requests end up in File 13.
I wish it would only clear the selected item as well.
However, you can create a custom action for only clearing the selected item by hitting F3 and dragging the menu option to any active toolbar you would like.
OOOOOH that's a hidden gem
As with Render Settings, Simulatioin Settings has to handle any engine, not just dForce Hair/Cloth. Supported engines must have a Clear All function, but they may not have (it may not even make sense for them to have) a Clear selected function. That's why the button does what it does.
As has been pointed out above, there is a "Clear Selected" option which I try to remember to use but sometimes when my concentration is a little distracted, I am drawn to the big blue Clear button. So why not make the "Clear Selected" option the default and the nuclear option the hidden one? I'm not saying remove it altogether.
Because the Clear button is the function that all simualtion engines will support, making it Clear Selected might be problematic with futue additions. I am in the habit of using the pane's option menu, via right-click on the tab, since that is available even if the pane is not the active member of its group.
Yep, me too - well, by that I mean that I have a custom action to do that and I try to remember to use it. But it is so intuitive to hit the "Clear" button when you have something selected and just expect it to clear what you have selected, not ALL the simulations. I don't see why "clear selected" would be a problem for any future simulation addition.
Argh, I hit this ****ing button again by accident, too. This button is so damn stupid, especially its position right below the 'Simulate' Button!
If there was as an alert like 'Do you really want to clear all items?' at least.
You could use the Simulate command from the option menu, or use Window>Workspace>Customise to put a button for it on the tool bar. That way you won't be going anywheer near the Defaults button.
Yes, thanks. But it's hard to believe that such a workaround is necessary and that the default layout and behaviour is so stupid.
Holy Crap! Thank YOU So Much!!!
I truly understand, but it would be nice if there was an option next to "Freeze Simulation" that allows it to be frozen against Clear as well. However, I'm still a very happy dForcer. I do have those times when I lose bucket loads of time, but that's just life. Between the weight editing, surface dForce properties and simulation settings, I think dForce is a pretty slick solution. And as for it being in Daz Studio, it's still brand new - when you thnk about it.
I notice that you are very generous in your praise but you do make a similar point to the one I made about "freeze" should be absolute. As for dForce, I can only compare it to the only other cloth sims I have used (Marvelous Designer and VWD) and both have/had huge advantages over dForce. I mean being able to manipulate the cloth while the simulation is running and also both being so much quicker. Unfortunately, VWD crashed my DAZ Studio repeatedly and we never figured out why. So I think that, as with some other aspects of DAZ Studio, the technology needs to catch up.
I would add that we all want DAZ Studio to be the best it can be which is why so many posts on the forum concentrate on what we think could be improved.
I mean...there is also enough space in that location to just have a button for both Clear and Clear All.
clear selected should be a given even more so only simulate selected
BTW, when it comes to Simulate Selected, I have developed the habit of just CTRL-Clicking on the other characters in the scene leaving the one I want to simulate and then just run the normal simulation. I found this easier than selecting the clothing and also the figure wearing it in order to run Simulate Selected. CTRL-Click (Left mouse button) makes the figure and anything parented to it invisible (including invisible to dForce).
Best tip I can give you is to save your work often. It becomes a habit after a while doesn't it.
This, and DForce should be the last step before rendering, because the time it takes to save you scene file is insane.
I must say, ever since that post above pointed out that there's a "Clear Selected" option, I just know that I'll be golden from this point forward. I've used it three times since then and:
Thank you So Much!!!
As for this is better, that's better... the world is absolutely Full of that. We have options.
I spend a lot of my simulation and/or render waiting time watching 'behind-the-scenes' videos, either from movies or on YouTube from cinematic pros. Even they, who have special teams that can make special custom solutions in-house, have to work with compromise. I'm glad that I don't have to, like them, wait 70 hours for a frame to render. I'm just me. I know that I have my own limitations and so does the software I use. I just try to figure out how to make it work for what I want the audience to see - something I picked up from the art departments at Weta, LucasFilm, ILM, etc., etc.,
I do want DS to improve. But the cool thing is: I know DAZ developers, and I know that they want DS to improve too, and I know that they study what's out in today's (and tomorrow's) world of 3D - so I know that DS WILL improve!!!
Thanks to threads like this, they get a good taste of what some of us want - so thanks for getting this going! Love it!!!
Just keep in mind that, even though it might have its drawbacks, dForce is a killer solution built into Daz Studio that we can all use right here and right now. So I'm doing it!!!
I'm in the middle of a saved draft post for my "Loving Daz Studio!" thread that details how I finally achieved dForce on Whimsy!!! Woot!!! I had to stop over-thinking and just do it - and it works Great!!! That thread and the post that I'm working on (have to go to band practice) has a lot of tid-bits on getting success from dForce and other things Daz Studio.
Cheers all!
My goodness, such optimism! Although, at the risk of seeming cynical, I have to say that your spectacles may be entirely obscured by that rosy tint. As for dForce, it is by far the worst of the three that I have tried (Marvelous Designer, VWD and Blender) but it works without having to export out of DAZ Studio, which is important to me. Rendering used to be the biggest drain on my available time allocated to this hobby but now it is dForce. So slow and the frequent explosions as well as the lack of ability to drag the cloth around during simulation are the obvious problems but smaller issues like this Clear button are also up there on the improvement-needed list.
Yes, me too ~ But have you tried Holding Ctrl + LMB Click that magic Clear button?
No, indeed I have not. Thanks for that tip. I will give that a try immediately.
there is not that many parameters under the simulation tab you would think they could spare a bit of realestate to make those options a bit more obvious
Thanks for finding them but I am sure to still hold the wrong key or button and fluff it up
there is no going back if one does which in itself is frustrating
One thing that isn't obvious when using the "Selected" options is that it is not enough to select the clothing - it is also necessary to select the parent figure and anything else the clothing comes into contact with. That can make using the selected options a bit tedious which is why I tend to set scenes up with everything set to "Not Visible in Simulation" other than dForce clothing and their parent figures. Then I hide (CTRL-L-Click) any figures that I am not simulating. It is a bit of a chore going through the whole scene and changing everything to "Not Visible in Simulation" and I wish that was the default.
It used to be my headache as well until one day I got dForce Companion. Thanks to ManFriday~ The plugin makes dForce manipulation pretty easy and fast, especially saving lots of 'clicks'~ A really worthy buying
Funny thing is that I have it but found it more hassle than doing it my own way. I kept forgetting what was selected (or not) in the scene and what options were active in the Companion so I stopped using the Companion. I have bought too many of these "helper" utilities only to find I'm not finding any benefit to using them.
Oh, sorry to hear that~ People always have different preference and ways of doing things. On the contrary, I really benefit a lot from the Companion which is the only plugin pane on the left panel. But I also agree there're quite a few plugins/helpers/scripts are useless or are not that useful...
Yeah, we all find the ways that work for us even when there is probably a better way. That's the point of forum threads like this (other than the forlorn hope that DAZ people might actually read and take notice of them).
That's true! Totally agreed
~